English 120 Workshop: Sources

Most simply put, a primary source is original research or the first appearance of an idea or theory.  Some databases will allow you to limit to primary sources.  Some primary sources include:

• Original Research, Such as a clinical trials or randomized controlled trials that studies a disease or a drug or treatment on a disease

• Newspaper articles written at the time
  

• Original and/or historical documents, such as letters, diaries, autobiographies, speeches , birth certificates, marriage license, patents, trial transcripts
  

• Maps

• Film footage, sound recordings, and photographs
  

• Statistics

• Works of art, artifacts, buildings, fiction, poetry, or plays 

• Interviews and proceedings of meetings 

• Dissertations  (can also be secondary)

Most simply put, a secondary source often interpret and comment on, or build upon primary sources.  Some databases will allow you to limit to secondary sources.  These are some examples of secondary sources:

• Biographies
  

• Journals articles that are not primary sources

• Book reviews

• Review articles

• Practice Guidelines used in medicine, nursing, and psychology

• Print bibliographies and bibliographic databases, such as Academic Search Premier, PubMed, and JSTOR (also considered tertiary)

Dissertations  (can also be primary)