Computer Science & Information Technology: Primary and Secondary Literature

Primary sources are different in the sciences than other areas of study. The question to ask to determine if a source is primary or secondary in science is, "Did the authors of this paper collect the data?" There are several clues to answer this question. 

Primary source—the work represents original research

Secondary source—the work reflects on, synthesizes, or reviews the research of others. 

Clues that the article is a primary source: 

• Analyzes the data collected by the authors. 
• Abstract may include phrases like "we observed," "we collected samples," etc. 
• Usually includes a methods section. 
• Will include a review of past work by others, but this is meant to provide context for original data collection and analysis. 

Clues that the article is a secondary source: 

• Describes the work of other scientists.
• Title or abstract includes the terms review, literature review, or meta-analysis. 
• May not include a methods section. 

The article below is a secondary source, not only because it says "review" in the title, but also because the article mentions it is a survey of other articles.