Rebecca Hedreen, Biology Librarian
BIO 350; Carlos Ramirez
(203) 392-5753
hedreenr1@southernct.edu

 

http://home.southernct.edu/~hedreenr1/BIO350.htm

A Quick Guide to Scientific Literature

Primary - We did this and this is what happened. (Journal articles, some books)

Secondary - These people did this, and those people did that, and this is what we think it means. (Journal articles, most scholarly books, news reporting)

Tertiary - This is a summary of what happened; this is the accepted meaning. (Dictionaries, encyclopedias, textbooks, news)

For academic work, you should generally go to the closest-to-primary source you can find. In other words, don't settle for an encyclopedia if you can find a scholarly book, and don't settle for a scholarly book if you can find the original research articles.

Peer reviewed is a separate category—these are articles that have been examined by experts in the particular field before publication. Primary, secondary, and tertiary literature can all be peer-reviewed.

Tertiary Literature:

Encyclopedia Britannica--great for finding general background information
Plant Sciences—a botany encyclopedia

The library has lots of subject specific encyclopedias in the Reference Collection, like Magill's Encyclopedia of Science: Plant Life, and online, like Collins Dictionary of Biology (in the Credo database).

You may not be able to cite tertiary literature as a source, depending on your professor's preferences, but it can help you with vocabulary, concepts, and organization. Tertiary literature is mostly for YOUR education.

Secondary and Primary Literature: Journal Databases

Science Reference Center--primary (journals), secondary, (journals and magazines), and tertiary (encyclopedia); lots of full text, plus videos (secondary & teritatry); some articles aimed at young audiences.

Academic Search Premier--mixed primary, secondary, and tertiary sources; good for all types of research.

BioOne--Mostly research articles (primary) and review articles (secondary).

JSTOR--Mostly research articles (primary) and review articles (secondary).

ScienceDirect--Mostly research articles (primary) and review articles (secondary). Also includes book and product reviews--which you can screen out in the search.


Ways of searching for articles:

You can search for articles using several different sets of criteria:

  1. species or related species -- use the species name to find research on the same organism, or just the genus name to find related organisms;

    2. Example of species/genus searching

    Bio-One:"Sarracenia" (genus name of pitcher plants)

    Purpose: What has been studied regarding this species or related species? (For instance, some of the prey species of Pitcher plants.)


  2. concepts -- use keywords describing what are you testing in this experiment;

    3. Example of concept searching

    JSTOR: "maize and roots and epidermis"

    Purpose: What similar studies been done?


  3. methods -- use keywords describing the method used to find similar experiments on any organism;

    4. Example of methods searching

    Science Direct: "leaf dissection and light microscopy"

    Purpose: What are some reasons to use this method? (For instance, comparative anatomy of related species.)

  4. author – when you find one interesting article, search for other articles by the same author(s). In most databases, there will be a simple link to search for authors.