Skip to Main Content
homepage
Contact Us Library Hours

Biology

Information and links to resources for biology classes at NIC

Primary Research

What is a primary source for scientific research?

  • A first-hand report of an original study, experiment, or event
  • Written by the person(s) who conducted the study/experiment or witnessed the event
  • Can be quantitative or qualitative in nature

An original research article should consist of the following headings: Structured abstract, introduction, methods, results, and discussion (IMRAD) and maybe Randomized Control Trial (RCT), Controlled Clinical Trial (CCT), Experiment, Survey, and Case-Control or Cohort Study.

Tips For Identifying Primary Research

Within journals, you will find a range of articles, including research, news, expert opinion and book reviews. Although all of these can be useful, you will need to know how to identify primary research.

Primary Research (original research) articles report on and share new research findings. Examples include: focus groups, interviews, surveys, observations, and experiments.

Secondary Research (desk research) articles evaluate and synthesize existing primary research. Examples include: literature reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses.

Journal article's title or abstract:

Look for words that describe research and the research process undertaken:

e.g. research, qualitative research, quantitative research, study, experiment, survey, questionnaire, etc.

What to look for when reading articles:

Look for words / subheadings / sections of the article which describe the research process, including:

  • Methodology / method of how the research was carried out
  • Details about how the sample size and how the sample was obtained (how were the participants selected?)
  • Possibly ethics and issues around bias, confidentiality etc.
  • Details about the data collection (were participants interviewed? were blood samples taken?)
  • A literature review will set the research in context of existing knowledge and understanding (the literature review will not be the focus of the article).
  • An analysis of the results (this could be in the form of tables, graphs,charts, quotes, transcripts etc. It will depend on the research method(s) used
  • Conclusions and suggestions for practice or future research