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Zhang - Feeding 9 Billion People

Getting Started

Select Resources/Source Types Most Appropriate for the Information Need.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Example:

Information Need Source Types
Current information on political issues Current Newspapers & Magazines
Background info in order to develop a question for a research project Reference, Wikipedia, Topic Overview Videos (Crash Course)
Current research on solar and wind power Academic Journals/Original Research & Government Websites/Docs
Information to help make an argument about the impact of U.S. westward expansion on indigenous people Primary Sources from the time, Academic Journal Articles by historians, & Books on the topic

 

 

Science

Primary Source Secondary Source
DEFINITION:  A document that fully describes original research written by those that conducted that original research.   DEFINITION:  A document that contains commentary, interpretation, and/or analysis of original research. 
EX:  Academic journal article where researchers describe their own research and experimentation regarding enzymes in bovine liver. European Journal of Biochemistry EX:  Popular magazine blog post that comments on multiple studies regarding the impact of sleep on regulating emotions. Psychology Today

 

Humanities

Primary Source Secondary Source

DEFINITION:  a document, image, or artifact that provides us with evidence about the past. (Also called a direct source.)

 DEFINITION:  A document that contains commentary, interpretation, and/or analysis of historical events or primary source(s).
EX:  the "I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King Jr,  EX:  an academic journal article analyzing King's speech.

 

 

Examples of Primary and Secondary Sources

 

Primary Sources Secondary Sources
  • Academic journal article of original research
  • Conference Papers
  • Correspondence
  • Dissertations
  • Diaries
  • Interviews
  • Lab Notebooks
  • Notes
  • Patents
  • Proceedings
  • Studies or Surveys
  • Technical Reports
  • Theses
  • Newspaper/magazine articles written soon after event (not historical accounts)
  • Popular magazine articles 
  • Academic journal article
  • Criticism and Interpretation
  • Dictionaries (may be tertiary)
  • Encyclopedias (may be tertiary)
  • Government Policy
  • Public Opinion
  • Reviews
  • Social Policy

adapted from University at Albany Library

Information Literacy & The Big 6(TM) Skills – Research from Start to Finish

Above graphic from The Big6 Research Method.  

Original license for the Big6 is copyright © 1987 Michael B. Eisenberg and Robert E. Berkowitz. For more on the Big6, visit: https://thebig6.org/”

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License