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Biomedical Sciences: Primary and Secondary Sources
Primary and Secondary Sources
The fundamental question to ask to determine whether a source is primary or secondary in science is, "Did the authors of this paper collect the data?"
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.
- Often extremely narrow in scope.
- Abstract may include phrases like "we observed," "sampling was conducted," 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.
The article below is a primary source because the authors collected the data themselves.
Clues that the article is a secondary source:
- Describes the work of other scientists.
- Surveys the state of research within a narrow field of study.
- 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.