Introduction to Library Research

There are many types of sources you can encounter in your college research and daily lives. You've probably heard the terms primary and secondary sources before, but what does that really mean? 

There are a couple of factors you need to consider when trying to determine if a source is a primary or a secondary source, including: 

• The subject or discipline 
• The context of your research or information needs

Common Source Types and Definitions

In general, these are source types and vocabulary that you will want to familiarize yourself with: 

Empirical study

• Research that uses empirical evidence, which means that the research is conducted using direct or indirect (interviews) observation for it's findings. 

Meta-analysis 

• Similar to a review article, this type of research analyzes and evaluates the results of multiple previously conducted scientific/empirical studies 

Review article or literature review

• A review article summarizes the current consensus on a given topic by providing a broad overview of published research articles on that topic. A review article does not present original research findings. 

Primary Sources

In the humanities (English, History, etc.)

• Artifacts that provide a first-hand account of a research topic, like photographs, diaries, or household items. 

In the sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Anatomy, etc.)

• Sources that present original findings, like an empirical study

Secondary Sources

In the humanities 

• These sources interpret, summarize, or critique a primary source or the original information, like a book review

In the sciences

• These sources summarize, analyze, or review primary research, like a Meta-analysis 

Tertiary Sources

• Provide overviews, summaries, or indexes of both primary and secondary source material. Examples include dictionaries, encyclopedias, annotated bibliographies. 

A quick way to remember the difference between a primary and secondary source, is that primary sources contain original evidence, and secondary sources analyze or interpret original evidence. 

Please complete this tutorial about primary and secondary sources for review.:

Tutorial created by The WI+RE Team at UCLA

Different Types of Periodicals

A periodical is published at regular intervals (daily, weekly, monthly) throughout the year. They can be published in print, online, or both, and some content can also be online exclusive content that does not appear in print. There are different types of periodicals that you can find in a library databases:

Journal (peer-reviewed or not): includes articles written by scholars in an academic or professional field, which are often peer-reviewed. Written for other professionals or academics in the same field with the intent furthering discourse (conversation) in a particular field. If a journal is peer-reviewed it means that it has standards for publication and all articles must undergo a review process to see if standards are met. 

Trade Magazine/Journal: usually written for a particular industry such as business, finance, fashion, etc. These articles are intended to share industry insight, best practices, new innovations, for professionals in that industry. An example of a trade journal is Advertising Age. 

Magazine (popular): written for a general audience and includes articles on diverse topics, general interest, and current events. Usually these are written by journalists. You will also find advertisements and opinion pieces in popular magazines. 

Newspaper (popular): Newspaper content is usually written by journalists and intended for a general audience and includes articles about current events or public interest topics. Newspapers are usually published daily or weekly and also contain opinion pieces and advertisements. 

Academic or scholarly journal articles often:

• are written by experts in the field (researchers and scholars)
• are intended to be read with other researchers, scholars (and even students) in that field
• use specialized technical language or vocabulary
• include references lists
• are longer in length and follow a specific structure 
• have very little to no advertising

Popular magazine/newspaper articles often:

• are written by journalists
• are intended to be read by a general audience
• use common language understood by most readers
• might include in-text source attribution, but not always
• rarely include a list of references
• are shorter in length
• contain a lot of advertising
• contain opinion pieces