Answer:
Primary resources contain first-hand information, meaning that you are reading the author’s own account on a specific topic or event that s/he participated in. Examples of primary resources include scholarly research articles, books, and diaries. Primary sources such as research articles often do not explain terminology and theoretical principles in detail. Thus, readers of primary scholarly research should have foundational knowledge of the subject area. Use primary resources to obtain a first-hand account to an actual event and identify original research done in a field. For many of your papers, use of primary resources will be a requirement.
Examples of a primary source are:
Original documents such as diaries, speeches, manuscripts, letters, interviews, records, eyewitness accounts, autobiographies
Empirical scholarly works such as research articles, clinical reports, case studies, dissertations
Creative works such as poetry, music, video, photography
How to locate primary research in NCU Library:
From the Library's homepage, begin your search in Roadrunner Search or select a subject-specific database from the A-Z Databases.
Use the Scholarly/Peer-Reviewed Journal limiter to narrow your search to journal articles.
Once you have a set of search results, remember to look for articles where the author has conducted original research. A primary research article will include a literature review, methodology, population or set sample, test or measurement, discussion of findings and usually future research directions.
