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How should I use primary sources?

Primary sources can be very helpful to your research as they can include raw data about a particular subject or technique, or will be able to provide a first-hand account of an event, or development of a procedure.

However, a journal article written 50 years ago by a person involved in a piece of research that is relevant to your work will also be a primary source. Many scientific principles and techniques have not radically changed, and by reading reports, articles and theses written by those who were originally involved in their development you will be looking at a primary source. This doesn't mean the work hasn't been updated! Remember that there may have been criticism of the work, or more recent research carried out, so you may need to find out if this is the case.

Bias

As primary sources are often written by only one or two people, or may be a report funded by an individual company or organisation, you should be aware that the information contained within the source may be biased. It is important to consider bias as an issue, as when you carry out research you should ensure that you consider as many of the available points of view as possible.

Primary sources can be more subject to bias because they are generally written by people very close to what is being described, and this means their judgement of a situation may be different from that of someone looking at the same situation several months later.

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SMILE - Finding Information by Imperial College, Loughborough University and the University of Worcester, modified by Marion Kelt Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License