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Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources: Finding Resources

This guide will help you learn more about what primary, secondary, and tertiary sources are and when to use them in your research.

Finding Secondary and Tertiary Sources

You can find secondary and tertiary sources in multiple places.

  • If you are looking for books, you can search our catalog or any of the other library or book websites.
  • You can search our databases for articles that are not primary research articles with original data. For history we recommend using JSTOR!

Finding Primary Sources

  • Look at bibliographies, notes, and acknowledgements in secondary sources to see where those authors found primary sources.
  • Use online digital collections (listed in the Archives and Digital Collections tab) to search for digital primary source materials.
    • For physical primary source materials, look here to find an archive or special collections library that has materials related to your research.
  • For finding primary science research, add these terms to your search:
    • “empirical study”
    • “empirical research”
    • “primary research”
    • “methodology"
  • Look for articles that provide methodology and empirical data, not an overview of previous research on the topic.

Primary Sources in Databases

  • In JSTOR, use the Primary Source Content option on the search results page to filter the results by type of primary source.

Primary Source Content Filter JSTOR

 

  • To find primary sources in specific EBSCOhost databases, click the Primary Source Document option in the Publication Type menu.

Publication Type Filter EBSCOhost

  • In ProQuest, use the Document Type option to select the specific type of source.

Document Type Filter ProQuest