Which Secondary Sources Are Right for You?

As I mentioned earlier, secondary sources are sources that contain other people’s knowledge about your subject. They have conducted experiments, interviews, or surveys; made observations; and published their results for others to read. Journals, magazines, newspaper articles, books, and Web sites are all secondary sources. Let’s look at the pros and cons of different kinds of secondary sources.

Traditional Print Sources
Type of resource	Pros	Cons
Books	Good when you need to do in-depth research about a particular subject Work well for background research Valuable for older subjects that might not have much current research Are generally reliable sources	May be checked out, missing, or simply not owned by the library when you need to use them May not be the most up-to-date on the subject (because books take a long time to publish)
Academic journals Academic journals are periodicals about a particular subject written by experts in that subject. Examples of academic journals include American Journal of Education, Environmental Ethics Journal, and JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association.	Original research by experts in the field Up-to-date information about a subject (as of publication date) Reference lists at the end (which you can use to find additional sources)	Assumes that an audience of experts who work in the journal’s field are its readers, so you might need to read articles several times to understand them
Trade journal articles Trade journals are periodicals that focus on a particular industry or occupation. Examples of trade journals include Publisher’s Weekly and Chemical Week.	Related to particular fields or occupations Easier to read than academic articles	May not contain primary sources No list of works cited
Popular magazine articles Popular magazines cover many different subjects and interests. (You're probably most familiar with these kinds of periodicals.) Examples of popular magazines include Glamour, GQ, PC Gamer, and Cat Fancy.	Aimed at the general public and easier to understand	No list of works cited or detailed information about sources May not provide enough details to support your conclusions since magazine articles often focus on the big picture
Newspaper articles Usually published daily, a newspaper contains international, national, and local news, along with advertising.	Very up-to-date information about current events and trends Facts and opinions	No list of references or detailed information about sources May not provide enough details to support your conclusions

Finding print sources

The best place to find print sources is the library. Almost all libraries have online catalogs that allow you to search for sources by author, title, subject, or keyword.

Searching for books

When you get to the library, the easiest book searches are by author or title. Searching by author is exactly as it sounds. If you know a book’s author, you can type the name into the search field, and you will retrieve a list of the books by that author that your library owns or can get for you through interlibrary loan. Some catalog author searches require you to type the last name before the first name, with a comma separating the two. If you are having trouble, ask a librarian for help. When you search by title, you simply type the title into the search field to find out if the library owns the book and where it is kept.

When you first start your research, however, you probably aren’t going to have an author or a book title to enter into the search field. Let’s talk about searching by subject and keywords. If you’re just starting to brainstorm your research topic, you might have a very general subject, for example, diabetes. If you type the word “diabetes” into the catalog’s subject search field, you will retrieve a page that looks similar to this:

This is a picture of the results of a subject search for the word diabetes from the University of Texas electronic catalog.

Source: NumMark Subjects Search, University of Texas

There are 1,472 entries with diabetes as part of their subject. Notice that the subject categories get very narrow. For example, entry seven is about the subject of diabetes in Arizona. Browsing a subject list can help you hone in on a specific direction to take your research.

Let’s go back to our research question, “Can grazing cattle be good for the environment and affordable for the consumer?” One of the things we want to learn about is the environmental effect of consuming beef. I can type “beef and environment” into the keyword search field and retrieve fourteen books that have those keywords. Results for keyword searches appear in order of relevance, meaning that the source that most closely matches the keywords appears first. The source that most loosely matches the keywords appears last.

This is a picture of search results from a keyword search for the words “beef and environment” in the electronic card catalog at the University of Texas.

Source: Electronic Card Catalog Search, University of Texas

These first two entries in my results look like excellent sources for my research.

You can use a similar keyword search to look for journal, newspaper, and magazine articles. Libraries now have online databases that house abstracts—or summaries—and full-text articles. We will learn how to use these databases in another lesson titled “Utilizing Databases, Electronic Sources, and Print Sources.”

Electronic sources

Often when we refer to electronic sources, we mean the Internet, or the World Wide Web. Sometimes I think the World Wide Web should be renamed the Wild, Wild Web because of its similarities to the Wild, Wild West. Like the U.S. expansion to the West, the Web has opened us up to valuable experiences, but it can also be a dangerous place in terms of information. Anyone can put information on the web, so you have to be extremely careful when using Web sources in research. We will discuss how to determine whether a source is valid in a lesson called “Determine the Validity and Reliability of Sources,” but for now let’s talk about the kinds of information you can find on the web and the pros and cons of each.

Electronic Sources
Type of resource	Pros	Cons
Web sites Web sites are pages on the Internet created by a corporation; an organization such as the American Heart Association or the Sierra Club; an educational institution such as a high school or the University of Texas at San Antonio; or an individual.	Available from most companies and organizations, and many individuals Likely has information about any topic you wish to research	Can be difficult to determine whether the information on a website is accurate and factual
Blogs A blog, which takes its name from a shortening of weblog, is an online journal. Blogs can be attached to publications, news organizations, or corporations. They can also be run by individuals.	Informal, easy to read Usually created by people with a passion for a subject and often linked to articles from a valid sources	Are often biased and unreliable unless connected to a reputable publication and written by a journalist
Listservs, bulletin boards, and discussion groups/forums A listserv is a discussion forum where participants exchange messages by e-mail. All subscribers get every e-mail sent to the list. Bulletin boards and discussion groups/forums let users post messages in discussion threads. Membership isn't usually required to read the discussions, although you might have to join if you want to participate more fully.	Available for many different disciplines Sometimes contain a deep knowledge base about a subject—professors, professionals, and other experts often participate in these resources Often condense common questions and concerns into a Frequently Asked Questions file (FAQ) for new readers	Often poorly written and researched by various contributors may disagree on facts or have a range of opinions on specific issues Frequently poorly organized or organized by date rather than by subject; too conversational May contain years of conversation about their topics, including out-of-date information
Multimedia Online broadcasts, video clips, audio clips, and images are very easy to find on the Web.	Clips of history-making events such as Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, available online Pictures and graphics to enhance a presentation	Sometimes copied and distributed without the owner’s permission—a violation of copyright law

Now that you understand secondary sources, let’s talk about primary sources and when to use them.