Chemical information exists in many different formats including: articles, books, chemical and physical properties, spectra, and data. Sources can be primary, secondary, or tertiary. Authors of primary sources analyze data. Secondary and tertiary sources interpret and summarize other sources. Primary sources are often the most up-to-date, but can be difficult to read and understand for non-experts. Secondary and tertiary sources are often easier to understand, but have undergone additional interpretation.
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Primary Sources Original research, evidence, and analysis Examples: Research articles, Patents, Research data, Lab notes, Conference papers, Clinical trials Search tip: Did the authors themselves collect or analyze data? If the answer is yes, it is probably primary research. |
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Secondary Sources Summaries, evaluations, or interpretations of others' original research Examples: Review articles, Book reviews, Annotated bibliographies Search tip: Scholarly review articles are usually easier to understand than the primary literature. Try adding the term "review" to your search strategy to find them. |
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Tertiary Sources Collections and summaries of primary and secondary sources Examples: Reference books, Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Chemical property databases, Indexes Search tip: Try searching by the "Registry Number" to pull up properties in chemical databases. |
Most chemical literature is often found in the following formats. Use the navigation on the left or select from the list below to learn more about searching for each type of literature:
Information about specific substances, such as chemical and physical properties, can be found using the following resources on this guide:
