American Decades Primary Sources, 1900 - 1999
American Decades Primary Sources, 2000 - 2009
Daily Life Through World History in Primary Documents
Milestone Documents in American History
Smithsonian Institution Archives
University of California Berkeley Primary Sources on the Web - This site lists many primary source web sites on a variety of subjects.
Primary and Secondary Research Sources
When conducting research it is important to be able to distinguish between primary and secondary sources. The difference is basically, how far the creator or author of the work is removed from an actual event or physical object. If the author is reporting first hand impressions (eye witness account) or recording impressions immediately after an event, this would be considered a primary source. Conveying the experiences and opinions of others is considered second hand information. This would be a secondary source.
Primary sources
These are contemporary accounts of an event, written by someone who experienced or witnessed the event in question. These original documents are often diaries, letters, memoirs, journals, speeches, manuscripts, interviews and other such unpublished works. They may also include published pieces such as newspaper or magazine articles (as long as they are written soon after the fact and not as historical accounts), photographs, audio or video recordings, research reports in the natural or social sciences, or original literary or theatrical works. Examples of primary sources are:
Secondary sources
Secondary sources are one or more steps removed from the event or phenomenon under review. Secondary source materials interpret, assign values to, conjecture upon, and draw conclusions about the events reported in primary sources. These are usually in the form of published works such as journal articles or books, but may include radio or television documentaries, or conference proceedings. Examples of secondary sources are:
Your professor may ask you to find primary or original research articles on a topic. These are articles in which the authors present a new set of findings from original research after conducting an experiment or study. These articles usually contain the following parts:
Abstract: This is an overview or summary of the research.
Methods: This section describes the techniques used to execute the experiment in detail, including the collection of data, and the statistical procedures used. This is usually full of technical jargon, so it can be difficult for non-specialists to read.
A detailed explanation of the method is necessary for two reasons:
(1) other scientists may wish to repeat the experiments to test the findings
(2) the validity of the results depends in part on the techniques and types of analyses used
Results: This section is typically a very technical presentation of the outcome of the experiment. The results are usually described with the aid of tables, statistical tests where appropriate, and figures and diagrams if necessary.
Discussion: This is where the authors interpret their results in light of previous work in the area. Here the authors must convince the reader of the validity and importance of their findings. Sometimes, ideas for future or follow-up research are included.
References cited: The authors must list all the articles they cited within their own article as the last section of the paper. This is an excellent way to find citations to other related articles.
(For academic journal articles go to the periodicals tab and use Academic Search Complete.)