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SOC 101: Introduction to Sociology

EBSCO Discovery Search Tutorial

Video Credit: EBSCO Tutorials, Sep 19, 2023.

Avoid Plagiarism

Remember, if you don't own or didn't create it, you'll need a citation or credit attached to the resource. Learn more about avoiding plagiarism below,

Library Journals & Magazines

Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources

What the difference between a primary, secondary, and tertiary source?

  • Primary sources are created as close to the original event or phenomenon as it is possible to be. For example, a photograph or video of an event is a primary source. More examples: Data from an experiment is a primary source, letters, journals, articles, speeches, video recordings, works of art, and books.
  • Secondary sources are one step removed from that. Secondary sources are based on or about the primary sources. For example, articles and books in which authors interpret data from another research team's experiment or archival footage of an event are usually considered secondary sources. More examples: Books written about an original event, artwork, or literary resources, biographies, essays, literacy criticisms, and commentaries.
  • Tertiary sources are one further step removed from that. Tertiary sources summarize or synthesize the research in secondary sources. For example, almanacs, fact books, textbooks, bibliographies, dictionaries, indexes, textbooks, and reference books are tertiary sources (Text in this section is from Suny Empire College's guide: Research Skills Tutorial).

Why is this important?

  • For your research assignments, you are asked to find primary, secondary, and tertiary sources. You'll need to be able to recognize the difference between all three. Remember primary sources are about the event. Secondary sources analyze the event and interpret another author's work. Tertiary sources summarize events from other authors after the event has occurred. 

Library Databases

Keywords

Here are some keywords to use in your searches. Remember to use terms that will narrow your search! 

  • Absolute Monarchy
  • Achieved Status
  • Age Group
  • Agents of socialization
  • Aggregate
  • Agricultural or agrarian society
  • Alienation
  • American Dream
  • Anomie
  • Anticipatory Socialization
  • Apartheid
  • Appearance
  • Applied Sociology
  • Ascribed status
  • Assimilation
  • August Comte
  • Authoritarianism
  • Belief
  • Blue-collar
  • Body language
  • Bourgeoisie
  • Bureaucracy
  • Capitalism / Capitalist Class
  • Caste System
  • Category
  • Charismatic Authority
  • Church
  • Civil Society
  • Class system
  • Clergy
  • Clinical Sociology
  • Clique
  • Colonialism
  • Commoners
  • Community development and change
  • Communism
  • Conflict Theory
  • Conflict view of deviance
  • Conformists
  • Constitutional Monarchy
  • Control Theory
  • Counterculture
  • Crime
  • Cult
  • Cultural Diffusion
  • Cultural Relativism
  • Culture
  • Culture Lag
  • Culture of Poverty
  • Culture Shock
  • Cultural Group
  • Degradation Ceremony
  • Democracy
  • Deviance / Deviant Subculture
  • Differential Association
  • Divine Right of Kings
  • Dominant Culture
  • Dramaturgy
  • Dyad
  • Economic Status
  • Economy
  • Education
  • Ego
  • Emile Durkheim
  • Endogamy
  • Estate System
  • Ethnocentrism
  • Ethnomethodology
  • Exogamy
  • Extended Family
  • The Factory System of Production
  • Family
  • Familial relationships
  • Feminization of Poverty
  • Folkway
  • Formal Organization
  • Gender Role / Gender Socialization
  • Generalized Other
  • Georg Simmel
  • Global Stratification
  • Globalization of Capitalism
  • Goal Displacement
  • Goals and Means
  • Government
  • Group / Group Dynamics / Groupthink
  • Halo Effect
  • Health
  • Herbert Spencer
  • Heritage Group
  • Holistic Medicine
  • Horticultural Society
  • Hunting and Gathering Society
  • Id
  • Ideal Type
  • Ideology
  • Illegitimate Opportunity Structures
  • Industrial Era
  • Industrialization / Industrializing Nations
  • Impression Management
  • In-group
  • Indentured Servitude
  • Inner Controls
  • Innovators
  • Institution / Institutionalized Means
  • Interventionist Approach
  • Karl Marx
  • Labeling Theory
  • Law
  • Least Industrialized Nations
  • Looking-glass self
  • Macrosociology
  • Manner of interacting
  • Mass Media
  • Mass Society
  • Master Status
  • Material Culture
  • Matrilocality
  • Max Weber
  • Mediation
  • Medicine
  • Melting Pot
  • Meritocracy
  • Microsociology
  • Middle Class
  • Monarchy
  • Monogamy
  • Monotheism
  • Moral Reasoning
  • More
  • Most Industrialized Nations
  • Multiculturalism
  • Multinational Corporations
  • Negative Sanction
  • Neocolonialism
  • Neolocality
  • Network
  • New money
  • Nobility
  • Nonmaterial Culture
  • Norm
  • Nuclear family
  • Oligarchy
  • Organizational structures
  • Out-group
  • Outer controls
  • Pastoral Society
  • Patrilocality
  • Peer Group
  • Personal Space
  • Pluralistic society
  • Politics
  • Polyandry
  • Polygamy
  • Polytheism
  • Positive Sanction
  • Positivism
  • Postindustrial Society
  • Poverty Level
  • Power / Power Elite
  • Primary Deviance
  • Primary Group
  • Primary Socialization
  • Primogeniture
  • Proletariat
  • Props
  • Qualitative Research
  • Quantitative Research
  • Rational-legal authority
  • Rationalization of society
  • Rebels
  • Recidivism
  • Reference group
  • Reincarnation
  • Religion
  • Resocialization
  • Retreatists
  • Revolution
  • Ritualists
  • Role
  • Role Conflict
  • Sanction
  • Secondary Deviance
  • Secondary Group
  • Sect
  • Self
  • Setting
  • Sign Vehicles
  • Significant Other
  • Slavery (Enslavement)
  • The Social Construction of Reality
  • Social Control
  • Social Group
  • Social Hierarchies
  • Social Integration
  • Socialism
  • Socialization
  • Social Mobility
  • Social Processes
  • Society / Society & Culture / Societies
  • Sociology
  • Sociopolitical influences
  • Sociotherapy
  • Status
  • Status Inconsistency
  • Status Set
  • Status Symbol
  • Stereotype
  • Stigma
  • Strain Theory
  • Stratification
  • Structural Functionalist Theory
  • Subculture
  • Superego
  • Systems Thinking
  • Taboo
  • Textile mills
  • Thomas Theorem
  • Totalitarianism
  • Traditional Authority
  • Triad
  • Upper Class
  • Urbanization
  • Value
  • Victimless crime
  • Voluntary association
  • War
  • Welfare capitalism
  • White-collar
  • White-collar Crime
  • Working Class
  • Working Poor
  • World System Theory