A lot of people can easily get lost within research on their desired topics within research papers and lab reports. There are multiple different types of literature that can be found that specifically summarises a topic. Personally when looking for information for classes I take into consideration the differences between peer-reviewed primary, secondary and tertiary sources of literature.
Primary literature is considered to be the main source of information when it goes to most topics. It indicates the outline of research data obtained from an experimental procedure, this type of literature contains structure that includes an introduction, methods, results and discussion of the data collected in the stated experiment.
Specific example : Royer, D. L., Wilf, P., Janesko, D. A., Kowalski, E. A., & Dilcher, D. L. (2005). Correlations of climate and plant ecology to leaf size and shape: potential proxies for the fossil record. American journal of botany, 92(7), 1141-1151.
Secondary literature are generally reviews and critiques of primary literature sources , it mostly summarises the general ideas it portrays. Doesn’t not contain similar elements such as methods/materials and an introduction. This type of literature is in the form of newspapers and magazines.
Specific example : Aagesen, David L. “Indigenous resource rights and conservation of the monkey-puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana, Araucariaceae): a case study from southern Chile.” Economic Botany 52.2 (1998): 146-160.
Tertiary literature is a condensed version of various sources of information with ties to both primary and secondary literature. It can be dictionaries, handbooks and wikipedias.
Specific example : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_event
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 