Primary vs. Secondary Literature

The health sciences literature may be classified into two broad categories:

Primary-the authors of the article actually conducted the research that is being reported on; it is first hand information.
Secondary-the authors of the article are not the persons who conducted the research; it is second hand information

TYPE OF EVIDENCE	DESCRIPTION	PRIMARY OR SECONDARY
Case study	Describes one individual or event	Primary
Research article	Describes one study	Primary
Review article	Summarizes many individual research studies	Secondary
Article published in a “journal of secondary publication”	Summarizes and provides commentary on a research or review article	Secondary
Evidence summary	An appraisal and summary of the evidence on a clinical topic, usually carried out by an board of experts and intended for point of care use.	Secondary
Clinical Practice Guideline	A consensus statement by a professional organization, based on evidence, that provides recommendations for patient care	Secondary

Other types of content in a scholarly health sciences journal

Besides the types of sources we've already discussed there are other types of secondary, non peer reviewed sources that appear in peer review, scholarly journals. This video will provide more information:

(2010). Table of Contents. Age and Ageing, 39(4). Retrieved from http://ageing.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/issue_pdf/toc_pdf/39/4.pdf

Used by permission from Oxford University Press.

If you want to learn more about the other types of articles that appear in scholarly publications, look

here:

This chart summarizes information about other types of articles that may appear in scholarly/peer-reviewed journals.

Note that all of these source types are secondary.

Material	Coverage	Authorship	Item Itself is Peer Reviewed
Editorials	Views or opinions of an individual or editorial board	Individuals authors or editorial board	No
Commentaries	A viewpoint, insight or response to another author's writing or an event	Often experts on the topic; some journals invite experts to comment on other author's articles	No
Book Reviews	Evaluates a book	Other authors, scholars, journalists	No
Letters	Reader response to recently published articles	Individual readers	No
News items	Brief summaries on topics of interest	Often unsigned	No