Secondary Sources

Secondary sources are a description, discussion, interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and summarization of primary sources. In other words, unlike primary sources that give a first-hand account of events, these sources provide an after the fact account. When it comes to identifying secondary sources, the focus should be on how well the sources in question lack the immediacy of the original event. What this means is that the information contained in a secondary source should be a repackaged version of the information in a primary source, the source of fresh and immediate original content. Some of the examples of secondary articles cover works of biography, history books, commentaries and treatises, works of criticism and interpretation, and reference books, including dictionaries and encyclopedias.

In research, a secondary source provides edited information from the original work of other researchers and can be a book, article, or any other publication. For example, secondary sources complement primary sources by providing additional, critical information on an issue. By using secondary sources, researchers use the observations made by others on a topic to summarize their viewpoints on the issue, furthering discourse. Another value of secondary sources is that they broaden the perspective on a subject by providing hindsight to historical events. In this way, the discussion takes into account the context of the issue or topic at hand. Also, secondary sources extend discourse on an event by relating the situation to other events that may have happened within the same timeline. However, using secondary information in research should not be encouraged due to issues of quality and trustworthiness. The truth remains that the greatest value of secondary sources is to help scholars and researchers to keep up with or review progress in a particular discipline or field of study.

When undertaking a research study, researchers often come across tons of information, and it behooves them to consider not only the relevance but, more importantly, the reliability and credibility of that information. Credible information is any content that researchers can authenticate its reliability by assessing the authority behind it and bias. Concerning authority, credible information is one whose author has credentials, an academic background, or is an experienced scholar on the issue or topic. Regarding bias, credible information is one that is not slanted or intended to persuade the reader by misrepresenting the issue at hand. Talking about secondary sources, researchers should not use secondary sources until they are satisfied with the quality and sufficiency of the information. In summary, secondary sources provide a second-hand account of events as reported in primary sources. As such, the issues of quality and credibility require researchers to evaluate the authenticity of these sources.