In History, "primary sources are materials that come from roughly the same time period of the topic / event that the historian has chosen to examine. Examples of primary sources include: personal journals/diaries/memoirs, letters, court proceedings, legislative debates, newspaper and magazine
articles, movies, music, art, etc." -- Dr. Mark Brilliant, UC-Berkeley Historian
In the STEM disciplines, 'primary sources' are "primary research articles (original research that has been peer-reviewed), data/research, and materials such as conference reports. Reviews, editorial articles, or articles about a study are some kinds of secondary sources in this discipline. Reviews in particular can be useful to help you find primary sources. One general tip for distinguishing between a review and a primary research article is that a review will often not include a "Material and Methods" section in their article." - Gould Library, Carlton College
Primary sources provide first-hand observations or direct evidence concerning a topic under investigation. They are created by witnesses or recorders at or near the time of the event. They have not been filtered through further interpretation or evaluation.
Primary sources may include
Secondary sources are works that analyze, assess or interpret a historical event, era or phenomenon. They may use primary sources to to write a review, critique or interpretation often well after the event.
Secondary sources may include
Tertiary Sources are those used to identify and locate primary and secondary sources.
Tertiary sources may include
Using Sources
What is considered a primary source can vary depending on how you are using the source.
For instance, if you were analyzing how authors of popular magazine articles discussed the Boeing 737 MAX crashes, the magazine articles would serve as your primary sources. However, if you cited from a magazine article for your research paper on airline safety, the magazine would serve as a secondary source.
Different Disciplines
| Humanities | Natural Sciences | Social Sciences | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary Source Examples | creative works, diaries, interviews, news footage, maps | peer-reviewed articles original research, results of experiments, research / clinical trials | census data, statistics, results of experiments on human behavior |
| Secondary Source Examples | books, journal articles, textbooks | books, review articles, textbooks | books, journal articles, textbooks |
| Tertiary Source Examples | reference materials, databases | reference materials, databases | reference materials, databases |
This page was adapted with gratitude from the UC-Merced Library.
This short video (01:19) provides examples of primary, secondary, and tertiary sources.
Video created by the University of Huddersfield Library.
Check out this short video (02:23) from Suffolk County Community College Library which provides useful examples of what would be primary, secondary and tertiary sources for research questions in different disciplines.
Denison Libraries, 100 W College, Granville, Ohio 43023 Phone: 740-587-6235, email: reference@denison.edu In order to view PDF documents, you will need to have the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software installed on your computer