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Library Research Guide for the History of Science: Introduction

• What is a Primary Source?
• Senior Theses 2023
• Background and Context/Biography
• Exploring Your Topic
• Using HOLLIS
• What is a Secondary Source?

Page Contents

Knowing a primary source when you see one, kinds of primary sources, find primary sources in hollis, using digital libraries and collections online, using bibliographies.

• Exploring the Special Collections at Harvard
• Citing Sources & Organizing Research

Primary sources provide first-hand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic under investigation. They are created by witnesses or recorders who experienced the events or conditions being documented.

Often these sources are created at the time when the events or conditions are occurring, but primary sources can also include autobiographies, memoirs, and oral histories recorded later.

Primary sources are characterized by their content, regardless of the format available. (Handwritten notes could be published; the published book might be digitized or put on microfilm, but those notes are still primary sources in any format).

Some types of primary sources:

• Original documents (excerpts or translations acceptable): Diaries, speeches, manuscripts, letters, interviews, news film footage, contemporary newspaper articles, autobiographies, official records, pamphlets, meeting notes, photographs, contemporary sketches
• Creative works : Poetry, drama, novels, music, art 
• Relics or artifacts : Furniture, clothing, buildings

Examples of primary sources include:

• A poster from the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters' 1962 strike
• The papers of William James
• A 1970 U.S. State Dept document updating Nixon on U.S.-Soviet space cooperation activities (Harvard login)
• A British pamphlet: "Electric Lighting for Country Houses," 1898
• Phineas Gage's skull
• The text of J. Robert Oppenheimer's "Atomic Weapons" presentation to the American Philosophical Society

Outline of Primary Sources for History

Archives and Manuscripts

Archives and manuscripts are the unpublished records of persons (letters, notes, diaries, etc.) and organizations. What are Archives?   Usually each archival collection has a (short) catalog record and a detailed finding aid (which is often available online).

• "Catalog record” refers to the kind of record found in library online catalogs, similar to those for books, although often a bit longer. Example of an Archive record .
• “Finding aid” (sometimes called an inventory) generally refers to a list of the folder labels for the collection, accompanied by a brief collection overview (scope and contents note) and a biographical (or institutional) note on the creator of the collection.  Finding aids may be as long as needed given the size of the collection.  They vary considerably according to the practices of individual repositories. Example of a Finding aid .

To find  Archives and manuscripts  at Harvard, go to  HOLLIS Advanced search .  Search your keywords or Subject terms (see the  HOLLIS page of this guide ) in the Library Catalog, limiting to Resource Type: Archives/Manuscripts.  You can choose the library at the right (Search Scope).  Countway  Medicine has abundant medical archives, and Schlesinger has many archives of women activists, many in health and reproductive rights fields.    Sample search on Subject: Women health .

Library Research Guide for Finding Manuscripts and Archival Collections explains

• How to find archives and manuscripts at Harvard
• How to find archives and manuscripts elsewhere in US via search tools and via subject guides .
• How to find archives and manuscripts in Europe and elsewhere.
• Requesting digitization of archival material from Harvard and from other repositories .

For digitized archival material together with other kinds of primary sources:

• Finding Primary Sources Online offers general instructions for finding primary sources online and a list of resources by region and country
• Online Primary Source Collections for the History of Science lists digital collections at Harvard and beyond by topic.
• Online Primary Source Collections for History lists digital collections at Harvard and beyond by topic.

Methods for finding books are described under the HOLLIS page  of this guide and in the Finding Primary Sources in HOLLIS box on this page. 

• Book Reviews may give an indication as to how a scientific work was received. See:   Finding Book Reviews . 
• Numerous, especially pre-1923 books (as well as periodicals and other sources) can be found and full text searched in several digital libraries (see box on this page).

Periodicals

Scientific articles :

Web of Science Citation Indexes (Harvard Login)  (1900- ) articles in all areas of science. Includes medical articles not in PubMed. You can use the Cited Reference search in the Web of Science to find primary source articles that cite a specified article, thus getting an idea of its reception. More information on the Web of Science .

PubMed (1946- ) covers, usually with abstracts, periodical articles on all areas of medicine. - --Be sure to look at the MeSH (Medical Subject Headings)  at the bottom of pertinent records. Very recent articles may not as yet received their MeSH terms.  So look at older records to find the MeSH terms, and use a variety of keywords as well as MeSH terms to find the new records. --​The MeSH terms are the same as the Medical Subject terms found in HOLLIS. --Hit Free article or Try Harvard Library, not the publisher's name to see full text

JSTOR (Harvard Login)  offers full-text of complete runs (up to about 5 years ago) of over 400 journals. JSTOR allows simultaneous or individual searching, full-text searching optional, numerous journals in a variety of fields of science and medicine. See the list at the bottom of the Advanced search screen. JSTOR searches the "Notes and News" sections of journals ( Science is especially rich in this material). In Advanced Search choose Item Type: Miscellaneous to limit largely to "Notes and News".

PsycINFO) (Harvard Login)  (1872- ) indexes the professional and academic literature in psychology and related disciplines

Many more scientific periodical indexes are listed in the Library Research Guide for the History of Science .

General interest magazines and periodicals see:

American Periodicals Series Online (Harvard Login)  (1740-1900) offers full text of about 1100 American periodicals. Includes several scientific and medical journals including the American Journal of Science and the Medical Repository. In cases where a periodical started before 1900, coverage is included until 1940.

British Periodicals (Harvard Login)  (1681-1920) offers full text for several hundred British periodicals.

Ethnic NewsWatch (Harvard Login)  (1959- ) is a full text database of the newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press.

Periodicals Index Online (Harvard Login)  indexes contents of thousands of US and European journals in the humanities and social sciences, from their first issues to 1995.

Reader's Guide Retrospective (WilsonWeb) (Harvard Login)  (1890-1982)  indexes many American popular periodicals.

Many more general periodical indexes are listed in Finding Articles in General and Popular Periodicals (North America and Western Europe) .

Articles in non-science fields (religion, public policy): see the list in the Library Research Guide for History .

Professional/Trade : Aimed at particular trades or professions.  See the Library Research Guide for History

Newspaper articles : see the Guide to Newspapers and Newspaper Indexes .

Personal accounts . These are first person narratives recalling or describing a person’s life and opinions. These include Diaries, memoirs, autobiographies, and when delivered orally and recorded: Oral histories and Interviews.

National Library of Medicine Oral Histories

Regulatory Oral History Hub  (Kenan Institute for Ethics, Duke University) offers links to digital collections containing interviews with regulators, lawyers, and judges. Mainly U.S.

Visual sources :

Records for many, but by no means all, individual Harvard University Library images are available in  HOLLIS Images , an online catalog of images. Records include subjects and a thumbnail image.  HOLLIS Images is included in HOLLIS  searches.

Science & Society Picture Library offers over 50,000 images from the Science Museum (London), the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television and the National Railway Museum.

Database of Scientific Illustrators  (DSI) includes over 12500 illustrators in natural history, medicine, technology and various sciences worldwide, c.1450-1950. Living illustrators excluded. 

NYPL Digital Gallery Pictures of Science: 700 Years of Scientific and Medical Illustration

Images from the History of Medicine (IHM) includes prints and photographs from the U.S. National Library of Medicine. (The IHM is contained within a larger NLM image database, so this link goes to a specialized search).

Images From the History of the Public Health Service: a Photographic Exhibit .

Wellcome Images

Films/Videos

To find films in  HOLLIS , search your topic keywords, then on the right side of the results screen, look at Resource Type and choose video/film.

To find books about films about your topic, search your topic keywords AND "in motion pictures" ​  (in "")

​Film Platform  offers numerous documentary films on a wide variety of subjects.  There are collections on several topics. Searches can be filtered by topic, country of production, and language. 

A list of general sources for images and film is available in the Library Research Guide for History and additional sources for the history of science in Library Research Guide for the History of Science .

Government documents often concern matters of science and health policy.  For Congressional documents, especially committee reports, see ProQuest Congressional (Harvard Login ). 

HathiTrust Digital Library . Each full text item is linked to a standard library catalog record, thus providing good metadata and subject terms. The catalog can be searched separately.  Many government documents are full text viewable.  Search US government department as Author.

More sources are listed in the Library Research Guide for History

For artifacts and other objects , the Historic Scientific Instruments Collection in the Science Center includes over 15,000 instruments, often with contemporary documentation, from 1450 through the 20th century worldwide.

Waywiser, online database of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments .

Warren Anatomical Museum of the Center for the History of Medicine in the Countway Library of Medicine has a rich collection of medical artifacts and specimens.

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

Fall 2020: these collections are closed during the pandemic. Check out their links above to see what they have available online.

Primary Source Terms :

You can limit HOLLIS  searches to your time period, but sources may be published later, such as a person's diary published posthumously. Find these with these special Subject terms.

You can use the following terms to search HOLLIS for primary sources:

• Correspondence
• Description and travel
• Manuscripts
• Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc.
• Personal narratives (refers to accounts of wars and diseases only)
• Pictorial works
• Sources (usually refers to collections of published primary sources)

Include these terms with your topical words in HOLLIS searches. For example: tuberculosis personal narratives

Online Primary Source Collections for the History of Science lists digital collections at Harvard and beyond by topic

Google Book Search, HathiTrust Digital Library and Internet Archives offer books and periodicals digitized from numerous libraries.  Only out-of-copyright, generally post-1923, books are fully viewable.  Each of these three digital libraries allows searching full text over their entire collections.

Google Book Search

HathiTrust Digital Library . Each full text item is linked to a standard library catalog record, thus providing good metadata and subject terms. The catalog can be searched separately.  Many post-1923 out-of-copyright books, especially government documents, are full text viewable. You can search within copyright books to see what page your search term is on.

