LibGuides: Research Tools: Sources--Identifying & Using

Primary Documents

What is a primary document?

Examples of primary documents/sources include: original documents (like the actual United States Constitution), research articles, diaries, interviews, personal accounts of events, eye-witness experiences and live-action news. (created by Indiana University East-Campus Library)
The Primary Source organization provides a thoughtful explanation of the concept of primary sources and documents.
Use the Primary Sources Tutorial from U of California: Irvine.

History: Primary Sources (SFSU)
Primary Sources guide from Leonard Library, SFSU
Finding Historical Primary Sources: Getting Started (UC Berkeley)
Finding Historical Primary Sources, Berkeley Library, UC Berkeley
Primary Sources (CBC)
Primary Sources guide, Story Library, CBC
Primary Sources: Finding, Evaluating, and Using (RUSA)
"This brief guide is designed to help students and researchers find and evaluate primary sources available online."

Refereed/Peer-reviewed?--from Indiana University East

CONCEPT of REFEREED/PEER REVIEW:
Experts in a field (singly or several people) review an author's work by its written description for methods, plausibility, completeness, ethics, etc. to "weed-out" poorly documented/conceived research, implausible research, poorly constructed research, dishonest research,etc. The hard sciences may also apply a more stringent idea of peer-reviewed by including the idea of blind peer-review. This kind of peer review excludes author and other personal information from the review process. In this case the "editor" as a peer-reviewer is removed from the process.

--created by Indiana University East--Campus Library