Basics of Science Literature Searches
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How can I tell?
How Can I Tell?
Scientific and other peer reviewed journals are excellent sources for primary research sources. However, not every article in those journals will be an article with original research. Some will include book reviews and other materials that are more obviously secondary sources. More difficult to differentiate from original research articles are review articles. Both types of articles will end with a list of References (or Works Cited). Review articles are often as lengthy or even longer that original research articles. What the authors of review articles are doing is analyzing and evaluating current research or investigations related to a specific topic, field, or problem. They are not primary sources since they review previously published material. They can be helpful for identifying potentially good primary sources, but they aren't primary themselves. If it is a review article instead of a research article, the abstract should make that clear. If there is no abstract at all, that in itself may be a sign that it is not a primary resource. Sometimes, it is easier to find a Review Article, and then work backwards to the Primary Sources that are being reviewed. The Review Article can also provide valuable insight on the state of knowledge in a particular field.
Primary Sources
A Primary Source is an orginal document or item. It is the raw material or first-hand information. In the Natural Sciences (Biology, Chemistry, etc.), the results of an experiement are considered raw data. Therefore, journal articles that present this original raw data are considered Primary Sources.
Primary Research Articles can usually be identified by a commonly used format. If the article contains the following elements, it is usually a Primary Source Document.
- Methods (Materials & Methods)
- Results (usually containing charts, graphs, equations)
- Discussion or Conclusion
Sometimes a short research article will not contain these separate components. In this case, look at the wording used. Phrases such as "we tested", "we used",& "in our study, we measured" will usually tell you if orginal research is being reported.
| Primary Source: | Examples/characteristics |
| Journals or Periodical Articles |
Journal of Environmental Science: Reports the results of Orginal Experiments |
| Conference Papers | an important avenue for reporting new research or developments. Papers presented may or may not be subject to editorial scrutiny. Conference papers can be: not published at all, published only in abstract form, published in advance of the conference as a preprint, published in book form, or as a special issue of a journal. |
| Reports | individual publications reporting research. They may report internal research within an organization, or research done by an individual or organization under contract to a client. They can be: freely available, available only to members of an organization, only available by purchase. Sometimes the information from the report will also be published in a journal article, but more often, the report is the only source of the information. Many governmental reports (full-text) are now being made available via the Internet. |
| Patents | provides research information on new products or processes. Once published, patent information is freely available, but rarely republished in journal articles. |
Secondary Source:
A secondary sources is something written about a primary sources. Think of this as second hand information. Secondary source materials can be articles in newspapers or popular magazines, book or movie reviews, or articles found in scholarly journals that evaluate or criticize someone else's original research.
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Secondary Source: |
Characteristics |
| Review Journals | Generally start Annual Review of....Current Opinion in....Advances in.... |
| Review Articles | Articles that summarize the current literature on a specific topic. Usually, these articles are synthesizing and comparing the results of multiple primary sources. |
| Textbooks | Can be specialized or a general overview of a topic |
| Articles/Indexes & Databases | These can be abstracting or citation databases. |