Internet Archive now offers a beta full text search. Put your terms (phrases or personal names, in quotation marks (""), work best) in the search box. 

The Online Books Page arranges electronic texts by Library of Congress call numbers and is searchable (but not full text searchable).  Includes books not in Google Books, HathiTrust, or Internet Archive. Has many other useful features.

Medical Heritage Library . Information about the Medical Heritage Library. Now searchable full text.

UK Medical Heritage Library

Biodiversity Heritage Library

Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics (1493-1922) provides digitized historical, manuscript, and image resources selected from Harvard University libraries and archives.

Expeditions and Discoveries (1626-1953) features nine expeditions in anthropology and archaeology, astronomy, botany, and oceanography in which Harvard University played a significant role. Includes manuscripts and records, published materials, visual works, and maps from 14 Harvard repositories.

Defining Gender Online: Five Centuries of Advice Literature for Men and Women (1450-1910).

Twentieth Century Advice Literature: North American Guides on Race, Sex, Gender, and the Family.

Many more general History digital libraries and collections: Library Research Guide for History

More History of Science digital libraries: Library Research Guide for the History of Science .

There may already be a detailed list of sources (a bibliography) for your topic.

For instance:

A bibliography of eugenics , by Samuel J. Holmes ... Berkeley, Calif., University of California press, 1924, 514 p. ( University of California publications in zoology . vol. XXV)  Full text online .

Look for specialized subject bibliographies in HOLLIS Catalog . Example .   WorldCat can do similar searches in the Subject Keyword field for non-Harvard holdings.

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Primary Source Research and Discovery

• What are archives?
• What are primary sources?
• Where do I find primary sources for the Sciences at CSUDH?
• Where do I find primary sources at other institutions?
• What is a Finding Aid?
• How do I use and evaluate primary sources?
• How do I start?

What are Primary Sources?

Primary sources.

A primary source provides direct or firsthand evidence about an event, object, person, or work of art. Primary sources include historical and legal documents, eyewitness accounts, results of experiments, statistical data, pieces of creative writing, audio and video recordings, speeches, and art objects. Interviews, surveys, fieldwork, and Internet communications via email, blogs, listservs, and newsgroups are also primary sources. In the natural and social sciences, primary sources are often empirical studies—research where an experiment was performed or a direct observation was made. The results of empirical studies are typically found in scholarly articles or papers delivered at conferences.

Secondary Sources

Secondary sources describe, discuss, interpret, comment upon, analyze, evaluate, summarize, and process primary sources. Secondary source materials can be articles in newspapers or popular magazines, book or movie reviews, or articles found in scholarly journals that discuss or evaluate someone else's original research. 

Definition courtesy of  Ithaca College Library Research Guide , Primary vs Secondary section.

Clues for Identifying Primary Sources

Clues for identifying primary source characteristics.

Characteristics of Primary Sources

• Primary sources can either be first-hand observation/analysis or accounts contemporary with the events described.
• Primary sources document events, people, viewpoints of the time.
• When research is more era, rather than event-driven, the scope of possible primary sources broadens considerably.
• Primary sources represent one person's perspective; frequently will be used with  secondary/tertiary  sources to broaden the lens through which a researcher is looking at an event, era, or phenomenon.
• It is important when using anything as a primary source that the researcher be cognizant of and sensitive to the bias of the observer/analyzer that created the primary source, and also to the broader cultural biases of the era in which the primary source was created.
• The researcher's perspective, or the arguments or points for which a researcher plans to use a primary source as evidence, is significant in determining what sources will be primary.
• Reproductions of primary sources remain primary for many research purposes.
• Some attributes are based more on the perspective represented in the source and context in which the source is being used by researcher.

Bullet points courtesy of The University of California at Irvine Libraries .

Primary, Secondary, Tertiary Examples

Primary, secondary, tertiary sources.

The infographic below gives the definition, characteristics, and examples of primary, secondary and tertiary sources. Notice, journal articles are listed for the sciences as a primary source and a secondary source for non-scientific disciplines. At the top of the graphic is the publishing timeline . As you can see primary sources are generally published first, then secondary sources. In the research timeline , secondary sources are generally consulted first to provide needed context for primary source research.

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• Last Updated: Jan 29, 2024 4:09 PM
• URL: https://libguides.csudh.edu/primary-sources

Primary Sources Guide

Understanding research sources.

• Evaluating Primary Sources
• African American Studies
• Latin American & Latina/o Studies
• Native American & Indigenous Studies
• Citing Primary Sources

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• What are Primary Sources?
• What are Secondary Sources?
• What are Tertiary Sources?

A primary source is a first-hand account from a person or organization who:

• Created an original work
• Participated in new scientific discoveries
• Witnessed an event

Some examples of primary sources include:

• Art and artifacts
• Autobiographies, diaries, and memoirs
• Interviews and oral histories
• Novels and poetry
• Photographs
• Data and surveys

Why are primary sources useful?  Primary sources are useful to:

• Observe and analyze an event from an eyewitness perspective
• Develop your own opinions and explanations
• Learn if you agree or disagree with the authors of secondary/tertiary sources and their conclusions

A secondary source has the following qualities:

• It comments on or analyzes something
• It often summarizes or interprets primary sources
• It's usually written by someone who was not directly involved or an eyewitness

Some examples of secondary sources include:

• Analysis or criticism, such as literary criticism
• Biographies
• Essays and reviews

Why are secondary sources useful? Secondary sources are useful because they:

• Help you consider diverse viewpoints about a topic
• Organize and outline information in an approachable way
• Offer information and analysis from experts

Remember, secondary sources are often based on studying and analyzing primary sources . Another way to think about it? Your research paper is a secondary source because you're analyzing and interpreting other sources.

A tertiary source has the following qualities:

• It lists and compiles information without additional analysis
• It repackages important ideas and information from other primary and secondary sources

Some examples of tertiary sources include:

• Directories of local, state, and national organizations
• Encyclopedias and dictionaries
• Guidebooks and handbooks

Why are tertiary sources useful? Tertiary sources are useful because they help you:

• Gather background information about a topic or concept
• Find a variety of information in one source
• Provide information in a concise and compact way

Examples of Primary Sources vs. Other Sources

• Communications

One area of study at Central Piedmont where primary sources are often used is History . Here are some examples:

• Primary Source = Autobiography :  Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave by Frederick Douglass
• Secondary Source = Biography :  Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight

Another area of study at Central Piedmont where primary sources often come into play is English . Here are some examples:

• Primary Source = Novel :  Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
• Secondary Source = Literary Criticism :  Gabriel García Márquez in Retrospect: A Collection Book , edited by Gene H. Bell-Villada

One other area of study at Central Piedmont where primary sources often come into play is Communications . Here are some examples:

• Primary Sources = Memoir :  Deaf Utopia: A Memoir--And a Love Letter to a Way of Life  by Nyle DiMarco
• Secondary Sources = Journal Article : "Curriculum and Instruction for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students: Evidence from the Past—Considerations for the Future" (2023) by Maria C. Hartman, Elaine R. Smolen, and Brynne Powell
• Tertiary Sources = Reference Book :  American Sign Language: A Step-by-Step Guide to Signing by Suzie Chafin

Credit : Austin Community College's Primary Sources guide served as the inspiration and model for this LibGuide.

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Introduction to primary source research, definitions, examples of primary sources by discipline, head of bancroft public services.

• Archives terminology
• How to use library catalogs
• How to use finding aids/collection guides
• How to plan your visit to an archive
• Using digitized primary sources
• Evaluating primary sources

A primary source is an eyewitness account of an event or data obtained through original statistical or scientific research. 

What are some examples of primary sources?

• Photographs
• Official records (government reports, transcripts, court records, death certificates, etc.)
• Contemporary news reports (newspapers, telecasts, radio addresses, etc.)
• Polls and Public Opinion Data
• Laws, statutes, hearings

Secondary Source

A secondary source interprets and analyzes primary sources. These sources are one or more steps removed from the event. Secondary sources may include pictures of primary sources or quotes from them. Some types of secondary sources include: journal/magazine articles, textbooks, commentaries, and encyclopedias.

Newspapers may be either primary or secondary. Most articles in newspapers are secondary, but reporters may be considered as witnesses to an event.  Any topic on the media coverage of an event or phenomenon would treat newspapers as a primary source. 

Source: https://guides.libraries.indiana.edu/primarysources

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• USC Libraries
• Research Guides

Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper

• Primary Sources
• Purpose of Guide
• Design Flaws to Avoid
• Independent and Dependent Variables
• Glossary of Research Terms
• Reading Research Effectively
• Narrowing a Topic Idea
• Broadening a Topic Idea
• Extending the Timeliness of a Topic Idea
• Academic Writing Style
• Applying Critical Thinking
• Choosing a Title
• Making an Outline
• Paragraph Development
• Research Process Video Series
• Executive Summary
• The C.A.R.S. Model
• Background Information
• The Research Problem/Question
• Theoretical Framework
• Citation Tracking
• Content Alert Services
• Evaluating Sources
• Secondary Sources
• Tiertiary Sources
• Scholarly vs. Popular Publications
• Qualitative Methods
• Quantitative Methods
• Insiderness
• Using Non-Textual Elements
• Limitations of the Study
• Common Grammar Mistakes
• Writing Concisely
• Avoiding Plagiarism
• Footnotes or Endnotes?
• Further Readings
• Generative AI and Writing
• USC Libraries Tutorials and Other Guides
• Bibliography

Primary sources are materials that were either created during the time period being studied or were created at a later date by a participant in the events being studied, such as, a childhood memoir. They are original documents [i.e., they are not about another document or account] and reflect the individual viewpoint of a participant or observer. Primary sources represent direct, uninterpreted records of the subject of your research study.

