There are many types of information sources that can be used for research, including background sources, books, newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals, and reference sources. Background sources provide a quick overview on a topic to help focus the research question, while books allow for greater depth and narrower scope on a topic. Information can be in print or digital formats. Primary sources are first-hand accounts, while secondary sources are second-hand reports on events. Scholarly sources are peer-reviewed for specialists, while popular sources are intended for a general audience. Current sources reflect new thinking, while historical sources are about past events or ideas.

1. Types of Information
Periodical Types
Reference Sources
Primary and Secondary Information

2. Types of Information
Sources include:
Background sources
Newspapers
Magazines
Scholarly journals
Books
Reference sources
Multiple source types
needed for most
college research
papers
--- use a variety of source
types to support your thesis or
question

3. Background information:
 Background information sources, or reference sources as they are called in a
library, are designed to bring you quick facts or provide a short overview of a
topic.

4. Background information:
 They provide you with a basic understanding of a topic with which you are
unfamiliar and help you focus your research question.

5. Books
 Books have greater depth and narrower scope than background information
sources.
 Their length allows them to cover their topic in great detail.
 Their scope can be broad like the Civil War, or it can be more narrowly
focused and cover only General Sherman’s March to the Sea.

6. Other Information Formats

7. Formats of Information
 Print is the most common physical, tangible format for recording information
that does not require the use of a digital device, but may require the use of
an analog device, to ,read, decode, or extract the information.
 Digital information sources include DVDs, MP3s, databases, websites, and
cloud services.

8. Primary vs. Secondary Information
 Primary Information
 First hand account
 Reports of scientific discovery
 Photographs
 Diaries, papers
 Secondary Information
 Second hand account of events
 Articles or reports of events

9. Secondary Source
 For example, when a reporter brings you a story about a man who ran into a burning
building to save the family dog, it is a secondhand report.

10. Primary Source
 When that reporter asks the man who saved the dog what it was like, that
person’s answer is a firsthand or primary account of the event.

11. Scholarly vs. Popular Information
 Scholarly Information
 Peer-reviewed articles
 Produced for specialist audience
 Articles usually pages long
 Includes references
 Popular Information
 Popular information is information intended for a broad, general audience that
does not take specific background knowledge to understand.
 Usually not peer-reviewed although it can be edited
 Possibly published directly to the Internet without any editorial processes

12. Scholarly Publishing Process

13. Publishing on Internet
Publishing on the Internet often bypasses any
editorial review. Thus many sources on the
Internet may contain unverified information

14. Current vs. Historical Resources
 Current
 New, up to date, or current conditions or thinking.
 Varies by discipline.
 Astrophysical discoveries must be recent. Current information in astrophysics needs to
have been created very recently to reflect the most up-to date thinking in the field.
 In contrast, fields like psychology and sociology move a little slower and English literature
even more slowly.
 Historical
 Information about the past, as opposed to the current state of affairs.
 Focus on the history and development of ideas or
 events that make this historical information.
 Can be any sources of information from an old photograph to a current magazine
article.