Primary, Secondary, Tertiary - What's the Difference? - NoodleTools for Students

Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary - Explained!

On this page you can find the answers to these questions: Britannica ImageQuest - Computer Keyboard Question Mark

What Are Primary Sources?
A definition and a video tutorial
How Do I Distinguish Between a Primary, a Secondary Source, and a Tertiary Source?
How Should I Compare Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources Across Disciplines?
What Keywords Should I Use?
The keywords to use when searching for primary sources
What Questions Should I Ask?
These can help you decide whether a source is primary or secondary

What Are Primary Sources?

Primary sources are “first hand”accounts of an event, an occurrence, or a time period produced by a participant or observer at the time, or shortly thereafter. They can be published or unpublished.

Typically, primary sources include:

Unique documents or manuscripts - letters, diaries, journals, writings, speeches, photographs, scrapbooks, etc.

Historic records of an organization - correspondence, memoranda, minutes, annual reports, etc.

Government documents - records, maps, and statistical data

Artwork and artifacts

Music and audiovisual materials - film, audio and video tape

Speeches and oral histories - printed transcripts or audio recordings

Photographs and advertisements

Electronic computer files - including emails

This tutorial from Harkness Library explains what primary sources are, and how they differ from secondary sources.

"Primary vs. Secondary Sources." YouTube, uploaded by Hartness Library, 25 Jan. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=gStyna348M0. Accessed 6 Nov. 2018.

How Do I Distinguish Between a Primary Source, a Secondary Source and a Tertiary Source?

Primary sources are the surviving original records of a period, eyewitness accounts and first-published documentation of new information.

Examples of primary sources include:

Peer-reviewed journal articles about one's original research or ideas.
Autobiographies, letters, diaries, and journals describing one's personal experience, activities, and the people, places and events at the time.
Oral histories, interviews and ethnographic research records.
Sound and video recordings of an event or people.
Published material written at the time, such as newspapers, books and articles.
Government or court records including birth and death certificates, deeds, trial transcripts, census records, patents, treaties and other documents.
Business records such as reports, surveys and minutes of meetings and conferences that document contemporaneous activities, people and events.
Art such as architecture, sculpture, photographs, drawings, maps, posters and cartoons.
Written creations such as literary works, sacred texts and musical scores.
Artifacts such as tools, weapons, crafts, furniture, buildings, roads, machines or other objects made by humans living at the time.

Gardner, Ella. Public Dance Halls, Their Regulation and Place in the Recreation of Adolescents. U.S. Govt. Print. Off., Washington, monographic, 1929. Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/l29000056/>.

Secondary sources interpret the past and analyze primary sources.

Examples of secondary sources include:

Journal articles that review the original work of others.
Biographies and histories written by people who did not experience events or the time first-hand.
Commentaries and criticism of primary sources.
Historical studies, literature reviews and textbooks.
Magazine articles and Web pages which describe events or ideas a substantial time after they have occurred.

Martin, Carol. "Legislation Relevant to Dance Marathons." Appendix to Dance Marathons: Performing American Culture of the 1920s and 1930s, 147-60. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1994. Accessed November 20, 2015. Questia School.

Tertiary sources are distillations and indexes of primary and secondary sources.

Examples of tertiary sources include:

Encyclopedias
Textbooks
Dictionaries
Handbooks
Almanacs
Digests and abstracts
Indexes and bibliographies

"'Fads and Crazes.'" Topic Overview to 1920- 1929., edited by Judith S. Baughman, Victor Bondi, Richard Layman, Tandy McConnell, and Vincent Tompkins. Vol. 3 American Decades. Detroit, MI: Gale, 2001. Accessed November 20, 2015.

NoodleTools Inc. "[All Styles] How Do I Distinguish between a Primary Source, a Secondary Source and a Tertiary Source?" In KnowledgeBase, by NoodleTools Support Center. Last modified June 29, 2012. Accessed November 20, 2015.
http://www.noodletools.com/helpdesk/kb/index.php?action=article&id=189.

How Should I Compare Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources Across Academic Disciplines?

Comparison Across the Academic Disciplines

SUBJECT	PRIMARY	SECONDARY	TERTIARY
Art and Architecture	Painting by Manet	Article critiquing art piece	ArtStor database
Chemistry / Life Sciences	Einstein's diary	Monograph on Einstein's life	Dictionary on Theory of Relativity
Engineering/ Physical Sciences	Patent	NTIS database	User's Manual
Humanities	Letters by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.	Web site on King's writings	Encyclopedia on Civil Rights Movement
Social Sciences	Notes taken by clinical psychologist	Magazine article about the psychological condition	Textbook on clinical psychology
Performing Arts	Movie filmed in 1942	Biography of the director	Guide to the movie

Teaching and Learning Services. "Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources." University of Maryland Libraries. Last modified February 3,
2014. Accessed November 20, 2015. http://www.lib.umd.edu/tl/guides/primary-sources.

What Keywords Should I Use?

Using the General Keyword search box - type in your topic plus one of the following words or phrases:

Archive Source*
Correspondence
Diar* (this retrieves both
         Diary and Diaries)
History Archive*
     History Document*
History Source*
Interview*
     Letter*
Personal Narrative*
     Primary source*
  Speech*

Note: Use of the * at the end of a word will search for both singular and plural forms.

What Questions Should I Ask?

In the Arts:

1. Was the source created during the time period you're studying? If the answer is yes, you are looking at a primary source.

2. Is it an object from a particular time in history? (Archie Bunker's chair? An Emily Dickinson poem?) This also counts as a primary source.

3. Was the source written after an event took place? If so, it is a secondary source.

In the Sciences:

1. Is the source reporting original research?

2. Did the author(s) carry out this original research?

If the answer to the two above questions is yes, it is a primary source.

Based on the How Do I...: Find Primary Sources guide created by the librarians at Cline Library, Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona.

NoodleTools for Students: Primary, Secondary, Tertiary - What's the Difference?