MS-Clinical Nutrition Library Resources : Evaluating Articles

Reading Scholarly Articles

Reading Scholarly Articles
Learn how to identify parts of a scholarly article, how articles vary by discipline, and how to evaluate for relevance and quality.

Primary and Secondary Articles in STEM

Primary and Secondary Articles in STEM
Learn how to tell the difference between primary and secondary articles in STEM disciplines, how each type of article contributes to research, and how to search for them.

Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources

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 Written by a scientist or journalist who read research reports Draw conclusions based on research done by others Examples: Analyses, Meta-analyses, Commentaries, Reviews, Summaries, News Reports
Tertiary	A tertiary source in the sciences collects and condenses information from primary and secondary sources. Introduce general readers to what is currently known about a topic Distill information from experiments or research (e.g. chemical properties) Collect or list primary and secondary sources from more information Examples: Textbooks, Encyclopedias, Bibliographies, Almanacs, Chronologies, Dictionaries, Manuals

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
Written by a scientist or journalist who read research reports
Draw conclusions based on research done by others

Examples: Analyses, Meta-analyses, Commentaries, Reviews, Summaries, News Reports

Tertiary

A tertiary source in the sciences collects and condenses information from primary and secondary sources.

Introduce general readers to what is currently known about a topic
Distill information from experiments or research (e.g. chemical properties)
Collect or list primary and secondary sources from more information

Examples: Textbooks, Encyclopedias, Bibliographies, Almanacs, Chronologies, Dictionaries, Manuals

Scholarship as Conversation

Peer Review & Scholarly Publishing

NCSU Libraries: Peer Review in Three Minutes