Scientific papers can be broadly categorized into primary, secondary, and tertiary. A primary paper is where the paper discusses an experiment conducted by the author(s) and they report their findings. Primary papers typically contain a methods section and may include statistical tests with their findings. An example would be Urban streams across the USA: lessons learned from studies in 9 metropolitan areas written by Larry R. Brown and his associates. This paper looked at the relationship between urban stream syndrome (USS) and how urbanized a given area was. This involved concocting a system that ranked metropolitan areas based on how urbanized they were and comparing their findings with symptoms associated with USS. The data used here came from a different source but their methodology is theirs alone. A secondary paper is where someone looks at the findings of a previous experiment and writes about it. An example of this would be Urban hydrogeomorphology and the urban stream syndrome: Treating the symptoms and causes of geomorphic change written by Geog J. Vietz and his associates. They looked at the previous article mentioned and evaluated it while the author(s) proposed their own thoughts and conclusions. A tertiary paper is a paper that looks at both secondary and primary resources for information. An example would be Wikipedia articles. Many people consider Wikipedia articles untrustworthy not because anyone can edit them or because they are not peer reviewed because they are, but rather because they are tertiary sources of information.
Works Cited
Brown, L. R., Cuffney, T. F., Coles, J. F., Fitzpatrick, F., McMahon, G., Steuer, J., … & May, J. T. (2009). Urban streams across the USA: lessons learned from studies in 9 metropolitan areas. Journal of the North American Benthological Society, 28(4), 1051-1069. https://doi.org/10.1899/08-153.1
Vietz, G. J., Walsh, C. J., & Fletcher, T. D. (2016). Urban hydrogeomorphology and the urban stream syndrome: Treating the symptoms and causes of geomorphic change. Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment, 40(3), 480–492. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309133315605048
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 