A secondary source interprets and/or analyzes primary sources. Secondary sources are one step removed from the event.
Types of secondary sources
- Textbooks, magazine articles, histories, criticism, commentaries, encyclopedias, systematic reviews, meta-analyses
Examples of secondary sources
- Journal/magazine articles which interpret or review previous findings
- Textbooks
- Newspaper reporting the findings in a medical journal
- Systematic reviews which interpret the findings of many research studies.