LibGuides: Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources: Types of Sources (2024)

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LibGuides: Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources: Types of Sources? ›

Examples of secondary sources include many books, textbooks, and scholarly review articles. Tertiary sources compile and summarize mostly secondary sources. Examples might include reference publications such as encyclopedias, bibliographies or handbooks.

Examples of secondary sources include many books, textbooks, and scholarly review articles. Tertiary sources compile and summarize mostly secondary sources. Examples might include reference publications such as encyclopedias, bibliographies or handbooks.

A primary source is an original document/image, the results of an experiment, statistical data, first-hand account, or creative work. A secondary source is something written about or using primary sources. A teritary source is a collection of primary and secondary sources.

Sources of information or evidence are often categorized as primary, secondary, or tertiary material. These classifications are based on the originality of the material and the proximity of the source or origin.

When writers use primary sources, they are using raw information and firsthand evidence such as interview transcripts, memoirs, statistical data, and works of art. Secondary sources, on the other hand, constitute secondhand information and commentary made by other researchers.

Secondary sources can be many formats including books, articles, encyclopedias, textbooks, or a scholar's interpretation of past events or conditions.

The similarities between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources are that they all contain information about a particular topic. They are also all used to support research and provide evidence to support a particular argument.

Examples of primary sectors are agriculture, forestry, and mining. Examples of the secondary sector are manufacturing units, small-scale units, large firms, and multinational corporations. Examples of tertiary sectors are Banking, communication, and trade.

Locating Tertiary Sources. Dictionaries and encyclopedias can be a good starting point if you want to browse for a topic or gain some background information. They also sometimes contain bibliographic content. Use the Advanced Search feature to search for dictionaries and bibliographies in the library catalog.

Why are tertiary sources important? ›

Some tertiary sources are published in predictable intervals, such as, almanacs, directories, or handbooks. This means they can be important sources of consistently presented information over time, providing a longitudinal perspective about the information they present.

There are three basic types of information, primary, secondary, and tertiary, although tertiary sources are sometimes grouped with secondary. Primary sources are original works, secondary sources are analyses of those original works, and tertiary sources are collections of secondary source information.

Primary Sources in Specific Disciplines

Letters, diaries, journal entries, public records as well as contemporaneous newspapers articles offer solid examples of this type of primary source. Fictional works such as short stories or novels written during that specific time period constitute primary documents, too.

Secondary sources can be found in books, journals, or Internet resources. When we talk about secondary sources, most of the time we are referring to the published scholarship on a subject, rather than supplementary material like bibliographies, encyclopedias, handbooks, and so forth.

While primary sources are the original records created by firsthand witnesses of an event, secondary sources are documents, texts, images, and objects about an event created by someone who typically referenced the primary sources for their information. Textbooks are excellent examples of secondary sources.

Examples of secondary sources: Books. Scholarly journal articles (depends on discipline)

Definitions (from Pennington School) Secondary sources put primary sources in context. They comment, summarize, interpret or analyze information found in primary sources. Secondary sources are usually written by individuals who did not experience firsthand the events about which they are writing.

A secondary source offers an analysis or restatement of a primary source. These provide second-hand information and commentary from based on the original sources. These majorly include peer-reviewed academic sources, such as journal articles, books, and book chapters for research.