NOTE : Information about identifying and using primary resources materials, particularly those held in the USC Libraries, can be found in the Libraries Primary Sources Research Guide .

Value of Primary Sources

Primary sources enable you to get as close as possible to understanding the lived experiences of others and discovering what actually happened during an event. However, what constitutes a primary or secondary source depends on the context in which it is being used. For example, David McCullough’s biography of John Adams could be a secondary source for a paper about John Adams, but a primary source for a paper about how various historians have interpreted the life of John Adams. When in doubt, ask a librarian for assistance!

Reviewing primary source material can be of value in improving your overall research paper because they :

• Are original materials,
• Were created from the time period involved,
• Have not been filtered through interpretation or evaluation by others, and
• Represent original thinking or experiences, reporting of a discovery, or the sharing of new information.

Examples of primary documents you could review as part of your overall study include :

• Artifacts [e.g. furniture or clothing, all from the time under study]
• Audio recordings [e.g. radio programs]
• Internet communications on email, listservs, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms
• Interviews [e.g., oral histories, telephone, e-mail]
• Newspaper articles written at the time
• Original official documents [e.g., birth certificate, will, marriage license, trial transcript]
• Personal correspondence [e.g., letters]
• Photographs
• Proceedings of meetings, conferences and symposia
• Records of organizations, government agencies [e.g. annual report, treaty, constitution, government document]
• Survey Research [e.g., market surveys, public opinion polls]
• Transcripts of radio and television programs
• Video recordings
• Works of art, architecture, literature, and music [e.g., paintings, sculptures, musical scores, buildings, novels, poems]

Bahde, Anne. Using Primary Sources: Hands-On Instructional Exercises . Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited, 2014; Brundage, Anthony. Going to the Sources: A Guide to Historical Research and Writing . Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell, 2013; Daniels, Morgan and Elizabeth Yakel. “Uncovering Impact: The Influence of Archives on Student Learning.” Journal of Academic Librarianship 39 (September 2013): 414-422; Krause, Magia G. “Undergraduates in the Archives: Using an Assessment Rubric to Measure Learning.” The American Archivist 73 (Fall/Winter 2010): 507-534; Rockenbach, Barbara. “Archives, Undergraduates, and Inquiry-Based Learning: Case Studies from Yale University Library.” The American Archivist 74 (Spring/Summer 2011): 297-311; Weiner, Sharon A., Sammie Morris , and Lawrence J. Mykytiuk. "Archival Literacy Competencies for Undergraduate History Majors." The American Archivist 78 (Spring/Summer 2015): 154-180.

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• Primary Sources: An Introduction

Primary Sources: An Introduction: Home

Primary source research, primary sources at marquette, what is a primary source, is it a primary source, what are some examples of primary sources.

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Library Liaison for History, Philosophy, Political Science, & Theology

This is introductory description of what can be considered a primary source for the purposes of a research paper. Students and faculty have access to a wide range of primary source databases. It is highly recommended that student contact a liaison librarian for a research consultation when undertaking a research project using these sources. See the link below to set up a consult:

• Schedule a Research Consultation

There are many resources for primary source materials at Marquette. Physical examples of these include newspaper microfilms, government or non-profit reports, reproductions of historical documents or text, and published diaries or autobiographies. The link below connects to digitized primary sources databases that can accessed by Marquette students and faculty. Please use the research consultation link above for guidance on any of these materials. 

• Primary source digital collections at Marquette Primary source sigital collections are databases where the bulk of materials are documents and objects that provide first-hand documentation of events. Follow this link to view primary source digital collections at the library catalog where you can find database descriptions and links to connect to the databases themselves.
• Historical publication digital collection at Marquette Historical publication digital collections are databases where the bulk of their materials are printed texts published before 1900. Follow this link to view historical publication digital collections at the library catalog where you can find database descriptions and links to connect to the databases themselves.

A primary source is a first-hand or contemporary account of an event. Primary sources date to the time an event took place and offer original account or thoughts on a topic that has not been framed by second-hand interpretation. Primary sources are usually original materials, but they may be reproduced digitally or republished in a physical format.  

This guide from Fresno State University can help you determine if something is a Primary Source.  If you answer 'yes' to any of the following questions, the resource is most like a Primary Source. 

• Did the author personally witness or experience the subject in question?
• Does the author know about this subject because of personal experience rather than having just read about it?
• Is this source a diary, letter, memoir, autobiography, oral history, or interview of a person with first hand experience of the subject?
• Is this source an official document or record published at the time of the event by the government, courts, or another organization?
• Is this source a newspaper or magazine article written at the time of the event?
• Is this a creative work such as a novel, poem, art or music piece created by a firsthand witness of the subject in question?
• Is this an excerpt from a primary source, such as the constitution or a letter written by a Civil War soldier that has been imbedded in a secondary source, such as a textbook? Remember, secondary sources may include reprints of primary sources.
• Is this an artifact or relic such as jewelry, pottery, clothing, music, art, architecture, dance or weaponry that was used by witnesses of the subject in question?
• Is this a compilation of raw scientific data or statistics, such as census statistics published by the U.S. Census Bureau, that is being published without commentary or interpretation?
•  newspapers or other news accounts
•  personal accounts in diaries, letters, interviews, or oral histories
•  government documents or publications
•  speeches
•  photographs/ video footage
•  internal organizational documents
•  memoirs or autobiographies
•  novels, poems, or other works of art

Please note that, in the correct context, many things that are typically considered to be Secondary Sources - such as autobiographies or books about an event or historical period - can also be considered primary sources. For example, if you are writing an analysis of how historians have viewed a certain event over time, written histories on the event can be used as primary sources. 

• Last Updated: Apr 17, 2024 4:31 PM
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Primary Sources: What They Are and Where to Find Them

What is a primary source.

• Finding Primary Sources in the UWRF Library

A primary source is an original object or document created during the time under study.   Primary sources vary by discipline and can include historical and legal documents, diaries, letters, family records, speeches, interviews, autobiographies, film, government documents, eye witness accounts, results of an experiment, statistical data, pieces of creative writing, and art objects. In the natural and social sciences, the results of an experiment or study are typically found in scholarly articles or papers delivered at conferences, so those articles and papers that present the original results are considered primary sources.  

A secondary source is something written about a primary source. Secondary sources include comments on, interpretations of, or discussions about the original material. You can think of secondary sources as second-hand information. If I tell you something, I am the primary source. If you tell someone else what I told you, you are the secondard source. Secondary source materials can be articles in newspapers or popular magazines, book or movie reviews, or articles found in scholarly journals that evaluate or criticize someone else's original research.

Research versus Review

Scientific and other peer reviewed journals are excellent sources for primary research sources. However, not every article in those journals will be an article with original research. Some will include book reviews and other materials that are more obviously secondary sources . More difficult to differentiate from original research articles are review articles . Both types of articles will end with a list of References (or Works Cited). Review articles are often as lengthy or even longer that original research articles. What the authors of review articles are doing is analysing and evaluating current research or investigations related to a specific topic, field, or problem. They are not primary sources since they review previously published material. They can be helpful for identifying potentially good primary sources, but they aren't primary themselves. Primary research articles can be identified by a commonly used format. If an article contains the following elements, you can count on it being a primary research article. Look for sections entitled Methods (sometimes with variations, such as Materials and Methods), Results (usually followed with charts and statistical tables), and Discussion . You can also read the abstract to get a good sense of the kind of article that is being presented. If it is a review article instead of a research article, the abstract should make that clear. If there is no abstract at all, that in itself may be a sign that it is not a primary resource. Short research articles, such as those found in Science and similar scientific publications that mix news, editorials, and forums with research reports, may not include any of those elements. In those cases look at the words the authors use, phrases such as "we tested," "we used," and "in our study, we measured" will tell you that the article is reporting on original research.

Primary or Secondary: You Decide

The distinction between types of sources can get tricky, because a secondary source may also be a primary source. DoVeanna Fulton's book on slave narratives, for example, can be looked at as both a secondary and a primary source. The distinction may depend on how you are using the source and the nature of your research. If you are researching slave narratives, the book would be a secondary source because Fulton is commenting on the narratives. If your assignment is to write a book review of Speaking Power , the book becomes a primary source, because you are commenting, evaluating, and discussing DoVeanna Fulton's ideas.

You can't always determine if something is primary or secondary just because of the source it is found in. Articles in newspapers and magazines are usually considered secondary sources. However, if a story in a newspaper about the Iraq war is an eyewitness account, that would be a primary source. If the reporter, however, includes additional materials he or she has gathered through interviews or other investigations, the article would be a secondary source. An interview in the Rolling Stone with Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes would be a primary source, but a review of the latest Black Crowes album would be a secondary source. In contrast, scholarly journals include research articles with primary materials, but they also have review articles that are not, or in some disciplines include articles where scholars are looking at primary source materials and coming to new conclusions.

For your thinking and not just to confuse you even further, some experts include tertiary sources as an additional distinction to make. These are sources that compile or, especially, digest other sources. Some reference materials and textbooks are considered tertiary sources when their chief purpose is to list or briefly summarize or, from an even further removed distance, repackage ideas. This is the reason that you may be advised not to include an encyclopedia article in a final bibliography.

The above material was adapted from the excellent explanation written by John Henderson found on Ithaca College's library website http://www.ithacalibrary.com/sp/subjects/primary and is used with permission.

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Identify Primary Sources in the Sciences

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Primary Sources in the Sciences

What is a primary source in the sciences.

A primary source is information or literature about original research provided or written by the original researcher. Examples of primary sources include...  

