Primary literature is written information that describes an original research, and is usually written by the individual(s) involved in conducting the research first-hand. In science fields, primary research scientific articles usually have these subsections in the following order: abstract; introduction; methods; results; and conclusion. The abstract, which is sometimes not explicitly titled “abstract” in some articles, is a short summary of the main research questions, methods and findings of an article. Scientific primary research articles sometimes have a standalone “discussion” section that comes after the results section. Some articles have the discussion section combined with the results section. And in some cases, there is just a discussion section in place of the conclusion. Primary literature also includes data sets, technical reports and some news articles.1
Secondary literature is written information that interprets and evaluates primary literature.1 For example a scientific review article, which is a form of secondary literature, describes and analyses primary research scientific articles of related topics.1 Just like primary articles, scientific articles are scholarly articles that are written by experts in the field of the primary articles that are being reviewed to write said secondary literature review articles. It should be noted that secondary scholarly articles can also have the same sub-sections that primary scholarly articles have i.e. introduction, methods and results sections.
Primary and secondary literatures are usually published in journals; a journal is a compilation of scholarly articles. Peer-reviewed journals are journals that contain scientific articles that were reviewed by individuals who are experts in the field that the articles pertain to, hence the word “peer”. The individuals that participate in peer-reviewing cannot be the authors of the studies they review. Peer-reviewing scientific articles is voluntary work with no monetary compensation.
Tertiary literature compiles, and interprets primary and secondary literature in an easy to read format.1 Primary and secondary literature tend to be jargon heavy and hard to understand for individuals who do not have prior knowledge of the field the articles relate to. So tertiary literature, which is also based on credible sources, is the go-to source for many people when it comes to learning new topics. Examples of tertiary literature include textbooks, wikipedia and encyclopedia.1
Table 1. Examples of primary, secondary, and tertiary literature that relate to applied plant ecology
| Type of literature | Example |
| Primary | Tanentzap AJ, Vicari M, Bazely DR. Ungulate saliva inhibits a grass-endophyte mutualism. Biol Lett. 2014;10(7):20140460. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2014.0460 |
| Secondary | Górniak I, Bartoszewski R, Króliczewski J. Comprehensive review of antimicrobial activities of plant flavonoids. Phytochemistry Reviews. 2019;18(1):241-272. doi:10.1007/s11101-018-9591-z. |
| Tertiary | Invasive Species. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_species (accessed 4 Mar2022). |
Reference List
- BIO153H5: Diversity of organisms: Primary, secondary, Tertiary. University of Toronto Mississauga Library. 2021.https://guides.library.utoronto.ca/c.php?g=251174&p=1673304 (accessed 4 Mar2022).
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 