Books, e-books, reference materials

Provide:

• background information and concept overviews to begin research;

• historical perspective to ongoing research;

• procedures and protocols for applied and laboratory science;

• keywords for database searching.

Contain:

overviews of topics and disciplines, histories of subjects, and established information in a field.

Conference Papers

Papers presented at national and international conferences, symposia, and workshops are a source of "primary" scientific information. For many conferences the presented papers are eventually published in a "proceedings" or "transactions" volume. Papers with no published proceedings may be refined and reworked for formal publication in a journal.

Journals

Provide:

• concise and focused subject information;

• timely research information and new trends / ideas;

• insight into new experimental procedures and methodologies.

Contain:

New discoveries in a field.

Are:

often peer-reviewed, refereed and held to rigorous standards;

intended for general types of scientists and engineers or discipline specific audiences.

Scientific Monographs

Scientific monographs are book length works written by specialists for
the benefit of other specialists. As defined by the National Research Council they attempt to "...collect, collate, analyze, integrate, and synthesize all relevant contributions to the archival literature of the scientific and engineering journals and to add original material as required". They are different from textbooks which are pedagogical works and scientific popularizations for the general public.

Miscellaneous Sources

In addition to the above sources, additional miscellaneous formats can include:

• physical examples of materials;

• specimen types;

• taxonomies;

• source bibliographies;

• maps;

• databases;

• blogs, emails and wikis.

	Exercise 9. Think of the information sources and complete the table for different disciplines.
	Discipline	Primary Source	Secondary Source
	Art	Original artwork
	Architecture		Book on architectural style and design
	Geology		Interpretation of geologic features for a given location
	Graphics	Computer-generated graphics
	Music		Review of the song
	History		Book about exploration
	Journalism	Newspaper from 1920
	Literature	Poem
	Political Science	Interview	Article reviewing a law and its effects on the citizenry
	Science	Original journal article
	Theatre Arts		Biography of a playwright
	The area of study you are engaged in

Exercise 10. Summarize the information from the unit and make a report about the Sources of Information using the chart (Figure 5). Start your answer with the sentence:

The following chart illustrates common steps involved in the scientific research process (inner circle), the dissemination of research results through
the primary and secondary literature (outer circle), and the personal assimilation of this information resulting in new ideas and research (inner circle).

Figure 5. Sources of information