LifeWay Nutrition

Clearing the Fog:

If you have read the “about our blog” section then you will have no doubt run across the “primary and secondary” sources part we said we would use in our posts.  To clear things up for those of you who have asked, what is a primary or secondary source?

Below we have described them for you…

Primary Sources:

Primary sources in the case of our site and posts are sources of scientific or medical research which have been tested by scientist through lab experimentation and rigorous work.  Primary literature will have following format:

• Abstract (short summary at the beginning of the paper)
• Introduction (why the scientist(s) is pursuing the given experiment and it’s importance)
• Materials and Methods (what the scientist(s) use during their experiment and the measure they take)
• Results and Discussion (results given in favor or not in favor of the hypotheses and why)
• Conclusion (conclusions based on evidence in study)
• References (literature cited section)
• Acknowledgments

Primary resources contain technical information and is geared towards a specific professional audience in most cases.  Within the literature the reader will find measurements, graphs, tables, randomization procedures, etc.

Secondary Sources:

Secondary sources are professional journals and magazines which derive their information from primary sources.  Some good examples of secondary sources would be National Geographic, and Scientific America.  Secondary sources are one step away from primary sources.  The secondary source can include

• Pictures
• Graphs
• Tables
• Quotes

Generally you will not find a professional secondary source quoting a primary, rather they will give a reference to the material which was researched. On rare occasion quotes will be used. The use of references — rather than quotes — shows that the writer has a good background on the subject, has comprehended it’s material fully, and is able to form his/her own thoughts on the subject rather than quoting the author. Secondary sources are also broken down into simpler terms for people not so interested in the technical jargon, so the average Joe can understand it.

The job of the secondary source is to research and review the findings of primary sources.