Subject Guides
Information Literacy Toolkit
Introduction
Primary sources are materials in a variety of formats, created at the time under study, that serve as original evidence documenting a time period, event, people, idea, or work. Primary sources can be printed materials (such as books and ephemera), manuscript/archival materials (such as diaries or ledgers), audio/visual materials (such as recordings or films), artifacts (such as clothes or personal belongings), or born-digital materials (such as emails or digital photographs). Primary sources can be found in analog, digitized, and born-digital forms.
Secondary sources are works that synthesize and/or comment on primary and/or other secondary sources. Secondary sources, which are often works of scholarship, are differentiated from primary sources by the element of critical synthesis, analysis, or commentary.
These definitions are taken from the ACRL Guide for Primary Source Literacy
Primary Sources in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Some topics to consider when evaluating primary sources:
- Authenticity
The authenticity of records and documents is usually presumed, but if questioned it can sometimes be verified by testing physical and stylistic characteristics of a record. Authenticity alone does not automatically imply that the content of a record is reliable. - Authority
As relates to primary sources, authority may refer to the relative credibility and expertise of the creator(s) of a source. - Bias
A prejudice in favor of one thing or person over another. Sources may include the biases of their creator(s) and of the individuals and institutions that collect these sources. A source may reflect unconscious or unintentional bias. - Creator
The individual, family, group, or organization that is responsible for a source's production, accumulation, or formation. Creators of primary sources include artists, authors, and manufacturers. - Cultural Understanding
Considering the viewpoint of those from other cultures, whether in the present or past; considering shared or conflicted history portrayed in the source; and understanding the importance of studying and preserving records created from many points of view. - Historical Context
The ability to appreciate the beliefs, values, and intentions of historical actors and to see and appreciate sources within their particular time period and geographical location. - Mediation
The amount of intervention and contextualization between the user and the source. Mediation could be added content (like a written introduction); translation; or librarians/archivists' organization and arrangement of materials. - Silences
Gaps or missing pieces in the historical record, often caused by those who were unable to write their own records, or whose records were not considered valuable or were suppressed by the dominant culture.
Download this list as a handout:
Download a sample rubric for evaluating Primary Sources from Indiana University Bloomington:
Primary Sources in the Sciences
In the sciences, it is easiest to understand the definition of primary source by connecting the publication cycle to the knowledge cycle.
After an idea is discussed, developed, and tested, preliminary findings are shared through conference presentations, research posters, or through technical or company reports. The full results of research is published in scholarly journals, theses, or dissertations. There can also be some exceptions, such as a technical report published by a company sharing the full results of the research, but between these two steps of the knowledge and publication cycle is where the primary research is shared.
The secondary and tertiary sources like popularizing the results through magazines or generalizing the information for an encyclopedia come later on in the cycle. Confusion for students generally stems from the fact that the sciences are different from the humanities. Journal articles are not primary sources in those disciplines, and especially for general education classes, you may have a mix of majors taking your course.
