Irish Studies Resources - Prof. Christine Kinealy: Primary vs. Secondary Sources

Some examples:

• Internet communications on email, listservs, and newsgroups

Some examples:

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

What are primary sources?

Primary sources are the “raw data of scholarship” and vary widely depending upon the academic discipline).  In the Social Sciences and Humanities, primary sources are usually original materials or testimonies created contemporaneous to the event or individual being researched.  Primary sources are created by persons or organizations who witness an event as it unfolds.  Therefore, these sources contain first-hand accounts from those with direct knowledge and experience of a particular historical event, figure, or original experiments.

Examples of primary sources might include records, unpublished reports, letters, memorandums, photographs and images, video footage, diaries and journals, speeches, maps, statistics, information found in newspapers, and artifacts.  Primary sources can also take shape well after an event occurred in the form of autobiographies, memoirs, and oral histories. 

Evaluating Primary Sources

Scholars and students turn to primary sources for evidence that supports their hypotheses.  Primary sources help answer questions about what happened and why.  When researching primary sources, think about what you already know and how primary sources relate to, support, or refute that information.  Pose the following questions to help make sense of primary sources:

• What is it? What format does it take?
• Who created it? What was his/her qualifications and relationship to the subject, event, or figure being researched?
• When was it created? Is the resource timely?
• Where was it created?
• Under what circumstances was it created?
• Who was the intended audience?
• Are there other primary sources like this one?
• What other information do we need to know in order to make sense of this source?
• How have other scholars and students used this source in their research?
• How does this particular resource support my research topic?

What are secondary sources?

Secondary sources are usually at least one phase removed from the time period or event being researched.  Secondary sources do not include firsthand knowledge or experience, but instead they include commentaries, interpretations, and analysis of events, figures, and data.  Secondary sources often draw on the meaning of primary sources in order to support an author’s hypothesis or point of view.  Though removed from the original event, secondary sources are typically produced by subject experts who submit their work for editing and review prior to publication.  

Examples of secondary sources include:

• books
• articles
• biographies
• literary criticisms
• book reviews
• scholarly journal articles 

Evaluating Secondary Sources

1. Authority
   Who is the author?  What are his or her credentials?  Is he or she an expert in the field?  What other works has the author published?  Has he or she been cited elsewhere?  Who is the publisher?  Is it an academic or popular publisher?  What is the publishing statement?  What other works does the publisher produce?
2. Accuracy
   Is the information specific?  Can the "facts" be verified in other resource including reference materials?  What kind of evidence does the author use to support his or her position?  Is the methodology explained?  Is the method widely accepted within the field? Is there a bibliography of primary and secondary sources?  Are those sources credible? Are there critical and scholarly reviews of the work available in library databases?  If the sources is a journal article, does it appear in a peer-reviewed or refeered journal?
3. Objectivity
   Does the author have an agenda or interest at stake outside of his or her research?  Are there any advertisements in the publication? Is there inflammatory langauge or rhetoric?
4. Currency
   Consider whether the timeliness of the information will impact its usefulness.  Some of the sciences depend on the most up-to-date data.  In the humanities, consider that scholarship tends to be a conversation.  Who is talking to whom?  Is the conversation on the topic still relevent to the broader field? What is the piece's framework?  If theoretical, is the theory still in fashion?  What about the method?  Is it still being used?