Page 25 - DLIS105_REFERENCE_SOURCES_AND_SERVICES

Reference Sources and Services

Notes 1.5.2 Secondary Sources

Secondary sources are less easily defined than primary sources. What some define as a secondary
source, others define as a tertiary source. Nor is it always easy to distinguish primary from secondary
sources. A newspaper article is a primary source if it reports events, but a secondary source if it
analyses and comments on those events. 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. More generally, secondary sources:
• 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 hind sight?

Some examples of secondary sources:
• bibliographies (may also be tertiary)
• biographical works
• commentaries
• dictionaries and encyclopedias (may also be tertiary)
• dissertations or theses (more usually primary)
• handbooks and data compilations (may also be tertiary)
• history
• indexing and abstracting tools used to locate primary and secondary sources (may also be
tertiary)
• 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 (may also be tertiary)
• treatises
• works of criticism and interpretation.

1.5.3 Tertiary Sources
Tertiary source is a term used to describe a work which is chiefly a selection or compilation of other
primary and secondary sources. The distinction between a secondary and tertiary source is relative,
whereas the difference between primary and secondary sources is more absolute in historiography.
As a general rule, however, tertiary sources tend to be more focused on the identification of scholarly
work than on the content itself.
Depending on the context, tertiary sources might include bibliographies, library catalogs, directories,
reading lists and survey articles.

Encyclopedias and textbooks are examples of written materials that typically
embrace both secondary and tertiary sources, presenting on the one hand
commentary and analysis, while on the other attempting to provide a synoptic
overview of the material available on the topic.

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