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UGS 303: Visual History / Burrowes

Secondary sources

What does it mean when someone calls an article scholarly, academic, or peer reviewed?

Secondary sources are interpretations and evaluations of primary sources. They are analyses of primary sources written by scholars and experts in a field after the time period or event has occurred.

Why would I use them?

Secondary sources have the benefit of hindsight. The author is able to contextualize the primary source in a way that takes into account other viewpoints and events that happened at the same time or afterwards.

Where are some examples?

  • Biographies
  • Reviews and criticism
  • Histories, such as in books or documentaries

How should I use them in my research?

Secondary sources are useful when you need an expert’s or scholar’s interpretation of a topic. This individual has spent her career researching primary documents and interpreting, analyzing and contextualizing them.

Why do they write in these journals and not in magazines or newspapers?

The most rigorous research happens in academic journals. Publishing in these journals assures that your research will be read and cited by experts within your field of study. This research is the most up to date - once research is published here, it can be referenced for a general audience in newspapers or magazines, or it may be referenced in a more comprehensive work, such as a book. Having an article published in a journal is prestigious and may be a factor in getting and keeping one's job at a university. No, authors do not get paid by these publications. 

How do I access these journals?

These journals are very expensive to subscribe to. This university provides access to many, and will borrow from other libraries on your behalf so you have virtually complete access to scholarship. You can search within the databases I recommend and Google Scholar (but use the link to GS that I provide since it links with our subscriptions).

Wait, are books scholarly?

Look for books that are authored by an academic and/or published by an academic press (affiliated with a university), meant for an audience of serious researchers in the field. Academic books don't always go through the same peer review process as articles, but it is an equally rigorous process. 

It's also possible that a scholar or expert will write a more popular-leaning book, meant to be read by a non-academic audience and published on a non-academic press. Judge these sources on an individual basis. 

"Wait, is this stuff free for everyone?"

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