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Writing an Argumentative Research Paper

  • Library Resources
  • Books & EBooks
  • What is an Argumentative Research Essay?
  • Choosing a Topic
  • How to Write a Thesis Statement Libguide
  • Structure & Outline

Types of Sources

  • OER Resources
  • Copyright, Plagiarism, and Fair Use

When conducting research you may come across many different types of sources and each source falls under a specific category. There are three main categories of sources which include Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary.

Primary source is a firsthand account of information by an individual with close connections to a topic. Ex: autobiographies, personal correspondences like diaries, government documents, documentaries, archives, works of art and literature, statistical data, and newspaper articles written by reporters close to the source. 

Secondary Source  is a source that is not involved or close to the event, usually written after the event has happened. Secondary sources describe, analyze, interpret, comment, and summarize a primary source. Ex: biographies, interpretation of statistics and data,  book reviews, scholarly articles that talk about someone else's research, and anything written after an historical event that reevaluates what happened.

Tertiary sources  contain information that is used to locate or find primary or secondary sources. Ex: almanacs, timelines, dictionaries and encyclopedias, directories, guidebooks, indexes, abstracts, manuals, and textbooks.

The following databases can be accessed through Galileo:

Academic Search Complete

Ancestry Library Edition

Arts & Humanities Database (ProQuest)

Business Market Research Collection (ProQuest)

Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP)

Criminal Justice Database (ProQuest)

Environment Complete

History Reference Center

Salem Health and Salem History Database

Bepress Digital Commons

THE DIRECTORY OF OPEN ACCESS JOURNALS

Taylor & Francis Group’s open access journals

Oxford University Press (OUP) open access journals

ScienceOpen  

Digital Library of the Commons  (DLC) Repository 

BioMed Central  

The Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC)

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers

News & Newspapers (ProQuest)

Newspaper Source Plus

Wall Street Journal (ProQuest Newspapers)

New York Times (ProQuest Newspapers)

Census Data (U.S. Census Bureau)

Georgia Census Data

The Center for Statistical Research and Methodology: Census Bureau

The  National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)  is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education.

The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) is a principal statistical agency located within the National Science Foundation (NSF) and its mandate is the collection, interpretation, analysis, and dissemination of objective data on the science and engineering enterprise.

National Center for Health Statistics

Bureau of Justice Statistics

Bureau of Transportation Statistics

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis is your source of  accurate and objective  data about the nation's economy.

Education Resources Information Center  

Public Library of Science  (PLOS) 

CIA World Factbook  

Veterans Affairs: VA.gov Home

USCIS: Home

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | US EPA

Research and Publications | EDUCAUSE

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Web search tools:

Google Scholar  

WorldWideScience

Science.gov

Virtual Learning Resources Center  (VLRC)

Bielefeld Academic Search Engine

  Lexis Web

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  • Last Updated: Oct 22, 2024 1:05 PM
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