• Experimental data
• Laboratory notes
• Conference Proceedings
• Technical Reports
• Some peer-reviewed scientific journal articles of original research

How can I identify a primary article?

In the primary article, the authors will write about research that they did and the conclusions they made. Some key areas in the article to look for are similar to those found in a lab report including... 

• A research problem statement , or description of what the researchers are trying to discover or determine with their research,
• Background information about previously published research on the topic,
• Methods where the author tells the reader what they did, how they did it, and why,
• Results where the author explains the outcomes of their research   

Sometimes scholarly journals will include review articles, which summarize published research on a topic but do not contain new results from original research. Even though these sources are scholary, they are NOT primary articles.

How do I know if my source is scholarly?

Along with being a primary source, it is frequently important that you know if your source is scholarly and appropriate for academic research. Some traits of scholarly articles are...

• Citations to work done by others
• Language is often serious and technical
• Images are usually charts, graphs, or otherwise informative, rather than glossy photographs or advertisments
• Authors' names are given, along with their affilitions with university, research institutions, etc.
• Date of publication is given, frequently along with the date on which the articles was submitted for peer review
• "About" or "instructions for authors" link on the journal's Web site indicates that the journal is peer reviewed or describes its peer review process

Finding Primary Articles

The best place to look for primary, scientific articles are journal databases provided by the library. These database contain millions of articles, most of them primary articles from scholarly journals. 

 Many of these databases allow you to refine you search to only articles or peer-reviewed journals, however, you still need to look at the article to determine if it is scholarly and contains original research.

• VCU Libraries' Databases List
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• Ask Us! Chat, phone, email, or text VCU Libraries for advice on the best databases for your topic.

Secondary Sources in the Sciences

Secondary sources in the sciences are about the research and discoveries of other people, usually with the goal of providing an overview of the topic that allows readers to quickly become familar with topic.

Some examples of secondary sources are...

• Review articles
• Scientific encyclopedias
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Primary Sources: A Research Guide

• Primary vs. Secondary
• Historical Newspapers
• Book Collections
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• Open Access
• Local Archives and Archival Societies
• University Archives and Special Collections at UMass Boston

Primary Sources

Texts of laws and other original documents.

Newspaper reports, by reporters who witnessed an event or who quote people who did.

Speeches, diaries, letters and interviews - what the people involved said or wrote.

Original research.

Datasets, survey data, such as census or economic statistics.

Photographs, video, or audio that capture an event.

Secondary Sources

Secondary Sources are one step removed from primary sources, though they often quote or otherwise use primary sources. They can cover the same topic, but add a layer of interpretation and analysis. Secondary sources can include:

Most books about a topic.

Analysis or interpretation of data.

Scholarly or other articles about a topic, especially by people not directly involved.

Documentaries (though they often include photos or video portions that can be considered primary sources).

When is a Primary Source a Secondary Source?

Whether something is a primary or secondary source often depends upon the topic and its use.

A biology textbook would be considered a secondary source if in the field of biology, since it describes and interprets the science but makes no original contribution to it.

On the other hand, if the topic is science education and the history of textbooks, textbooks could be used a primary sources to look at how they have changed over time.

Examples of Primary and Secondary Sources

Adapted from Bowling Green State University, Library User Education, Primary vs. Secondary Sources .

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What Is a Primary Source?

Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms - Definition and Examples

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• B.A., English, State University of New York

In research and academics, a primary source refers to information collected from sources that witnessed or experienced an event firsthand. These can be historical documents , literary texts, artistic works, experiments, journal entries, surveys, and interviews. A primary source, which is very different from a secondary source , is also called primary data.

The Library of Congress defines primary sources as "the raw materials of history—original documents and objects which were created at the time under study," in contrast to secondary sources , which are "accounts or interpretations of events created by someone without firsthand experience," ("Using Primary Sources").

Secondary sources are often meant to describe or analyze a primary source and do not give firsthand accounts; primary sources tend to provide more accurate depictions of history but are much harder to come by.

Characteristics of Primary Sources

There are a couple of factors that can qualify an artifact as a primary source. The chief characteristics of a primary source, according to Natalie Sproull, are: "(1) [B]eing present during the experience, event or time and (2) consequently being close in time with the data. This does not mean that data from primary sources are always the best data."

Sproull then goes on to remind readers that primary sources are not always more reliable than secondary sources. "Data from human sources are subject to many types of distortion because of such factors as selective recall, selective perceptions, and purposeful or nonpurposeful omission or addition of information. Thus data from primary sources are not necessarily accurate data even though they come from firsthand sources," (Sproull 1988).

Original Sources

Primary sources are often called original sources, but this is not the most accurate description because you're not always going to be dealing with original copies of primary artifacts. For this reason, "primary sources" and "original sources" should be considered separate. Here's what the authors of "Undertaking Historical Research in Literacy," from Handbook of Reading Research , have to say about this:

"The distinction also needs to be made between primary and original sources . It is by no means always necessary, and all too often it is not possible, to deal only with original sources. Printed copies of original sources, provided they have been undertaken with scrupulous care (such as the published letters of the Founding Fathers), are usually an acceptable substitute for their handwritten originals." (E. J. Monaghan and D. K. Hartman, "Undertaking Historical Research in Literacy," in Handbook of Reading Research , ed. by P. D. Pearson et al. Erlbaum, 2000)

When to Use Primary Sources

Primary sources tend to be most useful toward the beginning of your research into a topic and at the end of a claim as evidence, as Wayne Booth et al. explain in the following passage. "[Primary sources] provide the 'raw data' that you use first to test the working hypothesis and then as evidence to support your claim . In history, for example, primary sources include documents from the period or person you are studying, objects, maps, even clothing; in literature or philosophy, your main primary source is usually the text you are studying, and your data are the words on the page. In such fields, you can rarely write a research paper  without using primary sources," (Booth et al. 2008).

When to Use Secondary Sources

There is certainly a time and place for secondary sources and many situations in which these point to relevant primary sources. Secondary sources are an excellent place to start. Alison Hoagland and Gray Fitzsimmons write: "By identifying basic facts, such as year of construction, secondary sources can point the researcher to the best primary sources , such as the right tax books. In addition, a careful reading of the bibliography in a secondary source can reveal important sources the researcher might otherwise have missed," (Hoagland and Fitzsimmons 2004).

Finding and Accessing Primary Sources

As you might expect, primary sources can prove difficult to find. To find the best ones, take advantage of resources such as libraries and historical societies. "This one is entirely dependent on the assignment given and your local resources; but when included, always emphasize quality. ... Keep in mind that there are many institutions such as the Library of Congress that make primary source material freely available on the Web," (Kitchens 2012).

Methods of Collecting Primary Data

Sometimes in your research, you'll run into the problem of not being able to track down primary sources at all. When this happens, you'll want to know how to collect your own primary data; Dan O'Hair et all tell you how: "If the information you need is unavailable or hasn't yet been gathered, you'll have to gather it yourself. Four basic methods of collecting primary data are field research, content analysis, survey research, and experiments. Other methods of gathering primary data include historical research, analysis of existing statistics, ... and various forms of direct observation," (O'Hair et al. 2001).

• Booth, Wayne C., et al. The Craft of Research . 3rd ed., University of Chicago Press, 2008.
• Hoagland, Alison, and Gray Fitzsimmons. "History."  Recording Historic Structures. 2nd. ed., John Wiley & Sons, 2004.
• Kitchens, Joel D. Librarians, Historians, and New Opportunities for Discourse: A Guide for Clio's Helpers . ABC-CLIO, 2012.
• Monaghan, E. Jennifer, and Douglas K. Hartman. "Undertaking Historical Research in Literacy." Handbook of Reading Research. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002.
• O'Hair, Dan, et al. Business Communication: A Framework for Success . South-Western College Pub., 2001.
• Sproull, Natalie L. Handbook of Research Methods: A Guide for Practitioners and Students in the Social Sciences. 2nd ed. Scarecrow Press, 1988.
• "Using Primary Sources." Library of Congress .
• Secondary Sources in Research
• Primary and Secondary Sources in History
• How to Prove Your Family Tree Connections
• Research in Essays and Reports
• Five Steps to Verifying Online Genealogy Sources
• Pros and Cons of Secondary Data Analysis
• Understanding Secondary Data and How to Use It in Research
• Documentation in Reports and Research Papers
• What Is a Research Paper?
• 6 Skills Students Need to Succeed in Social Studies Classes
• How to Use Libraries and Archives for Research
• How to Cite Genealogy Sources
• Glossary of Historical Terms
• Definition and Examples of Quotation in English Grammar
• How to Determine a Reliable Source on the Internet
• Fashion Throughout History

• Primary Sources
• Definitions
• Documents - Printed & Published
• Objects and Artifacts
• Sound Recordings
• Visual Materials
• Digitized Sources
• Locating Sources
• Sources By Subject
• Evaluating Sources
• Documenting Sources / Copyright
• Research Tips
• Using Archives This link opens in a new window

Primary Sources Definition

What are primary sources .

Primary sources enable the researcher to get as close as possible to the truth of what actually happened during an historical event or time period. Primary source is a term used in a number of disciplines to describe source material that is closest to the person, information, period, or idea being studied.  A primary source (also called original source ) is a document, recording, artifact, or other source of information that was created at the time under study, usually by a source with direct personal knowledge of the events being described. It serves as an original source of information about the topic.

Similar definitions are used in library science , and other areas of scholarship. In journalism, a primary source can be a person with direct knowledge of a situation, or a document created by such a person. Primary sources are distinguished from secondary sources , which cite, comment on, or build upon primary sources, though the distinction is not a sharp one.

