Primary Sources

Primary sources are first-person accounts documented by someone who was directly involved in an event or issue without any additional commentary or interpretation.

Examples of primary sources include autobiographies, statistics and data, works of art and literature, diary entries, letters, newspaper articles written by reporters close to the source, and government documents.

Secondary Sources

Secondary sources reflect upon primary sources by offering an analysis and interpretation. The author is drawing conclusions based upon the information gathered from the primary source.

Examples of secondary sources include interpretations of statistics and data; biographies; and anything analyzing a historical event, something that already happened, or a primary resource (e.g., an examination of a piece of literature).

Tertiary Sources

Tertiary sources index, organize, or compile other sources. They simply repackage information to help researchers understand the topic broadly and lead them to a secondary source. They do not offer any interpretation or analysis of the sources they collect.

Examples of tertiary sources include encyclopedia entries (including Wikipedia), indexes, bibliographies, and almanacs.

Authority is a type of influence recognized within a community. For example, a person with a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature could be considered an authority when discussing Shakespeare, but not on a topic outside their expertise, like chemistry. Authority should be viewed with an attitude of informed skepticism. Keep an open mind and remain open to new perspectives, additional voices, and changes in schools of thought. It's important to acknowledge biases that privilege some sources of authority over others, especially in terms of others’ worldviews, gender, sexual orientation, and cultural orientations. Be critical! Don't automatically trust an authority just because they have appealing credentials. 

When determining authority, ask yourself these questions:

• Who is the author or authoring organization? 
• What biases may this authority hold?
• Is contact information provided? 
• What are the qualifications or credentials of the author?
• Does the author have expertise in the topic covered?
• What is their institutional affiliation? 

It's important to consider why a source was created. What is the purpose of it being here?

• Why was this source created?
• What questions does it try to answer?
• What needs does it meet (personal, professional, or societal)?
• Is the author or publisher making money off of it?
• Is it meant to be educational?
• Is it objective or biased?
• Is it trying to sell you something/advertise a product or service?
• Who is the intended audience?
  • Is it for academic scholars?
  • Is it for the general population?

A lot can be learned about a source just by analyzing the language used within it. The vocabulary, style, tone, and level of information contained within a source can help determine if it is fact, opinion, or propaganda. Facts are objective. Opinions and propaganda are subjective.

• Facts have been proven to be true and can be backed up with evidence.
• Opinions reflect the thoughts of a specific person or group of people. An opinion-based source is not inherently bad, but you should be cautious before trusting it. Has the author provided facts or legitimate reasons for why they hold this opinion? Do they acknowledge other viewpoints and recognize that their opinion is not the only opinion?
• Propaganda is the spreading of information that promotes or publicizes specific people, groups, causes, points of view, or events through the use of slogans and emotionally charged images and headlines. Propaganda is usually very biased and relies on the selective reporting of true information in order to deceive or trick an audience. Propaganda often uses bits and pieces of true information mixed in with lies to take advantage of the audience's fears or doubts.

Think critically about the language used in a source by asking yourself these questions:

• What assumptions is the author making about the reader?
  • Do they have a particular audience in mind?
  • Do they expect the reader to already have a substantial understanding of the topic?
• How does the article make you feel?
  • Is the author trying to cause an emotional response in their readers?
• Does the title or headline seem outlandish?
  • Read the full article, not just the headline. 
  • Titles that are sensationalized or emotionally driven are usually clickbait (trying to attract users to click on the article). It's best to avoid these articles entirely.
  • If it's extremely outlandish, the article may be satire. Research the author and source to determine if this is the case.
• Is the source fact-based or opinion-based?
• Is the source propaganda?
• Are there misspellings, grammatical errors, or strange uses of language?
  • Scholarly sources are reviewed by a team of experts, so the chances of there being errors are very low.
• Does the source contain complex vocabulary?
  • Popular or non-scholarly sources are usually written with the general population in mind, so they rarely contain complex vocabulary. 

