What is the difference between primary and secondary sources?

Primary sources are firsthand, contemporary accounts of events created by individuals during that period of time or several years later (such as correspondence, diaries, memoirs and personal histories). Secondary sources often use generalizations, analysis, interpretation, and synthesis of primary sources.

Are research studies primary or secondary sources?

Examples of primary sources include: original research studies (often in the form of journal articles in peer-reviewed publications), also called empirical studies (e.g. psychology) patents, technical reports. original documents such as diaries, letters, emails, manuscripts, lab data/notes.

Why is it important to know the difference between primary and secondary sources?

A primary source gives you direct access to the subject of your research. Secondary sources provide second-hand information and commentary from other researchers. Primary sources are more credible as evidence, but good research uses both primary and secondary sources.

Why are primary sources better than secondary sources?

What is meant by secondary research?

Secondary research or desk research is a research method that involves using already existing data. These documents can be made available by public libraries, websites, data obtained from already filled in surveys etc.

What are secondary research sources?

Secondary sources were created by someone who did not experience first-hand or participate in the events or conditions you’re researching. For a historical research project, secondary sources are generally scholarly books and articles.

What is an example of primary source?

Examples of primary sources: Theses, dissertations, scholarly journal articles (research based), some government reports, symposia and conference proceedings, original artwork, poems, photographs, speeches, letters, memos, personal narratives, diaries, interviews, autobiographies, and correspondence.

What advantages do secondary sources have over primary sources?

Advantages: Secondary sources provide a variety of expert perspectives and insights. Also, peer review usually ensures the quality of sources such as scholarly articles. Finally, researching secondary sources is more efficient than planning, conducting, and analyzing certain primary forms of research.