Primary Literature: Research Articles
- Describe the findings of original observations or experiments.
- Should provide an abstract, methods, results and points for discussion.
- Most of the articles published in journals are research articles.
- The peer review process is integral to the quality and integrity of original research.
Secondary Literature: Review articles, Systematic Reviews, and Meta-analyses
- Summarize current research in a particular area of study, categorizing and highlighting recent research studies.
- Good way to get an overview of current research in a field.
- Systematic reviews use systematic methods to collect, appraise and synthesize original research findings. They may be published in scholarly journals or in specialized databases such as the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
Tertiary Literature: Reference Sources
- Reference sources such as encyclopedia articles, textbooks, and credible websites such as MEDLINE Plus are a great place to start your research, but they are NOT considered peer-reviewed.
- Once you have an overview of an unfamiliar topic from a reference source, you are better equipped to start looking for scholarly articles in journals.
