Imagine you’re a plant biologist on an isolated island conducting research and you just sequenced a novel plant species, never before seen, that produces diamonds as seeds. This is amazing and your discovery has to be shared with everyone, but how? How does a knowledge-creating sector share this knowledge? Well, there are many tiers to the knowledge sharing pyramid and I like to think of it also as how information flows and is suited based on a particular audience. There are 3 types of literature: peer-reviewed primary, secondary, and tertiary.
Peer-reviewed primary literature.
These are written by academics, editing and reviewed by other academics in the field, and published for other academics to read in scholarly journals like Science, the Journal of Plant Ecology, Frontiers in Plant Science, or Perspectives in Plant Ecology,Evolution, and Systematics. These articles may sometimes be hidden behind a paywall (unless it is available by open access) or may be accessible through the academic institution’s library database. Using the same plant biologist example, the purpose of you writing this article is to inform others in your field globally of this new discover. Its purpose is to advance knowledge. The writing style of the article would be highly specialized to the field because assumes other plant biologist would be reading it. It would also include sections for methodology and a detailed bibliography
An example of a peer-reviewed article would be: Evolutionary agroecology: Trends in root architecture during wheat breeding
Zhu, Y. H., Weiner, J., Yu, M. X., & Li, F. M. (2018). Evolutionary agroecology: Trends in root architecture during wheat breeding. Evolutionary applications, 12(4), 733–743. doi:10.1111/eva.12749
Peer Reviewed Secondary Literature
Imagine a few years later, other ecologists did more research on this same plant and later found it was a part of a family of plants that had a diverted ancestry because they were on this small isolated island. A group of researchers now decide to publish a summary of all the research done on this over the past few years. This would be secondary literature. It discusses information that was previously published. These would also have a detailed bibliography but no methodology section. The article would focus heavily on analysis and interpretation of data or information from a multitude of primary sources. These would also be published in scholarly academic journals, but would they often have “review of…” somewhere in the title or “review article” on the above the abstract. These also are written for other academics by academics and are subject to the same peer review process. There may not be as specialized, field specific jargon being used. University students often find this type of source most helpful to begin with because it summarizes the major concepts relating to a particular topic
An example of a peer reviewed secondary article would be: A trait-based approach to comparative functional plant ecology: concepts, methods, and applications for agroecology.
Garnier, E., Navas, M. (2012) A trait-based approach to comparative functional plant ecology: concepts, methods and applications for agroecology. A review. Agron. Sustain. Dev. 32, 365–399. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-011-0036-y
Tertiary Literature
Tertiary research is meant to have the widest audience scope of all of the above-mentioned categories. The information is consolidated into a concise summary and a simplified explanation. A common example of this is textbooks. Theses typically are not cited in academic research and use the least technical jargon (some basic foundational background knowledge may be needed to understand the work). It is meant to be read by individuals who don’t necessarily have the scientific background or expertise. Tertiary literature may also include dictionary, encyclopedias, almanacs, manuals, or Wikipedia.
An example of tertiary literature article would be: Raven Biology of Plants Textbook
Raven, P. H., Evert, R. F., & Eichhorn, S. E. (2005). Biology of plants. New York: W.H. Freeman and Co.
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 