Information source

       "Source" means the origin of something. An information source is a source of information for somebody, i.e. anything that might inform a person about something or provide knowledge to somebody. Information sources may be observations, people, speeches, documents, pictures, organizations etc. They may be primary sources, secondary sources, tertiary sources and so on.


      Primary Sources

      Academic research is based on primary sources: original 'material' from the field one is studying, including books, articles and letters written by the people or in the field one is studying, interviews with persons involved in the field, speeches and lectures which they delivered, diaries they kept, etc. Scholars consult primary sources in search of new material and/or insights that have not previously been reported by other scholars, or have been reported differently or perhaps even 'mis-reported' by other scholars.

       Secondary Sources

      Secondary sources are accounts of events which were created well after the event occurred. Secondary sources are based on primary sources — they are usually studies which analyze, evaluate, interpret, or criticize primary sources. By assessing, repackaging and distributing information, secondary sources make the information more accessible.

       Tertiary Sources

In addition to primary and secondary sources, there are also tertiary sources. These are sources that compile or digest other sources. Some reference materials and textbooks are considered tertiary sources when their chief purpose is to list, summarize or simply repackage ideas or other information. Tertiary sources include dictionaries and encyclopedias, Wikipedia and similar user-contributed online 'encyclopedias' and reference material, as well as various digests (including the Reader's Digest and similar) and schoolbooks.

Generally, tertiary sources are not considered to be acceptable material on which to base academic research. However, this depends on the topic being covered and the reason the source is used. If a language scholar is comparing different definitions of terms in a selection of contemporary dictionaries, or describing different shades of meaning of the translation into Finnish of a term from English on the basis of available dictionaries, the use of these dictionaries as sources would not only be entirely appropriate and essential to the research, but also take on the status of primary sources.

Source