How can you tell if a source is primary or secondary?

To evaluate whether a source is a primary or secondary source, ask the following questions:

  • Is the source from someone who participated in the studied event (primary) or from another researcher (secondary)?
  • Am I examining the source itself (primary) as my main research objective, or is it supplying background information?
  • Does the source give novel information or data (primary), or is it commenting on, interpreting, and or analyzing information from other sources (secondary)?

Some sources generally always serve as primary sources. These include artworks and literature, raw statistics, official documents and records, and personal communications such as journal entries or interviews.

Primary sources are generally considered the most credible evidence to use to support an argument because they are directly involved with the research subject. However, you should still vet these sources for reliability and accuracy.

All sources you use must be accompanied by a citation to avoid plagiarism. You can use QuillBot’s Citation Generator to automatically generate citations for all types of sources.