definition of primary source of information

1. What Is a Primary Source?
The below material was adapted from the excellent explanation written by John
Henderson found on Ithaca College's library website
http://www.ithacalibrary.com/sp/subjects/primary and is used with permission.
Primary Source Secondary Source Examples Research vs. Review Primary or
Secondary?
A primary source is an original object or document -- the raw material or first-hand
information, source material that is closest to what is being studied.
Primary sources vary by discipline and can include historical and legal documents, eye
witness accounts, results of an experiment, statistical data, pieces of creative writing,
and art objects. In the natural and social sciences, the results of an experiment or study
are typically found in scholarly articles or papers delivered at conferences, so those
articles and papers that present the original results are considered primary sources.
A secondary source is something written about a primary source. Secondary sources
include comments on, interpretations of, or discussions about the original material. You
can think of secondary sources as second-hand information. If I tell you something, I am
the primary source. If you tell someone else what I told you, you are the secondard
source. 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.
Examples
Discipline Primary Source Secondary Source
History
Slave narratives preserved on
microfilm.
The book Speaking power :
Black feminist orality in
women’s narratives of slavery by
DoVeanna Fulton
Art American photographer Man
Ray's photograph of a flat-iron
called “Le Cadeau” (The Gift)
Peggy Schrock's article called
“Man Ray's Le cadeau: the
unnatural woman and the de-
sexing of modern
man” published in Woman's Art
Journal.
Psychology An experimental test of three
methods of alcohol risk
reduction with young
adults, Journal of Consulting
and Clinical Psychology
A review of the literature on
college student drinking
intervention which uses the
article in an analysis entitled:
Individual-level interventions to
reducecollege student drinking:
A meta-analytic review,
published in the
journal Addictive Behaviors

2. Political Science U.S. Government Census data An article which used samples of
census data entitled: "Who is
Headed South?: U.S. Migration
Trends in Black and White,
1970-200" published in the
journalSocial Forces
Research versus Review
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 analysing 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. Primary
research articles can be identified by a commonly used format. If an article contains the
following elements, you can count on it being a primary research article. Look for
sections entitled Methods (sometimes with variations, such as Materials and
Methods), Results(usually followed with charts and statistical tables), and Discussion.
You can also read the abstract to get a good sense of the kind of article that is being
presented. 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. Short research articles, such as those found in Science and similar scientific
publications that mix news, editorials, and forums with research reports, may not include
any of those elements. In those cases look at the words the authors use, phrases such as
"we tested," "we used," and "in our study, we measured" will tell you that the article is
reporting on original research.
Primary or Secondary: You Decide
The distinction between types of sources can get tricky, because a secondary source may
also be a primary source. DoVeanna Fulton's book on slave narratives, for example, can
be looked at as both a secondary and a primary source. The distinction may depend on
how you are using the source and the nature of your research. If you are researching
slave narratives, the book would be a secondary source because Fulton is commenting on
the narratives. If your assignment is to write a book review of Speaking Power, the book
becomes a primary source, because you are commenting, evaluating, and discussing
DoVeanna Fulton's ideas.
You can't always determine if something is primary or secondary just because of the
source it is found in. Articles in newspapers and magazines are usually considered
secondary sources. However, if a story in a newspaper about the Iraq war is an
eyewitness account, that would be a primary source. If the reporter, however, includes

3. additional materials he or she has gathered through interviews or other investigations,
the article would be a secondary source. An interview in the Rolling Stone with Chris
Robinson of the Black Crowes would be a primary source, but a review of the latest Black
Crowes album would be a secondary source. In contrast, scholarly journals include
research articles with primary materials, but they also have review articles that are not,
or in some disciplines include articles where scholars are looking at primary source
materials and coming to new conclusions.
For your thinking and not just to confuse you even further, some experts
include tertiary sources as an additional distinction to make. These are sources that
compile or, especially, digest other sources. Some reference materials and textbooks are
considered tertiary sources when their chief purpose is to list or briefly summarize or,
from an even further removed distance, repackage ideas. This is the reason that you may
be advised not to include an encyclopedia article in a final bibliography.