The information landscape is constantly changing! Facts and hypotheses are proven (and disproven) every day. New information is discovered that disproves what was previously understood to be fact. Because of this, it's important to ensure that the sources you discover and reference in your own work are up-to-date and reflect the current understanding of the topic. Check the date that the source was published. Also, look at the publication dates of the sources that the author references in their work. Even though an article was published this month, it would still be considered out-of-date if all of its references were from the previous century.

Some disciplines are more time-sensitive than others. For example, it's usually okay to use older sources that analyze works of literature, as the information they present is not something that changes rapidly. If you're researching a historical event, you may want to look for much older primary sources from the time of the event. Contrarily, new discoveries are frequently made in the sciences. The information presented in a source on genetic engineering from five years ago could vary greatly from a source published last month.

When considering the date of a source, ask yourself these questions:

• When was the source first published?
  • Check the sources that the author referenced. When were those first published?
• Does the information in this source line up with other recent scholarly works on the subject?
• If you need a primary source, is the material in question from the correct time period?
• Are you looking at the most up-to-date version or edition of the source?
  • Are there differences between the editions? New references? A different introduction?
• If the source is digital, when was it last updated?
• Are there any published responses to this source that review or challenge its claims?

Whenever someone makes an argument or states a fact, they should provide evidence to support their claim. Authors do this by citing the sources they referenced during their work. When an author is thorough in their research and provides a well-rounded bibliography, the trustworthiness of that source is increased. If an author cites their sources, look into those materials. Unfortunately, it's not uncommon to see that an author included an extensive bibliography of references, only to find out that they deliberately misinterpreted the information within those sources to support their argument or only selected biased sources that aligned with their point of view. Be extremely wary if an author doesn't cite anything at all. This usually means that they plagiarized the content or made it up entirely.

Remember: not all articles with bibliographies are scholarly, but all scholarly articles have bibliographies! To help determine if a source is trustworthy, consider the following about the evidence given:

• Is the article well-researched?
• Is the information properly cited? 
• Is there a bibliography or list of resources?
  • Are they affiliated with the authors they reference in any way?
  • Are the authors cited involved in a specific academic movement or school of thought?
• Are facts and statistics documented? 
• Compare and contrast multiple sources on the same topic. Do the facts presented in them line up with one another?
• Pay special attention to the quotations and paraphrases referenced:
  • Do they properly represent the ideas of the original source and use them in the correct context?
  • Did they choose to ignore important pieces of information from their cited sources?
  • Did they specifically choose to deceptively include particular facts to support their own argument, misconstruing the original author's intent?

What is the source of the material in question? The type of publication your source appears in matters. Newspapers and magazines are rarely, if ever, considered scholarly. However, academic books and journals are. Reference books such as encyclopedias and dictionaries are generally used only to verify facts or background information. It's important to consider who is funding the publication and what their motives and biases may be. How could the information within this source benefit them? If there are ads within the publication, it most likely isn't scholarly. 

When examining the source of an article, consider the following:

• Who "publishes" or sponsors the journal or other publication?
  • Is there a connection to a larger sponsoring organization?
  • What could they gain from this publication?
• Was it published in a scholarly publication?
• What is the subject expertise of the publisher or organization?
  • Does this article fit within that expertise?
• What are the potential biases of the publisher or organization?
• What sort of barriers did the author face to get this article published?
  • Was it self-published?
  • Was it peer-reviewed?
  • Do they have connections to the publisher?
• Are there ads within the publication?
• What medium is the material published in?
  • Is it online or in print?
  • Is it a YouTube video? An article in a magazine? A podcast? An episode of a television show?
    • What does the medium tell you about the purpose of the piece? What about the intended audience?

When doing research, the sources you find need to be relevant to the topic you're working on. Even if it has all the right keywords and is scholarly, if the book or article has nothing to do with your topic, it's not going to help you. If it's an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association or Chemical and Engineering News on Ophelia, it's likely off-topic. 

When determining a source's relevance to your research, consider:

• How does it relate to other sources that you've found?
• Does it analyze the primary resources you're researching?
• Is it discussing the author/person you're researching but different primary texts?
• Does the author use a framework of analysis that you can apply to your own research?
• What is the scope of the material's coverage?
  • Is it an in-depth analysis or a general overview?
  • Does the scope match your information needs?
  • Is the geographic region and time period relevant to your research?