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Just as sources can be scholarly or popular, sources are also divided into primary and secondary.

Primary sources are firsthand or eyewitness accounts of information by an individual close to the topic. Examples of primary sources include autobiographies, personal correspondence (e.g., diary entries, letters), government documents, works of art and literature, statistics and data, and newspaper articles written by reporters close to the source. Today, even some social media posts are considered primary sources, because they are firsthand accounts of information.

Primary sources are different from secondary sources, accounts or interpretations more removed from an event, usually written or created after the event has happened.

The definition of a primary source changes dependent on your field of study, application, and interpretation of the source. For help identifying primary sources by discipline, take a look at the table below.

*Examples of primary and secondary source by discipline*
	Primary Source	Secondary Source
Art	Van Gogh's Starry Night	book or article critiquing the artwork
Biological Science	time series data reporting ocean's temperature	data visualizations of rise in ocean temperature
Criminal Justice	social media posts of police brutality	report from a task force investigating policing practices
History	newspaper article detailing bombings during WWII	book analyzing military strategies during WWII
Literature	Toni Morrison's Sula	article providing critique or analysis of characters in Sula
Political Science	The Federalist Papers	federal judge's justification for Supreme Court decisions using The Federalist Papers
Theater	script from Lin Manuel Miranda's Hamilton	article analyzing the historical accuracy of Hamilton

Practice determining whether a course is primary or secondary by playing UCLA's "Wheel of Sources" below.

"Wheel of Sources" (7:55)

Student Support Resources

How do I find a primary source?