Literature for researchers: Getting started

This guide defines primary, secondary and tertiary literature. The distinction between the three different sources hinges on the distance between each type of literature and the actual event.

• Primary sources are created as close to the actual event as possible. Photographs or first-hand accounts are a common form of primary source. There are also other types, such as a published study that reports data from an experiment or observations taken in the field.
• Secondary sources are those which are derived from the primary source literature. Articles and books which discuss events based on evidence collected by other researchers are examples of secondary sources.
• Tertiary sources summarise or synthesize the material presented in secondary sources. For example, textbooks and reference work such as encyclopedias are tertiary sources. The literature review section of a Masters or PhD thesis is another example of a tertiary source.

Why is this distance significant? Finding and evaluating each type of literature calls for different skills. Each type of source must be discovered and handled in different ways. This guide will start you off with a range of basic skills.