Primary vs Secondary Sources

The definition of a primary or secondary source may differ slightly, depending on the subject or situation, but the most important factor is the author/creator's relationship to the content.

A primary source is produced first-hand by the person writing/creating the source. Examples:

A primary research article where the author performed an experiment (or gathers data in some other way, perhaps with interviews or sampling) to test a hypothesis and is now reporting the process and results of that experiment.
A primary historical artifact like a photograph or artwork entry created at the time of the historical period under study.
A primary historical text like a diary or poem written by a historical figure at the time of the historical period under study.
A primary text like a modern poem or novel where the author is the creator of the story.

A secondary source is where the author/creator deals with information produced by others. Examples:

A systematic review or meta-analysis where the author gathers evidence to address a specific question and includes a reproducible and thorough search of the literature along with the author's evaluation of the eligible sources.
A secondary source where the author explains a concept, sometimes referring to or quoting from primary sources.

How can you tell if an article you found is a primary or secondary source?

Look for clues that the author did the experiment themselves - in which case they should provide a methodology section of their article explaining how they did the experiment (or otherwise collected their data). These primary research articles typically have introduction, literature review, methodology, and results sections. They may or may not be labeled in sections, but that information should be present. A secondary article is one where the only data gathered was the work of other researchers, and this author discusses the results of those experiments/studies.

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