Scholarly Sources ( your professors may use different words for this type of source )
- Written by experts (scholars, professors, researchers) in their given field, scholarly sources are highly specialized and often include a historiography, methodology, and theory and usually have been peer-reviewed.
- A Peer-Review means that it has been reviewed by other experts within the field.
- Scholarly Sources can come from books, journal articles, and some sources online sources.
- Not all sources are in paper form - many journals are published online or through online databases.
Trade / Professional Publications
- Written by professionals in their field or journalists for publishers.
- These focus on industry trends, products, techniques, and discipline-specific news.
Popular Magazines
- Written by journalists or freelance writers.
- Focus on common interest issues for the general public.
- Not normally used for research purposes, but can be used to basic information gathering or a jumping off point.
Newspapers
- Written by general public journalists
- There are many types of reports within a newspaper from fluff, investigative, or editorials.
- Read through the article to understand what type of write up it is.
Primary Sources
- An "original" source that comes from a first-hand account of an event or topic.
- They are direct evidence of a time or event -or- written accounts from people that were there at the time.
- These types of sources have not been modified by interpretations and offer original thought on the topic.
- A few examples of Primary Sources are: diaries, letters, interviews, oral histories, photographs, newspaper articles, government documents, original research, artwork, etc.
Secondary Sources
- Not a first-hand experience.
- These are closely related to a primary source and are normally an interpretation of a primary source.
- Examples of Secondary Sources include: scholarly or popular books, journal articles, textbooks, dissertations, etc.
- They normally have primary sources cited within their writing.
Remember, for additional help on evaluating sources, see our Evaluating Sources guide.
