FYS 120: Art & Gender in 17th Century Italy

Researchers conceptualize their sources into several categories, depending on how far removed they are from the original data, event, person, or idea that inspired it. These categories are Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary.

The distinction between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources varies by discipline. What an art historian calls a primary source is not what a biologist calls a primary source, so don't be surprised if your different instructors have slightly different definitions of these categories!

Primary Sources

Primary sources are those closest to the original data, event, person, or idea. They are created at the same time as the event. Examples of primary sources include: diaries, original artworks, contemporary news reports, speeches, interviews, letters, contracts, and the like.

EXAMPLE: this letter from composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, pretending to be his cats

Secondary Sources

Secondary sources analyze and interpret primary sources. Secondary sources include biographies, histories, and works of literary or historical interpretation. Most of your research resources will be secondary sources.

EXAMPLE: this scholarly research article about Ralph Vaughan Williams' Sinfonia Antartica

Tertiary Sources 

Tertiary sources summarize the information in secondary sources. Tertiary sources include works like Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia, the Oxford English Dictionary, and so on. 

EXAMPLE: this Wikipedia article about Ralph Vaughan Williams

Researchers also sort their resources based on whether they are scholarly or nonscholarly.

Scholarly Resources

Scholarly resources have gone through the peer review process. Here's what that process looks like:

1. A scholar creates some research and submits it for publication.
2. The publisher sends the research to a panel of experts for them to review.
3. The panel reviews the research and tells the publisher, "Yes, publish it!" or "No, don't publish it!" or "It's pretty good, but here are some things to fix."
4. The scholar fixes whatever needs fixing and resubmits the research.
5. The publisher publishes the research.

The peer review process takes a long time. This means it is often it is tricky to find scholarly articles on recent events or media, simply because there has not been enough time for scholars to write and reviewers to review.

Nonscholarly Resources

Nonscholarly resources have not been peer-reviewed. This does not mean they contain false information; it just means the information has not been peer-reviewed. Plenty of nonscholarly sources are reliable.  See the "Evaluating sources with ACCORD" tab on the left for tips on how to tell if a nonscholarly source is still reliable.

HOW CAN I TELL IF SOMETHING IS PEER-REVIEWED?

Here are some signs that a publication has been peer-reviewed.

• Lengthy bibliographies -- scholars should tell you what sources they consulted, and they should consult a lot of them.
• Look up the author. Are they a professor or researcher in the field they are writing about?
• Is it a book? Check if the publisher is named after a college or university. That's often a good indicator of a peer-reviewed book.
• Is it an article? Check to see if it is sponsored by a professional organization (like the Association of Historians of American Art, for example.)
• Is it an article? Look up the journal title in Ulrichsweb. If Ulrichsweb calls it a "journal," it should be peer reviewed.

NOTE: Just because an article is in a peer-reviewed journal does not mean it has been peer-reviewed. Letters to the editor and book reviews, for example, are not peer reviewed.