What is the difference between a primary source and a secondary source?
Answer
Good question! It depends on the discipline. The humanities and the sciences have different definitions of what is primary. In the social sciences, either the humanities or sciences definition may apply, depending on field and methodology.
Primary sources:
- Humanities: Provide a first-hand account of an event or time period. These are written by someone who experienced or witnessed the event in question. These original documents are often diaries, letters, memoirs, journals, speeches, manuscripts, interviews, and other such unpublished works. Newspaper and magazine articles from the time period are also considered primary sources. In literature or music, the text being analyzed is the primary source (a novel, a score).
- In the Sciences, primary sources contain original research. Examples include empirical studies and experimental data.
Secondary sources:
- Humanities: These are usually in the form of published works such as journal articles or books, but may include radio or television documentaries, or conference proceedings. Secondary resources often draw conclusions about the events reported in primary sources. Secondary sources are not evidence, but rather commentary on and discussion of evidence. Secondary sources, however, may be used as evidence for your research argument.
- In the Sciences, secondary sources summarize or analyze the primary research, but do not in themselves contain original research. Examples include review articles and meta-analyses.
The definition also depends on context. Secondary sources can become primary sources for the researcher if the secondary source becomes the object of study. For example, if I were researching the meta-analyses of a scientific discipline to note the gender of the authors in order to analyze gender inequality, the meta-analyses themselves because the primary source (the data for my research).
And what's a teritiary source? That would be an encyclopedia, dictionary, index, or other reference tool. Teritiary sources provide summaries, overviews, or bibliographic information of both primary and secondary sources. They are one step-removed from secondary sources, so they are "third."
▶️ Play the Wheel of Sources from the UCLA Library to learn more in an interactive game! ▶️