Can a primary source also be a secondary source?

Anything that summarizes, evaluates or interprets primary sources can be a secondary source. If a source gives you an overview of background information or presents another researcher’s ideas on your topic, it is probably a secondary source.

Can a source be both secondary and tertiary?

For example, articles and books in which authors interpret data from another research team’s experiment or archival footage of an event are usually considered secondary sources. … Tertiary sources summarize or synthesize the research in secondary sources. For example, textbooks and reference books are tertiary sources.

How do you know if a source is primary or secondary?

A Primary Source is information that was created at the same time as an event or by a person directly involved in the event. Diaries, speeches, letters, official records, autobiographies. A Secondary Source gets its information from somewhere else or by a person not directly involved in the event.

Should primary and secondary sources be separated?

So how do you cite it in your paper? In the bibliography or works cited page: Remember that Primary Sources should be separated from Secondary Sources in your bibliography. See the Handbook for Historians to get correct bibliography formats.

Is a photograph a primary or secondary source?

Primary sources are firsthand accounts or direct evidence of an event or period under study. These types of sources include, but are not limited to, letters, interviews, photographs, and cultural artifacts such as coins, everyday objects, and works of art.

What are primary and secondary sources?

Primary sources provide a first-hand account of an event or time period and are considered to be authoritative. They represent original thinking, reports on discoveries or events, or they can share new information. … Secondary sources involve analysis, synthesis, interpretation, or evaluation of primary sources.

Can primary sources have references?

Primary sources comprise data obtained from surveys, census, economic statistics, or different datasets that have not been recorded before. Secondary sources also contain such data and are referenced to the original primary sources. … Secondary sources contain information from different primary sources, all in one place.

Can you cite someone else’s citation?

Citing a source that you found in another source is known as using a secondary source. You should always try to read and cite the original work (the primary source). If it is not possible to do this, you have to cite the original as contained in the secondary source.

Do primary sources have citations?

For primary sources published online, a citation would include: the author, document title or a description, document date, title of the website, reference URL, and date accessed. Elements of a citation are usually listed from the most specific to the most general.

When would you use a secondary source?

Secondary sources provide good overviews of a subject, so are particularly useful if you need to find about an area that’s new to you. They are also helpful because you can find keywords to describe a subject area, as well as key authors and key references that you can use to do further reading and research.

How do you separate primary and secondary sources in a bibliography?

Use a single list which integrates all the different types of source material you have used. The exception is where you have discussed a number of primary sources (such as novels, films, ancient sources, letters, historical documents etc), when you should separate your bibliography into primary and secondary sources.

What means secondary source?

Secondary sources are works that analyze, assess or interpret an historical event, era, or phenomenon, generally utilizing primary sources to do so. … Secondary sources can include books, journal articles, speeches, reviews, research reports, and more.

Does primary source mean?

Primary sources are documents, images or artifacts that provide firsthand testimony or direct evidence concerning an historical topic under research investigation. Primary sources are original documents created or experienced contemporaneously with the event being researched.

Are both primary and secondary sources useful in writing and learning history Why or why not?

Both primary and secondary sources are useful and can help you learn about the past. In the strictest definition, primary sources are usually considered to be items like personal letters, diaries, records or other documents created during the period under study.

Can I use secondary sources in a research paper?

To do research, you must cite research. Primary sources do not represent research per se, but only the artifacts from which most research is derived. Therefore, the majority of sources in a literature review are secondary sources that present research findings, analysis, and the evaluation of other researcher’s works.

What’s an example of a secondary source?

Secondary sources describe, summarize, or discuss information or details originally presented in another source; meaning the author, in most cases, did not participate in the event. … Examples of a secondary source are: Publications such as textbooks, magazine articles, book reviews, commentaries, encyclopedias, almanacs.

Is a textbook a secondary source?

Examples of Secondary Sources:

Textbooks, edited works, books and articles that interpret or review research works, histories, biographies, literary criticism and interpretation, reviews of law and legislation, political analyses and commentaries.

How do you know if it is a primary source?

A primary source provides direct or firsthand evidence about an event, object, person, or work of art. … Published materials can be viewed as primary resources if they come from the time period that is being discussed, and were written or produced by someone with firsthand experience of the event.