Skip to Main Content

CHEM 115: Chemical Principles I (Fall 2025) : Evaluating and Using Articles

Source Types in the Sciences

primary and secondary source tutorial

Primary and Secondary Sources in Science

Primary

A primary source in the sciences is a report of research results written by the scientist(s) who conducted the research.

  • Contains original research results or “raw data”
  • Written by the scientist(s) who conducted the research
  • Includes enough detail for other scientists to evaluate and reproduce results

Examples: Research articles, Conference papers, Theses, Technical reports, Patents, Data sets, Lab notebooks

Secondary

A secondary source in the sciences synthesizes, summarizes, interprets or analyzes one or more primary sources often in an attempt to summarize the current state of knowledge on a topic.

  • Contains no original data found or produced by the author
  • Typically written by a scientist or journalist who has read primary research papers
  • Draw conclusions based on research done by others

Examples: Review articles, meta-analyses, news reports, some book chapters, some government reports

Reading Scholarly Papers

Peer Review & Scholarly Publishing