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Primary and Secondary Sources

About this guide

Many university assessments will ask you to find, evaluate and use primary and secondary sources. This guide explains key differences between primary and secondary sources. It also gives you tips for how to find and critically evaluate these sources. 


Definitions

In simple terms, primary sources provide original evidence or first-hand accounts.

Secondary sources summarise, interpret or analyse primary sources. 

To put these definitions into practice, an example of a primary source you might use in a History essay are the letters of author Jane Austen. These letters are a primary source because they are first-hand accounts by the author herself. However, a book or journal article written by a historian which analyses Jane Austen’s letters to discuss her views on gender, is a secondary source. This is because it uses a primary source (Austen’s letters) to interpret and analyse Austen’s views on gender.  


Types of sources

The definitions above are a broad way of understanding the key differences between a primary and secondary source. 

Primary and secondary sources come in many different formats. Many disciplines have commonly used ‘types’ of primary sources. The table below lists common primary sources used within various disciplines.
 

Common Primary Sources  
Anthropology and History

Letters, diaries, archival records, field notes, historical newspaper articles.  

Architecture

Buildings, architectural models, drawings, photographs. 

Business, Management and Marketing

Company reports, financial statements, meeting minutes, market surveys, corporate policies and codes. 

Health and Science

Journal articles reporting on original results/research, scientific/health data, laboratory notes, technical reports. 

Law and Criminology

Case law, legislation.   

Literature and Creative Arts

Artworks, films, documentaries, photographs, novels, picture books, autobiographies, manuscripts, performances.  

Other

Speeches, statistics, surveys, interviews, social media, advertisements, government information. 

Common secondary sources

Secondary sources vary less by discipline. Common secondary sources used across disciplines include:

Academic books and textbooks

Scholarly/academic journal articles

Dictionaries and encycopaedias

Theses

Reviews

Documentaries