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Chemistry: Types of Information

New guide compiled to include both lower and upper level chemistry infromation hosted by the library.

Scholarly, peer-reviewed OR popular news article

            The Library offers a variety of electronic databases to support research assignments and personal interests.  These databases identify articles in scholarly journals, popular magazines and newspapers (also called "periodicals").  Many of the articles are available full text in the databases. 

These databases are not freely available on the Internet; the Library pays a subscription fee for each database.
  

Note below how to distinguish scholarly from popular or news articles.

Scholarly or peer-reviewed journal articles

  • Primary source of information, original research
  • Firsthand report of research
  • Author(s) conducted the research
  • Bibliography included (use to identify additional articles)
  • Peer review of articles for publication (other scholars in that discipline review the article content)

Examples: Bioscience, Nature, Science

  Popular or news articles

  • Secondary source of information
  • Newspapers, magazines and trade publications fall into this category
  • Secondhand report of research
  • Author(s) did not conduct the research
  • No bibliography
  • No peer review (editor or editorial board but not scholars)

Examples: Discover, Science News, Scientific American

Primary vs. Secondary Sources

Primary Sources

Some definitions:

  • Original materials on which other research is based.

  • Usually the first formal appearance of results in the print or electronic literature.

  • Present information in its original form, neither interpreted nor condensed nor evaluated by other writers.

  • Are from the time period (for example, something written close to when what it is recording happened is likely to be a primary source.)

  • Present original thinking, report on discoveries, or share new information.

Some examples:

  • Scientific journal articles reporting experimental research results

  • Proceedings of Meetings, Conferences and Symposia.

  • Technical reports

  • Dissertations or theses (may also be secondary)

  • Internet communications on email, listservs, and newsgroups

Secondary Sources

In science, secondary sources are those which simplify the process of finding and evaluating the primary literature. They tend to be works which repackage, reorganize, reinterpret, summarise, index or otherwise "add value" to the new information reported in the primary literature.

Some definitions:

  • Describe, interpret, analyze and evaluate the primary sources.

  • Comment on and discuss the evidence provided by primary sources.

  • Are works which are one or more steps removed from the event or information they refer to, being written after the fact with the benefit of hindsight.

Some examples:

  • Dictionaries and encyclopedias

  • Handbooks and data compilations

  • Journal articles, particularly in disciplines other than science (may also be primary)

  • Monographs (other than fiction and autobiography)

  • Newspaper and popular magazine articles (may also be primary)

  • Review articles and literature reviews

  • Textbooks

Primary, Secondary & Tertiary Sources
Written by Ward Saylor & Helen Hooper for Information and Research Support, within the Information Services program of the Academic Support Division at James Cook University, July, 2000.  
http://cms.jcu.edu.au/libcomp/assist/guides/azguides/JCUPRD_030412

Popular vs. Scholarly

Primary vs. Secondary