Transcript Primary and Secondary Literature

Primary and Secondary
Literature
Finding good sources for research
Types of Scientific Literature
 Popular Science
 News Articles
 Interest Articles
 Books
 Meeting Abstracts, Papers, and Proceedings
 Research Articles
 Review Articles
 Encyclopedia or other reference material
 Books
 Reviews
 Textbooks
Primary Literature
 Report of original research
 Written by the person(s) who conducted the research
 Most reliable if published in a reliable peer-reviewed joural
 Example: original journal articles
 May be a full report or Brief/Note/ Letter
Secondary Literature
 Information others have written on the topic
 Resource that informs us of scientific research
 Science writing in newspaper, magazines, TV news, internet,
etc
 Position papers, commentary, or review articles in peer
reviewed journals
Writing Your Background Research
 Should be a summary of your topic of study
 Covers journal articles, books and other sources that describe
the information that is currently known on the topic
 Can establish the validity of your research
What am I trying to find??
 Sources that are related to your research topic
 They may be identical or may just contain information that is
relevant for your topic.
 For lab reports
 Looking for background information
 What have other scientists done on this topic?
Primary or Secondary?
Primary or Secondary?
Primary or Secondary?
Primary or Secondary?
Do I need more primary or secondary
sources?
 Both are useful
 Secondary sources can give you an overview of the topic
 Primary sources are most reliable and give more specific
information
Searches
 Best to use key words
 Search synonyms
 Sometimes phrases work well
 Primary literature, in general shouldn’t be more than 10 years
old unless it is a standard paper on which later research is
based (source of later research ideas)
Searches
 Where do I look?
 PubMed
 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
 Google Scholar
 http://scholar.google.com/
 Jstore
 http://www.jstor.org/
 TEL and Gale
 Both available through our school library
Understanding the parts of a Scientific Paper
• Abstract – Brief summary
• Introduction – Provides background information
• Materials/Methods – Lists protocols, techniques,
and reagents used
• Results – Clearly summarizes the data generated
from the experiments
• Discussion- Provides explanations for the results
• References- List Of Citations
What? I don’t get this article
 How to read an article to determine relevance
 1. Search for key words in the title or well known
scientists in the field
 2. Read the Abstract!
 3. Read the Introduction and Discussion (Conclusion)
 4. Then if you think it is relevant, read other parts of
the article as needed
What do I do today?
 1. Practice search: by Wednesday turn in two primary and two
secondary sources on a topic of interest
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Label each source as primary or secondary
How it relates to your topic of interest
Citation of source
Link to source
 2. Find information for background research for your next lab report
 AP Biology: Behavior of Isopods
 APES: Acid Rain and pH in the environment
 You MUST have a minimum of three sources in your background
information one of which must be primary.
 Textbook sources may be used in addition to your three sources, but not as
one of the three