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Types of secondary sources: data compilations, yearbooks, textbooks and review articles

Data compilations

A good source of hard facts! Example: World Bank1

Yearbooks

Yearbooks are an annual publication that summarise the events of the preceding year. These often contain statistical summaries. Examples:

  • The Europa World Yearbook2
  • IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 20033

Textbooks

Textbooks are often written by academics who have experience of teaching the subject. Revisions and further editions suggest that the book has become an established and reliable source of information. Textbooks are useful as they:

  • provide validated knowledge on a subject
  • are structured and concise instructional packages
  • suggest further reading
  • have indexes that enable you to be selective about what you read

Examples

  • The American Democracy4
  • Chemistry for environmental and Earth sciences5
  • Managing sport facilities6

Review articles

Review articles are published in journals and specialised review publications.
Like textbooks and encyclopaedias, they provide an overview of a topic, but in addition they:

  • evaluate information on a subject collected from a variety of sources
  • provide a state of the art review of knowledge about a subject, written by an expert in the field
  • provide extensive lists of references

A good review article can save you time, as it will summarise and evaluate known research about your subject.

You have now completed Unit 1. If you require any further information, please contact your subject librarian.

References

  1. Little Green Data Book, World Bank, Washington DC, 2005.
  2. The Europa World Yearbook, Europa, London, 2002.
  3. IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2003, Institute for Management Development,
    Lausanne, 2003.
  4. Patterson, Thomas E.  The American Democracy, McGraw Hill, Boston, 2005.
  5. Duke, Catherine V.A., Craig D. Williams.  Chemistry for environmental and Earth sciences,
    CRC Press, Boca Raton, 2008.
  6. Fried, Gil. Managing sport facilities, human Kinetics, Champaign, IL, 2005.