Types of Information Sources - Primary, Secondary, Tertiary & Refereed Journals

Primary Sources

There are a number of different definitions for primary, secondary and tertiary literature. These can vary according to academic discipline (ie. science or humanities). In brief:

These are original materials which have not been filtered through interpretation, condensation, or, often, even evaluation by a second party; for example journal articles, monographs, reports, patents, theses, diaries, letters, photographs, poems. For further information see Primary, Secondary & Tertiary Sources .

Secondary Sources

A secondary source is information about primary, or original, information, which usually has been modified, selected, or rearranged for a specific purpose or audience. It is not always easy to discern the difference between primary and secondary sources. Examples include biographies, histories, monographs, review articles, textbooks, and any index or bibliography used to locate primary sources. For further information see Primary, Secondary & Tertiary Sources.

Tertiary Sources

These consist of information, which is a distillation and collection of primary and secondary sources. Twice removed from the original, they include encyclopedias, fact books and almanacs, guides and handbooks. Some secondary sources such as indexing and abstracting tools can also be considered tertiary sources. For further information see Primary, Secondary & Tertiary Sources.

Examples of Primary & Secondary Sources

Some examples of primary and secondary sources are:

For further information see Primary, Secondary & Tertiary Sources.

Refereed & Peer Reviewed Articles

Refereed articles are normally assumed to be substantial works of scholarship, which have gone through a peer-reviewing process before being published in a scholarly journal for a scholarly audience. Peer-reviewing means that the paper is submitted to experts in the field for assessment (much like a thesis) before being accepted for publication, or rejected. Remember that not all articles published in refereed journals are themselves refereed. Examples of articles which are most likely to have been peer-reviewed include:

• Commentaries and communications of original research

• Critical scholarly texts

• Reviews of a field of research

Examples of articles unlikely to have been peer-reviewed include non-scholarly, non-research articles, brief communications, editorials, letters to the editor; book, art, concert, theatre, cinema etc reviews. Articles in newspapers and popular magazines are rarely refereed.

Identifying a Refereed Journal

There are a number of criteria for identifying refereed journals. The most useful are:

• Journal is listed in an ISI index such as Current Contents Connect

• The journal is classified as refereed in Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory (ask at InfoHelp)

• There is a statement (usually hard to find) in the journal (or on the website) that papers are refereed

• Journal has a list of editorial board members

• Article has a "Submitted" and "Accepted" date shown

• Journal is included in InfoTrac database as "refereed"

• Journal is included in Proquest database as "peer reviewed publication"

If all else fails, check with your lecturer or tutor. They may accept other criteria - eg. a substantial article with a bibliography in a journal published by a major university press, a major research society or organisation or a publisher known to produce primarily scholarly titles (eg. Blackwell, Academic Press Elsevier, Wiley etc).

For further information, see DETYA's Higher Education Research Data Collection document.

Feedback, including suggested additions, excisions and corrections is welcome.
Send it to Helen Hooper.