Newspaper Research

• Historical Newspapers (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window Includes the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, LA Times, Christian Science Monitor, and more. Newspapers are in PDF format and provide a visual representation of the newspaper.
• ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window Includes both newspapers and scholarly journals
• Historical Newspapers The Guardian and The Observer Search The Guardian (1821-2003) and its sister paper, The Observer (1791-2003)
• New York Newspaper Archive This link opens in a new window Access New York Newspaper Archives and discover stories of the past with NewspaperArchive.com. The archive covers New York history from 1753-2023, with lots of content from smaller, local newspapers. Articles have been scanned as PDFs and include images and advertisements, and are full text searchable.
• America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window America's Historical Newspapers includes articles from local and regional American and Hispanic American newspapers from all 50 states. Coverage dates from 1690 to the early 20th century. Articles have been scanned as PDFs and include images and advertisements, and are full text searchable.
• American Periodicals Series Online This link opens in a new window includes digitized images of the pages of American magazines and journals published from colonial days to the dawn of the 20th century, 1740-1940.
• Times Digital Archive (London) This link opens in a new window Provides full-text access to back issues of The Times newspaper. Dates of coverage: 1785 to 2006.
• Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980 This link opens in a new window Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980 provides access to searchable digitized copies of newspapers printed in the U.S. during the 19th and 20th centuries for a Hispanic readership. It features hundreds of monolingual and bilingual newspapers in Spanish and English, including many obscure titles from the 19th century.
• Global Newsstream This link opens in a new window Full text of 300+ U.S. and international news sources. Includes coverage of 150+ major U.S. and international newspapers such as The New York Times and the Times of London, plus hundreds of other news sources and news wires.
• Gale Newspaper Sources This link opens in a new window The Gale NewsVault is a portal to several historical collections of British newspapers and periodicals. It enables full-text searching across several titles simultaneously, including the Times of London, Financial Times, and Times Literary Supplement, along with aggregate newspaper and periodical collections covering the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.
• Access World News This link opens in a new window Access World News provides the html full text and, for some titles, the pdf "as printed" visual representation, of articles from a variety of national and international news sources, including newspapers, digital-native news websites, television and radio transcripts, blogs, college and university newspapers, journals, magazines, and some audio and video. Most international titles are English language. Dates of coverage vary from title to title, but primarily span the late 20th century to present.

The Billy Rose Theatre Collection

TITLE: [Scene from Othello with Paul Robeson as Othello and Uta Hagen as Desdemona, Theatre Guild Production, Broadway, 1943-44]   http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robeson_Hagen_Othello.jpg SOURCE:Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540

The Billy Rose Theatre Collection of The New York Public Library is one of the largest and most comprehensive archives devoted to the theatrical arts. This image is a work of an employee of the United States Farm Security Administration or Office of War Information domestic photographic units, created during the course of the person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.

• Billy Rose Collection NYPL The Billy Rose Theatre Division of The New York Public Library is one of the largest and most comprehensive archives devoted to the theatrical arts.
• New York Public Library Archives & Manuscripts On this site, you can search The New York Public Library's vast holdings, initiate a research visit, submit a query to an archivist, and access digitized material. Most Broadway shows can be viewed in the special collections. You will need a NYPL library card to view them.
• ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new window Thousands of libraries, museums, and archives have contributed nearly a million collection descriptions to ArchiveGrid.
• WorldCat - FirstSearch (OCLC) This link opens in a new window Search for books and more in libraries in the U.S. and around the world. Indicates when NYU Libraries holds a copy of a book and shows you nearby libraries with holdings.
• Internet Archive Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library offering free universal access to books, movies & music, as well as 456 billion archived web pages.
• Archives Unbound This link opens in a new window NYU is currently subscribing 14 collections:African America, Communists, and the National Negro Congress; Federal Response to Radicalism; Federal Surveillance of African Americans; Feminism in Cuba - 19th through 20th century archival document; Global Missions and Theology; India from Crown Rule to Republic; Testaments to the Holocaust (Documents and Rare Printed Materials from the Wiener Library, London); The Hindu Conspiracy Cases (Activities of the Indian Independence Movement in the U.S., 1908-1933); The Indian Army and Colonial Warfare on the Frontiers of India; The International Women’s Movement (The Pan Pacific Southeast Asia Women’s Association of the USA, 1950-1985); The Middle East Online - Arab-Israeli Relations; The Middle East Online - Iraq; U.S. and Iraqi Relations: U.S. Technical Aid; and, Witchcraft in Europe.

Historical Databases

An advert for P.T. Barnum's "Feejee Mermaid" in 1842 or thereabout. Author: P. T. Barnum or an employee, Source: Newspaper advert commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/File:Barnum_mermai... This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.

• America: History and Life with Full Text This link opens in a new window ndexes literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. The database indexes 1,700 journals and also includes citations and links to book and media reviews. Strong English-language journal coverage is balanced by an international perspective on topics and events, including abstracts in English of articles published in more than 40 languages. Publication dates of coverage: 1964 to present.
• Historical Abstracts with Full Text (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window Covers the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present, including world history, military history, women's history, history of education, and more. Indexes more than 1,700 academic historical journals in over 40 languages. Publication dates of coverage: 1955 to present.
• Theatre in Context Collection This link opens in a new window O’Dell’s Annals of the New York Stage, the Oxford University Press Companion series, and Greenwood’s American Theatre Companies series are just a few of the many in-copyright sources included in the Theatre in Context Collection. Placed alongside thousands of playbills, posters, photographs, and related theatrical ephemera, users will be able to paint a more comprehensive picture of the life and evolution of dramatic works.
• Shakespeare Collection This link opens in a new window The Shakespeare Collection provides access to general reference data, full-text scholarly periodicals, reprinted criticism, facsimile primary source material and the full-text annotated works from The Arden Shakespeare. Users can view page images of the First Folio, key Quartos, and major editions and adaptations of Shakespeare's works, plus works by Shakespeare's contemporaries and promptbooks from the 17th to the 20th century.
• Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window Contains 1297 sources with 1100 authors, covering the non-fiction published works of leading African-Americans. Particular care has been taken to index this material so that it can be searched more thoroughly than ever before. Where possible the complete published non-fiction works are included, as well as interviews, journal articles, speeches, essays, pamphlets, letters and other fugitive material.
• Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new window Provides full-text and full-image access to hundreds of journals published in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and areas of general popular interest. Each periodical is covered back to its first issue, regardless of when it began publication. International in scope, PAO covers periodicals in a number of Western languages.
• Accessible Archives This link opens in a new window Includes the following collections: African American Newspapers, The Civil War Part I. A Newspaper Perspective, The Pennsylvania Genealogical Catalog, Pennsylvania Newspaper Record, South Carolina Newspapers, and The Liberator. ** Within these collections are papers such as The Charleston Mercury, The Christian Recorder, The Colored American, Douglass Monthly, Frederick, Douglass Paper, Freedom's Journal, Godey's Lady's Book, The Liberator, The National Era, The New York Herald, The North Star, The Pennsylvania Gazette, The Pennsylvania Packet, The Maryland Gazette, Provincial Freeman, Richmond Enquirer, The South Carolina Gazette, The Gazette of the State of South Carolina, The South Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, The South Carolina and American General Gazette, Weekly Advocate.
• Early English Books Online (EEBO) This link opens in a new window Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700. Searchable full text is also available for a subset of the collection.
• Eighteenth Century Journals This link opens in a new window Eighteenth Century Journals brings together rare journals printed between 1685 and 1835, primarily in the British Isles (with some publications from India, the Caribbean, and Europe). Users can view and download page images and search transcribed full text for all journals in the collection.
• C19: The 19th Century Index This link opens in a new window C19: The 19th Century Index provides bibliographic coverage of nineteenth-century books, periodicals, official documents, newspapers and archives from the English-speaking world. This database includes the Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals (1824-1900), Poole's Index to Periodical Literature, Palmer's Index to The Times, the Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue, and more.
• Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives 1960 - 1974 This link opens in a new window This resource consists of diaries, letters, autobiographies and other memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, government documents, memorabilia, and scholarly commentary. With 150,000 pages of material at completion, this searchable collection is a resource for students and scholars researching this period in American history, culture, and politics.
• African American Archives (via Fold3) This link opens in a new window This full text resource offers access to original documents that reveal a side of the African American story that few have seen before.
• African American Experience This link opens in a new window Full-text digital resource exploring the history and culture of African Americans, as well as the greater Black Diaspora. Features access to full-text content from more than 400 titles, 3,000 slave narratives, over 2000 images, 5,000 primary sources, and 250 vetted Web sites.

Letters & Diaries /Oral Histories

• Oral History Online This link opens in a new window Provides in-depth indexing to more than 2,700 collections of Oral History in English from around the world. The collection provides keyword searching of almost 281,000 pages of full-text by close to 10,000 individuals from all walks of life.
• American Civil War: Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window This database contains 2,009 authors and approximately 100,000 pages of diaries, letters and memoirs. Includes 4,000 pages of previously unpublished manuscripts such as the letters of Amos Wood and his wife and the diary of Maryland Planter William Claytor. The collection also includes biographies, an extensive bibliography of the sources in the database, and material licensed from The Civil War Day-by-Day by E.B. Long.
• British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window Includes 10,000 pages of diaries and letters revealing the experiences of approximately 500 women. The collection now includes primary materials spanning more than 300 years. The collection also includes biographies and an extensive annotated bibliography of the sources in the database.
• North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories This link opens in a new window North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories includes 2,162 authors and approximately 100,000 pages of information, so providing a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada between 1800 and 1950. Contains contemporaneous letters, diaries, oral histories, interviews, and other personal narratives.
• North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window North American Women's Letters and Diaries includes the immediate experiences of 1,325 women and 150,000 pages of diaries and letters.

