Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper

Tertiary materials synthesize, organize, or repackage primary and/or secondary sources to facilitate quick access to information and/or statistical data. Tertiary sources are usually not credited to an author, but may identify an editor or chief compiler. Tertiary sources are good starting points for research projects because they often extract the essential meaning or most important aspects of large sets of information and arrange them into a convenient format.

Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources. Roger D. Moe Library. University of Minnesota, Crookston.

The distinctions between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources can be rather ambiguous depending upon the context in which an item is used. Some writers don't make a distinction between tertiary and secondary because both types of materials do not represent original works [i.e., primary sources]. However, for the purposes of reviewing the literature, it is important to understand how tertiary sources can contribute to the overall process of locating relevant information about a research topic.

Reviewing tertiary source materials can be of value in improving your overall research paper because they:

• Consolidate information in one place. Searching for information published in multiple sources takes time. A tertiary source, such as an directory, saves time because all the relevant information is compiled in one place.
• Facilitate comparing and contrasting information. One of the purposes of tertiary sources is to organize a lot of information in a way that facilitates easily comparing and contrasting the content in relation to the research problem. The information is formatted specifically to help the reader understand complex information or data.
• Publish regularly over a period of time. Many types of tertiary sources are published in predictable intervals. This means they can be important sources of consistently presented information over time, providing a longitudinal perspective about the content they present and also, by so doing, serve as a historical record of information.
• Distill large quantities of closely related information or data. A dictionary, specialized encyclopedia, or a statistical compendium can be used to review a large amount of information that would otherwise be difficult to synthesize and differentiate from multiple sources.
• Serve as an authoritative source of information. Tertiary sources often represent within an academic discipline, profession, or area of study, a reliable, accurate, definitive, and authenticated resource for locating current, historical, or emerging information.
• Often contain references to additional sources. Many tertiary sources can be efficient places to go to locate key primary and secondary sources about a topic. In this way, they can be a good starting point when reviewing prior research on a topic. This is the primary purpose of bibliographies.

Examples of tertiary sources you could review as part of your overall study that can be either in print or online:

• Abstracts -- summary of an article, report, or other publication describing the overall purpose of the study in the form of a paragraph that is usually written in 300 words or less.
• Almanacs -- collection of statistics, facts, and/or miscellaneous content that is typically published annually and covers both current and retrospective information concerning either a broad geographical area and topic or can be limited to a specific geographic region or subject area.
• Bibliographies -- comprehensive list of sources that identify relevant literature for a topic and which may include a brief descriptive or evaluative summary of each source [i.e., an annotation].
• Chronologies -- publication listing historical and/or contemporary events arranged in the order of their occurrence, often with a brief description of each event.
• Course Readers -- compilation of previously published materials that are selected for inclusion in a specific course and used to either supplement or replace a textbook.
• Dictionaries -- resource that lists in alphabetical order the meaning of words of a language or specialized terminology about a subject or discipline, often with additional information about pronunciation, origin, and proper usage.
• Directories -- publication of individuals and/or organizations listed alphabetically or thematically containing details such as names, addresses, web sites, telephone numbers, or other facts.
• Encyclopedias -- book, set of books, or online resource containing comprehensive information about many subjects or on many aspects of a single subject or discipline and typically arranged alphabetically or under thematic categories.
• Fact Books -- concise collection of information and/or statistical data that provides authoritative, factual information about people, places, events, or subjects, and is often published annually.
• Handbooks -- compendium of descriptive information that is designed to be easily consulted, providing information about a particular subject or, in some cases, containing advice about how to properly perform a particular technique or process.
• Manuals -- source of relevant information, requirements, and/or guidelines related to a specific process or to illustrate procedures concerning how to perform a task and which may be updated as new processes or procedures are put in place.
• Research Databases -- source of organized and often scholarly information stored in an electronic format covering general or subject-specific areas of study and which is capable of searching many resources simultaneously.
• Statistical Compendiums -- collection of historical and/or contemporary statistics arranged by subject area in systematically organized charts, tables, and/or graphs, often published annually.
• User-Generated Platforms -- compilation of online content written, maintained, and edited by individuals rather than organizations or private entities covering general information or particular topics of interest.

Definitions adapted from Library Terminology: Glossary of Library Terms, USC Libraries and Google generative AI.