HSM 4410: Research Methods for Health Services (Assignment)

You may find both Primary & Secondary Sources in the Library Catalog and Databases.The library catalog can help you find books we own, such as fiction or poetry; or DVDs, such as movies or cinema verite documentaries - all primary sources. You can also find literary criticism, textbooks, non-fiction books written later about an event, or about an aspect of research on a topic or a disease, and summaries like encyclopedias - all secondary sources.

The Library Databases can be used to find scholarly or peer-reviewed journal articles describing original research - primary sources. You can also find review articles (overviews of prior research), meta-analyses, newspaper or magazine articles, and e-books and online encyclopedias & reference books - all secondary sources. Click on the Peer-Reviewed Articles tab to see screen shots showing how to restrict your results to peer-reviewed journals.

You probably discussed Primary and Secondary sources in earlier classes, especially English or Humanities. They may have listed primary sources as such items as photographs, videos or historical documents from the time an event happened, as well as original artwork. Secondary sources were items like later articles about the event, literary criticism, biographies, movie reviews.

But for this course we are dealing specifically with scientific research, not old photos or novels. In this context, "primary" often means the original study and the original researchers; "secondary" means analysis or different studies produced later, usually by different people.  

"Primary data source refers to the collection of data by researchers themselves. Secondary data source refers to the use of data collected by others" (Shi, 2009, p. 75).

When we talk about primary & secondary sources in healthcare, we generally mean written works describing medical experiments or health services research studies.

Differences Between Primary & Secondary Sources

Primary Sources:

• Initial publications of a scientific study by the original researchers.
• Published in academic, scholarly journals. 
• The way scientists and researchers communicate the results of their scientific discoveries, experiments or clinical trials of new treatments.
• Contain detailed information about the research methods and results, so others may try to replicate their work.
• Have a standard structure, like Background, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion and References.

Secondary Sources:

• Review articles or meta-analyses, also published in scholarly journals.
• Usually summaries or reanalysis of prior evidence or prior data, including combining results.
• Most articles published in trade magazines.
• Articles from newspapers or popular magazines, or items from TV shows, which report the findings of a research study.
• Textbooks, reference books, encyclopedias, and the majority of non-fiction books.
• Most healthcare articles on general websites (except in online journals and webpages which house original data).
• Usually are brief discussions focusing on results, without detailed information about research methods.
• No standard structure; emphasize interviews with patients, researchers, or healthcare managers.
• Many have few or no references or citations.

Shi, L. (2009). Health services research methods (2nd ed.). Clifton Park, NY: Cengage Learning.