Week 6 - Assignment: Analyze Differences between Theory and Concept Research and Week 7 - Assignment: Choose a Research Topic

6/28/22, 1:35 PM Primary and Secondary Resources - Research Process - LibGuides at Northcentral University

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NCU Library / LibGuides / Library How-To Guides / Research Process / Primary and Secondary Resources

Research Process These pages offer an introduction to the research process

at a very general level.

Home

Finding a Research Topic

Determining Information Needs

Primary and Secondary Resources

Academic, Popular & Trade Publications

Scholarly and Peer- Reviewed Journals

Grey Literature

Clinical Trials

Search this Guide Search

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6/28/22, 1:35 PM Primary and Secondary Resources - Research Process - LibGuides at Northcentral University

https://library.ncu.edu/friendly.php?s=researchprocess/primaryandsecondary 2/5

Evidence Based Treatment

Statistics

Datasets

Scholarly Research

Preparing to Search

Reading a Scientific Article

Evaluating Information

Finding Similar Resources

Resources for a Literature Review

Resources for Dissertation Research

Organizing Research & Citations 

Scholarly Publication

Learn the Library 

Primary Sources

Primary resources contain first-hand information, meaning that you are

reading the author’s own account on a specific topic or event that s/he

participated in. Examples of primary resources include scholarly

research articles, books, and diaries. Primary sources such as

research articles often do not explain terminology and theoretical

principles in detail. Thus, readers of primary scholarly research should

have foundational knowledge of the subject area. Use primary

resources to obtain a first-hand account to an actual event and identify

original research done in a field. For many of your papers, use of

primary resources will be a requirement.

Examples of a primary source are:

Original documents such as diaries, speeches, manuscripts,

letters, interviews, records, eyewitness accounts,

autobiographies

Empirical scholarly works such as research articles, clinical

reports, case studies, dissertations

Creative works such as poetry, music, video, photography

How to locate primary research in NCU Library:

1. From the Library's homepage, begin your search in Roadrunner

Search or select a subject-specific database from the A-Z Databases.

2. Use the Scholarly/Peer-Reviewed Journal limiter to narrow your

search to journal articles.

3. Once you have a set of search results, remember to look for

articles where the author has conducted original research. A

primary research article will include a literature review,

methodology, population or set sample, test or measurement,

discussion of findings and usually future research directions.

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Ask Us! Secondary Sources

Secondary sources describe, summarize, or discuss information or

details originally presented in another source; meaning the author, in

most cases, did not participate in the event. This type of source is

written for a broad audience and will include definitions of discipline

specific terms, history relating to the topic, significant theories and

principles, and summaries of major studies/events as related to the

topic. Use secondary sources to obtain an overview of a topic and/or

identify primary resources. Refrain from including such resources in an

annotated bibliography for doctoral level work unless there is a good

reason.

Examples of a secondary source are:

Publications such as textbooks, magazine articles, book reviews,

commentaries, encyclopedias, almanacs

Locate secondary resources in NCU Library within the following

databases:

Annual Reviews (scholarly article reviews)

Credo Reference (encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks &

more)

Ebook Central (ebooks)

ProQuest (book reviews, bibliographies, literature reviews &

more )

SAGE Reference Methods, SAGE Knowledge & SAGE Navigator

(handbooks, encyclopedias, major works, debates & more)

Most other Library databases include secondary sources.

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6/28/22, 1:35 PM Primary and Secondary Resources - Research Process - LibGuides at Northcentral University

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Tags: annotated bibliography, Boolean operators, cited, cited references, citing articles, dissertation research, field codes, Google Scholar, literature review, measurements, organizing citations, peer-reviewed journals, popular sources, primary sources, research

design, research methods, research topic, research_process, scholarly sources, searching, secondary sources, statistics, tests,

theoretical frameworks, theory

Beginning the Resarch Process Workshop

This workshop introduces to the beginning stages of the research

process, focusing on identifying different types of information, as well

as gathering background information through electronic books.

Beginning the Research ProcessBeginning the Research Process

 Beginning the Research Process Workshop Outline

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6/28/22, 1:35 PM Primary and Secondary Resources - Research Process - LibGuides at Northcentral University

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