Gale Primary Sources

• Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window Gale Artemis is a groundbreaking research environment that integrates formerly disparate digital collections to enable innovative research. Gale Artemis provides an unprecedented, seamless research experience that helps students find a starting point, search across a wide array of materials and points in time, and discover new ways to analyze information.

Victorian Popular Culture

• Victorian Popular Culture An essential resource for the study of popular entertainment in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This innovative portal invites users into the darkened halls, small backrooms and travelling venues that hosted everything from spectacular shows and bawdy burlesque, to the world of magic and spiritualist séances. ** The resource is divided into four self-contained sections: Moving Pictures, Optical Entertainments and the Advent of Cinema; Music Hall, Theatre and Popular Entertainment; Circuses, Sideshows and Freaks; Spiritualism, Sensation and Magic

Historical Image Collections

commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/File:Cushman_in_Ha... , The American actress Charlotte Cushman advertised in William Shakespeare's Hamlet at the Washington Theater in 1861.  Author:Washington Theater, SOURCE:Public Library of Congress. this image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.

• American Broadsides and Ephemera This link opens in a new window American Broadsides and Ephemera offers fully searchable images of approximately 15,000 broadsides printed between 1820 and 1900 and 15,000 pieces of ephemera printed between 1760 and 1900. The remarkably diverse subjects of these broadsides range from contemporary accounts of the Civil War, unusual occurrences and natural disasters to official government proclamations, tax bills and town meeting reports. Featuring many rare items, the pieces of ephemera include clipper ship sailing cards, early trade cards, bill heads, theater and music programs, stock certificates, menus and invitations documenting civic, political and private celebrations.
• Early American Imprints, Series I. Evans, 1639-1800 This link opens in a new window Search or browse the books, pamphlets, broadsides and other imprints listed in the renowned bibliography by Charles Evans.
• Early American Imprints, Series II. Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819 This link opens in a new window Search or browse the books, pamphlets, broadsides and other imprints listed in the distinguished bibliography by Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker. 1801-1819
• American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window Provide digital access to the most comprehensive collection of American periodicals published between 1691 and 1877. Included digitized images of American magazines and journals never before available outside the walls of the American Antiquarian Society. The collection is available in five series: Series 1 (1691-1820) - Series 2 (1821-1837) - Series 3 (1838-1852) - Series 4 (1853-1865) - Series 5 (1866-1877)

Link to Bobst Special Collections

• NYU Special Collections Bobst Library's Special Collections department houses significant archival resources including materials from the Downtown Collection, which documents New York City's downtown arts scene from the 1970s through the early 1990s. Maria Irene Fornés and Richard Foreman are among the many artists whose materials are housed in the Downtown Collection.
• Fales It is especially strong in English literature from the middle of the 18th century to the present, documenting developments in the novel. The Downtown Collection documents the downtown New York art, performance, and literary scenes from 1975 to the present and is extremely rich in archival holdings, including extensive film and video objects.
• Tamiment One of the finest research collections in the country documenting the history of radical politics: socialism, communism, anarchism, utopian experiments, the cultural left, the New Left, and the struggle for civil rights and civil liberties.

Guide to International Collections

• SIBMAS International Directory of Performing Arts Collections and Institutions

Books Containing Primary Source Documents

• The mediaeval stage by Chambers, E. K. (Edmund Kerchever), 1866-1954 Call Number: Online versions avail.
• The Elizabethan stage by Chambers, E. K. (Edmund Kerchever), 1866-1954 Call Number: PN2589 .C4 1965 4 vol. plus online version avail
• The diary of Samuel Pepys by Pepys, Samuel, 1633-1703 Call Number: Avail. online
• A history of theatrical art in ancient and modern times. by Mantzius, Karl, 1860-1921 Call Number: PN2106 .M313 1970 4 vol. also internet access
• Ben Jonson by Ben Jonson Call Number: online access
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Research Process :: Step by Step

• Introduction
• Select Topic
• Identify Keywords
• Background Information
• Develop Research Questions
• Refine Topic
• Search Strategy
• Popular Databases
• Evaluate Sources
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PEN America Digital Archive

• PEN America Digital Archive The PEN America Digital Archive captures more than 50 years of cultural programming at the intersection of literature and freedom of expression advocacy. With generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the digital archive makes available long-inaccessible but valuable public and private programming featuring the world’s foremost writers, intellectuals, and artists in candid and often heated discourse about the most relevant cultural and political issues of our times.

US History -- Primary Sources

• Primary Sources for US History This guide provides links to important, substantial, and freely available collections of primary sources dealing with American history. Each source has been chosen, evaluated, and annotated by librarians.
• Primary Sources for Historical Research This guide explains how to identify primary sources and provides an overview of the different kinds of primary sources.

When evaluating the quality of the information you are using, it is useful to identify if you are using a primary, secondary, or tertiary source . By doing so, you recognize if the author is reporting on his/her own first-hand experiences or relying on the views of others.

Primary Sources : : Defined

Primary sources provide firsthand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic or question under investigation.  They are usually created by witnesses or recorders who experienced the events or conditions being documented. Often these sources are created at the time when the events or conditions are occurring.

"Primary sources . . . are defined as the direct evidence of a time and place that you are studying – any material (documents, objects, etc.) that was produced by eyewitnesses to or participants in an event or historical moment under investigation. Secondary sources, in contrast, are interpretations – often generated by scholars – that are based upon the examination of multiple primary sources."  (from  Primary Source.org )

Types of Primary Sources

What types of primary sources might have been produced that would be relevant to your topic?

Which persons or organizations might have produced materials?

Possible formats include:

• Photographs, images
• Magazines, newspapers
• Advertisements
• Movies, videos, DVDs
• Memoirs, d iaries, journals
• Audio recordings
• Interviews , l etters , s peeches
• Research data, statistics
• Documents produced by organizations
• Documents produced by government agencies

Find Primary Sources

• Special Collections
• Digital Collections

On the 6th floor of Central Library,  Special Collections  specializes in  (PRINT)  historical materials relating to

• the U.S. War with Mexico (1846-1848)
• the cartographic (maps) history of Texas and the Gulf of Mexico
• Mexico from 1810-1920.

Texas Archival Resources Online (TARO)

(TARO) contains Special Collections' detailed guides. (SEARCH FOR: University of Texas at Arlington Library, Special Collections in drop down menu)

• Archives & Locating Archives Collections Guide on archival field and using archives in the UTA Libraries Special Collections.
• Sabin Americana, 1500-1926 This link opens in a new window This digital collection contains primary works about the Americas published throughout the world from 1500 to the early 1900's. more... less... Sabin Americana, 1500-1926 offers full-text access to more than 29,000 titles about the Americas including accounts of exploration, trade, colonialism, Native Americans, etc. Primary sources include books, pamphlets, serials, broadsides, and other historical documentation that describe the society, politics, religious beliefs, customs, and momentous events that characterized life in the Americas.
• Oral History Online This link opens in a new window Oral History Online is a database of English language oral histories. more... less... Oral History Online contains more than 34,000 pages of full-text content including Ellis Island oral history narratives and rare Black Panther Party interviews. It is also an index to free oral history information on the Web. Indexed oral histories represent information from archives, repositories, and individuals around the world.
• Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures and the Environment This link opens in a new window This full-text work in progress documents the relationships among peoples in North America from 1534 to 1850 more... less... This full-text work in progress documents the relationships among peoples in North America from 1534 to 1850. It focuses on personal accounts of traders, slaves, missionaries, explorers, soldiers, native peoples, and officials. Source materials include narratives, diaries, journals, and letters.
• Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives, 1960-1974 This link opens in a new window For scholars and students researching this important period in American history, culture, and politics. more... less... The Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives 1960-1974 contains diaries, letters, autobiographies and other memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, government documents, memorabilia, and scholarly commentary. Spanning 1960 to 1974, The Sixties is centered on key themes that provide insight into the issues that shaped America and that still resonate in today's debates: Arts, Music, and Leisure; Civil Rights; Counter-Culture; Environmental Movement; Gay and Lesbian Rights; Law and Government; Mass Media; New Left and Emerging Neo-Conservative Movement; Science and Technology; Student Activism; Vietnam War; and Women's Movement.
• Gerritsen Collection - Women's History Online 1543-1945 This link opens in a new window A collection of books, pamphlets and periodicals reflecting the evolution of a feminist consciousness and the movement for women's rights more... less... A collection of books, pamphlets and periodicals reflecting the evolution of a feminist consciousness and the movement for women's rights. The collection consists of 265 periodicals and 4471 monographs from continental Europe, the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand. The ASCII text is searchable by keyword and Boolean operators, and records are linked to the corresponding full-text page images.
• North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories This link opens in a new window This work in progress is composed of the personal narratives of immigrants to North America, including Canada more... less... This work in progress is composed of the personal narratives of immigrants to North America, including Canada. Included are letters, diaries, autobiographies, and oral histories. This database provides perspectives both on North America and on the immigrants' countries of origin.

The New York Times (1851-2007) Offers full-page and article images with search-able full-text back to the first issue.

Dallas Morning News Historical Archive(1885-1984)  Important resource for Texas History.

Chicago Defender (1956-1973) The Chicago Defender has been a leading voice of the black community, with more than two-thirds of its readership outside Chicago. A full-image is provided for the newspaper.

• ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Wall Street Journal (1889 - 2011) This link opens in a new window A full-image archive that includes the entire historical run of the newspaper from 1889 - 2011. See also The Wall Street Journal archive (1984 - Current) . more... less... ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Wall Street Journal (1889 - 2002): In 1889, Dow Jones & Company first published The Wall Street Journal (formerly known as the Customers' Afternoon Letter) as a markets-focused newspaper for the country's then-fewer than 200,000 shareholders. Today, it focuses not only on the stock market, but on all aspects of global business, economics, consumer affairs, and trends and issues. Online researchers have access to more than 100 years of The Journal's accurate reporting, exclusive analysis, agenda setting, editorials, and controversial opinions. In addition to the printed stories, researchers also can study the charts, stock tables, graphics, and illustrations featured in the publication. With this resource, users can study the development of industries and companies across decades, monitor the implementation and effects of fiscal policies on the global economy, study opposing viewpoints at critical times in the world's history, and more. This title is especially appealing to those interested in business, finance, economics, and journalism.

Cartographic Connections

Here are some of the maps from Special Collections

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• Next: Step 4: Write >>
• Last Updated: Apr 19, 2024 12:43 PM
• URL: https://libguides.uta.edu/researchprocess

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Types of Research Papers: Overview

• Types of Research Questions

A research paper is simply a piece of writing that uses outside sources. There are different types of research papers with varying purposes and expectations for sourcing.

While this guide explains those differences broadly, disciplines and assignments vary. Ask your professor for clarification on the purpose,  types of appropriate research questions , and expectations of sources for your assignment.

Need More Help?

Related guides.

• Literature Reviews
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Need last minute help but didn't book an appointment? Every week we offer online drop-in labs.

Tuesdays 3:00pm - 4:30pm via Zoom @   https://smu.zoom.us/j/92637892352  and in-person, Fondren Red 1st floor (near elevators)

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• Research Guides
• SOC 380: Who Cares?
• Working with Primary Sources

SOC 380: Who Cares? : Working with Primary Sources

• Finding Materials
• Creating a Research Map
• Crafting Effective Searches
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• WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES

What are primary sources?

Primary sources   are  first-hand accounts  by participants of a particular event or materials produced at the same historical time period. 

Some examples of primary sources include:

• Memoirs, speeches, writings, correspondence
• Papers of a political party, agency, or association
• Official documents such as congressional hearings and reports
• Contemporary magazine and newspaper articles
• Contemporary art, films, literature and music
• Contemporary artifacts, such as buildings and monuments

Finding Primary Sources

When looking for primary sources, you need to consider:

• Who can be individuals or groups, such as local, regional, or international organizations, associations, and governmental agencies.
• When reading secondary and primary sources, make a list of the names you encounter. Search these names as authors in library databases.
• Search  library databases  to find these materials.
• For government materials, search  government information resources  
• For companies and organizations, try Williams WorldCat , HathiTrust Digital Library , and Internet Archive .
• May no longer exist
• May not be publicly available (could be in personal files only)
• Search Archive Finder or Google  to determine where a person's/organizations papers are housed
• Look for finding aids and digitized documents at the institution that holds the papers.
• Search Williams WorldCat  
• << Previous: Writing an Annotated Bibliography
• Next: Doing Archival Research >>
• Last Updated: Apr 16, 2024 10:56 AM
• URL: https://libguides.williams.edu/soc380

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Peer Review and Primary Literature: An Introduction: Is it Primary Research? How Do I Know?

• Scholarly Journal vs. Magazine
• Peer Review: What is it?
• Finding Peer-Reviewed Articles
• Primary Journal Literature
• Is it Primary Research? How Do I Know?

Components of a Primary Research Study

As indicated on a previous page, Peer-Reviewed Journals also include non -primary content. Simply limiting your search results in a database to "peer-reviewed" will not retrieve a list of only primary research studies.

Learn to recognize the parts of a primary research study. Terminology will vary slightly from discipline to discipline and from journal to journal.  However, there are common components to most research studies.

When you run a search, find a promising article in your results list and then look at the record for that item (usually by clicking on the title). The full database record for an item usually includes an abstract or summary--sometimes prepared by the journal or database, but often written by the author(s) themselves. This will usually give a clear indication of whether the article is a primary study.  For example, here is a full database record from a search for family violence and support in SocINDEX with Full Text :

Although the abstract often tells the story, you will need to read the article to know for sure. Besides scanning the Abstract or Summary, look for the following components: (I am only capturing small article segments for illustration.)

Look for the words METHOD or METHODOLOGY . The authors should explain how they conducted their research.

NOTE: Different Journals and Disciplines will use different terms to mean similar things. If instead of " Method " or " Methodology " you see a heading that says " Research Design " or " Data Collection ," you have a similar indicator that the scholar-authors have done original research.

Look for the section called RESULTS . This details what the author(s) found out after conducting their research.

Charts , Tables , Graphs , Maps and other displays help to summarize and present the findings of the research.

A Discussion indicates the significance of findings, acknowledges limitations of the research study, and suggests further research.

References , a Bibliography or List of Works Cited indicates a literature review and shows other studies and works that were consulted. USE THIS PART OF THE STUDY! If you find one or two good recent studies, you can identify some important earlier studies simply by going through the bibliographies of those articles.

A FINAL NOTE:  If you are ever unclear about whether a particular article is appropriate to use in your paper, it is best to show that article to your professor and discuss it with them.  The professor is the final judge since they will be assigning your grade.

Subject Guide

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Information For Students

I have to write a research paper using primary sources. where do i start.

• What are Special Collections and Archives?
• What is the difference between Primary and Secondary sources?
• How do I cite primary source materials?

Primary sources are created by individuals who participated in or witnessed an event and recorded that event during or immediately after the event.

Explanation:

A student activist during the war writing about protest activities has created a memoir. This would be a primary source because the information is based on her own involvement in the events she describes. Similarly, an antiwar speech is a primary source. So is the arrest record of student protesters. A newspaper editorial or article, reporting on a student demonstration is also a primary source.

Deeds, wills, court documents, military records, tax records, census records, diaries, journals, letters, account books, advertisements, newspapers, photographs, and maps are primary sources.

Secondary sources are created by someone who was either not present when the event occurred or removed from it in time. We use secondary sources for overview information, and to help familiarize ourselves with a topic and compare that topic with other events in history.

History books, encyclopedias, historical dictionaries, and academic articles are secondary sources.

If you've never written a research paper using primary sources, it is important to understand that the process is different from using only secondary sources. Many students discover that finding and gaining access to primary source documents can be difficult. The Library website has a valuable guide to locating primary source documents. Follow the link below to be redirected to that guide:

https://libguides.furman.edu/resources/primary-sources

• Students are encouraged to seek help from the Special Collections Librarian or Research Librarians to aid in their research projects. Librarians will be able to aid students in a variety of ways including helping to locate primary source materials.

After locating appropriate primary sources, it is necessary for students to analyze and interpret them. To many students, this task can seem arduous, if not overwhelming. There are many resources available in the library as well as online, which are helpful. The National Archives website has very useful analysis worksheets that can help students to determine the significance of primary source documents. Links to PDF files of these worksheets are listed below:

Written Document | Artifact | Cartoon | Map | Motion Picture | Photograph | Poster | Sound Recording

• << Previous: What is the difference between Primary and Secondary sources?
• Next: How do I cite primary source materials? >>
• Last Updated: Oct 21, 2021 2:47 PM
• URL: https://libguides.furman.edu/special-collections/for-students

Educator Resources

Finding Primary Sources for Teachers and Students

Finding primary sources.

Primary Sources from DocsTeach Thousands of online primary source documents from the National Archives to bring the past to life as classroom teaching tools.

National Archives Catalog Find online primary source materials for classroom & student projects from the National Archive's online catalog (OPA).

Beginning Research Activities Student activities designed to help you navigate the National Archives resources and web site.

Online Exhibits Exhibits featuring online documents, photos and primary sources from the National Archives

Our Documents 100 Milestone Documents of American History

Getting Started with Research How to start researching records at the National Archives. Finding your topic, identifying records, planning a visit, and more.

Online Research Tools & Aids Introduction to catalogs, databases, and other online resources.

Citing Primary Sources Citing Records in the National Archives of the United States

Understanding Nursing Research

What is primary research, how can i tell if my article is "primary research", limiting your search to primary research.

• Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research
• Experimental Design
• Is it a Nursing journal?
• Is it Written by a Nurse?
• Systematic Reviews and Secondary Research
• Quality Improvement Plans

Your Team! College of Education and Human Development and College of Nursing and Health Sciences

Left to Right: Trisha Hernandez, Emily Murphy, Lorin Flores, Aida Almanza-Ferro.

We are the librarians for College of Education and Human Development, and the College of Nursing. We look forward to working with you! To contact us or to make an appointment:

Submit your request and we'll get right back to you!

Or, you can reach out directly. For our email addresses and phone numbers, see the list below:

Aida Almanza-Ferro  | [email protected] | 361-825-2356 Lorin Flores | [email protected] | 361-825-2609 Trisha Hernandez | [email protected]  |361-825-2687 Emily Sartorius Murphy  | [email protected] | 361-825-2610 Librarians are available M-F, 8-5.

The phrase "Primary" can mean something different depending on what subject you're in.

In History , for example, you might hear the phrase "primary sources." This means the researcher is looking for sources that date back to when an event occurred. Primary sources can be a diary, a photograph, or a newspaper clipping.

If this is the kind of research you're looking for, check out this research guide on how to find primary sources:

• Primary Sources

If you're in Nursing or another scientific field you're more likely to hear the phrase "Primary Research."

Primary Research refers to research that was conducted by the author of the article you're reading. So if you're reading an article and in the methodology section the author refers to recruiting participants, identifying a control group, etc. you can be pretty sure the author has conducted the research themselves.

When you're asked to find primary research, you're being asked to find articles describing research that was conducted by the authors.

Check out the video below for an explanation of the differences between primary and secondary research.

To determine if the article you're looking at is considered Primary Research, look for the following:

• In the Abstract, can you find a description of research being conducted?
• Were participants recruited?
• Were surveys distributed?

The main question to ask yourself is "Did the author conduct research, or did they read and synthesize other people's research?"

If you've found an article in CINAHL and you want to know if it's primary research, look under "Publication Type" to see if it's a research article.

This is not always 100% correct, though. To be sure, you should always read the Methodology section to understand what kind of article you're looking at.

If you're using PubMed, you can check the article's Keywords and Abstract for clues to see if the article is primary research, like in the article below:

Or you can check to see if the article includes a "Publication Type" section like this article:

The following Publication Types are usually considered Primary Research:

• Adaptive Clinical Trial
• Clinical Study
• Clinical Trial
• Controlled Clinical Trial
• Equivalence Trial
• Evaluation Studies
• Observational Study
• Pragmatic Clinical Trial
• Randomized Controlled Trial

Remember, you will always need to read the Methodologies section of an article to be sure the article is an example of primary research!

In certain databases you can specify that you're only interested in resources that are considered primary research.

Two of those databases are CINAHL and PubMed, which you can access here:

To limit your results to primary research in CINAHL, check the "Research Article" box on the homepage before you hit "Search"

This check box is helpful, but it isn't 100% correct, so always read the Methodology section of your article to determine what kind of article it is!

If you're conducting a search in PubMed and want to limit your results to a certain kind of article, you can enter your search terms on the homepage and click "Search."

Then, when you're on your results page, use the limiters on the left side of the screen to specify the "Article Type" you're interested in. Under "Article Types" click the "Customize..." link to see the full list of article types available to you.

Check any of the article types you're interested in (don't forget to scroll down on this list!) and then click the blue "Show" button at the bottom of the pop up window.

Now the Article Types you just selected should appear under the Article Types heading. Click on the article types you want to show up in your results list and your results will limit themselves to just those that meet your criteria.

Remember to read the article's Methodology section yourself before deciding whether or not it's Primary Research! These limits are great, but they aren't always 100% accurate.

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• Last Updated: Feb 6, 2024 9:34 AM
• URL: https://guides.library.tamucc.edu/nursingresearch

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Reference List: Textual Sources

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Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

Basic Format for Books

Edited book, no author, edited book with an author or authors, a translation.

Note : When you cite a republished work, like the one above, in your text, it should appear with both dates: Plato (385-378/1989)

Edition Other Than the First

Article or chapter in an edited book.

Note : When you list the pages of the chapter or essay in parentheses after the book title, use "pp." before the numbers: (pp. 1-21). This abbreviation, however, does not appear before the page numbers in periodical references, except for newspapers. List any edition number in the same set of parentheses as the page numbers, separated by a comma: (2nd ed., pp. 66-72).

Multivolume Work

Articles in periodicals.

APA style dictates that authors are named with their last name followed by their initials; publication year goes between parentheses, followed by a period. The title of the article is in sentence-case, meaning only the first word and proper nouns in the title are capitalized. The periodical title is run in title case, and is followed by the volume number which, with the title, is also italicized. If a DOI has been assigned to the article that you are using, you should include this after the page numbers for the article. If no DOI has been assigned and you are accessing the periodical online, use the URL of the website from which you are retrieving the periodical.

Article in Print Journal

Note: APA 7 advises writers to include a DOI (if available), even when using the print source. The example above assumes no DOI is available.

Article in Electronic Journal

Note :  This content also appears on Reference List: Online Media .

As noted above, when citing an article in an electronic journal, include a DOI if one is associated with the article.

DOIs may not always be available. In these cases, use a URL. Many academic journals provide stable URLs that function similarly to DOIs. These are preferable to ordinary URLs copied and pasted from the browser's address bar.

Article in a Magazine

Article in a newspaper.

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Majority of workers who quit a job in 2021 cite low pay, no opportunities for advancement, feeling disrespected

The COVID-19 pandemic set off nearly unprecedented churn in the U.S. labor market. Widespread job losses in the early months of the pandemic gave way to tight labor markets in 2021, driven in part by what’s come to be known as the Great Resignation . The nation’s “quit rate” reached a 20-year high last November.

A new Pew Research Center survey finds that low pay, a lack of opportunities for advancement and feeling disrespected at work are the top reasons why Americans quit their jobs last year. The survey also finds that those who quit and are now employed elsewhere are more likely than not to say their current job has better pay, more opportunities for advancement and more work-life balance and flexibility.

Majorities of workers who quit a job in 2021 say low pay (63%), no opportunities for advancement (63%) and feeling disrespected at work (57%) were reasons why they quit, according to the Feb. 7-13 survey. At least a third say each of these were major reasons why they left.  

Roughly half say child care issues were a reason they quit a job (48% among those with a child younger than 18 in the household). A similar share point to a lack of flexibility to choose when they put in their hours (45%) or not having good benefits such as health insurance and paid time off (43%). Roughly a quarter say each of these was a major reason.

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to better understand the experiences of Americans who quit a job in 2021. This analysis is based on 6,627 non-retired U.S. adults, including 965 who say they left a job by choice last year. The data was collected as a part of a larger survey conducted Feb. 7-13, 2022. Everyone who took part is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way, nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology .

Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology.

About four-in-ten adults who quit a job last year (39%) say a reason was that they were working too many hours, while three-in-ten cite working too few hours. About a third (35%) cite wanting to relocate to a different area, while relatively few (18%) cite their employer requiring a COVID-19 vaccine as a reason.

When asked separately whether their reasons for quitting a job were related to the coronavirus outbreak, 31% say they were. Those without a four-year college degree (34%) are more likely than those with a bachelor’s degree or more education (21%) to say the pandemic played a role in their decision.

For the most part, men and women offer similar reasons for having quit a job in the past year. But there are significant differences by educational attainment.

Among adults who quit a job in 2021, those without a four-year college degree are more likely than those with at least a bachelor’s degree to point to several reasons. These include not having enough flexibility to decide when they put in their hours (49% of non-college graduates vs. 34% of college graduates), having to work too few hours (35% vs. 17%) and their employer requiring a COVID-19 vaccine (21% vs. 8%).

There are also notable differences by race and ethnicity. Non-White adults who quit a job last year are more likely than their White counterparts to say the reasons include not having enough flexibility (52% vs. 38%), wanting to relocate to a different area (41% vs. 30%), working too few hours (37% vs. 24%) or their employer requiring that they have a COVID-19 vaccine (27% vs. 10%). The non-White category includes those who identify as Black, Asian, Hispanic, some other race or multiple races. These groups could not be analyzed separately due to sample size limitations.

Many of those who switched jobs see improvements

A majority of those who quit a job in 2021 and are not retired say they are now employed, either full-time (55%) or part-time (23%). Of those, 61% say it was at least somewhat easy for them to find their current job, with 33% saying it was very easy. One-in-five say it was very or somewhat difficult, and 19% say it was neither easy nor difficult.

For the most part, workers who quit a job last year and are now employed somewhere else see their current work situation as an improvement over their most recent job. At least half of these workers say that compared with their last job, they are now earning more money (56%), have more opportunities for advancement (53%), have an easier time balancing work and family responsibilities (53%) and have more flexibility to choose when they put in their work hours (50%).

Still, sizable shares say things are either worse or unchanged in these areas compared with their last job. Fewer than half of workers who quit a job last year (42%) say they now have better benefits, such as health insurance and paid time off, while a similar share (36%) says it’s about the same. About one-in-five (22%) now say their current benefits are worse than at their last job.

College graduates are more likely than those with less education to say that compared with their last job, they are now earning more (66% vs. 51%) and have more opportunities for advancement (63% vs. 49%). In turn, those with less education are more likely than college graduates to say they are earning less in their current job (27% vs. 16%) and that they have fewer opportunities for advancement (18% vs. 9%).

Employed men and women who quit a job in 2021 offer similar assessments of how their current job compares with their last one. One notable exception is when it comes to balancing work and family responsibilities: Six-in-ten men say their current job makes it easier for them to balance work and family – higher than the share of women who say the same (48%).

Some 53% of employed adults who quit a job in 2021 say they have changed their field of work or occupation at some point in the past year. Workers younger than age 30 and those without a postgraduate degree are especially likely to say they have made this type of change.

Younger adults and those with lower incomes were more likely to quit a job in 2021

Overall, about one-in-five non-retired U.S. adults (19%) – including similar shares of men (18%) and women (20%) – say they quit a job at some point in 2021, meaning they left by choice and not because they were fired, laid off or because a temporary job had ended.

Adults younger than 30 are far more likely than older adults to have voluntarily left their job last year: 37% of young adults say they did this, compared with 17% of those ages 30 to 49, 9% of those ages 50 to 64 and 5% of those ages 65 and older.

Experiences also vary by income, education, race and ethnicity. About a quarter of adults with lower incomes (24%) say they quit a job in 2021, compared with 18% of middle-income adults and 11% of those with upper incomes.

Across educational attainment, those with a postgraduate degree are the least likely to say they quit a job at some point in 2021: 13% say this, compared with 17% of those with a bachelor’s degree, 20% of those with some college and 22% of those with a high school diploma or less education.  

About a quarter of non-retired Hispanic and Asian adults (24% each) report quitting a job last year; 18% of Black adults and 17% of White adults say the same.

Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology.

• Business & Workplace
• Coronavirus (COVID-19)
• COVID-19 & the Economy
• Income & Wages

A look at small businesses in the U.S.

Majorities of adults see decline of union membership as bad for the u.s. and working people, a look at black-owned businesses in the u.s., from businesses and banks to colleges and churches: americans’ views of u.s. institutions, 2023 saw some of the biggest, hardest-fought labor disputes in recent decades, most popular.

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