About Scientific Literature(s)

• Primary literature is sometimes called "research literature", and consists of reports of research: experiments, observations, candidates for new scientific information. Journal articles are the most familiar form of primary literature, but theses, conference proceedings, reports and patents are also usually considered primary.

• Secondary literature covers a pretty broad variety of forms and styles, all of which serve as guides to the primary literature. Included under this rubric are:
  • Review series (Annual Review of... and similar titles, in which recognized experts provide evaluative guides to recent primary literature)
  • Abstracting and Indexing and Current-Awareness services, which used to be paper but are increasingly available in (searchable) electronic form.
  • Reference books (many --but not all-- of which are found in a library's Reference section)

• Tertiary literature includes textbooks and guides to the literature. Two examples from the Science Library REFERENCE collection are:

   AUTHOR       Davis, Elisabeth B., 1932-
   TITLE        Using the biological literature : a practical guide 
   EDITION      2nd ed., rev. and expanded.
   PUBLISHER    New York : M. Dekker, c1995.
   SUBJECT      Biological literature.
   1 > Science-Reference      QH303.6 .D38 1995
  
   AUTHOR       Bell, George H., 1943-
   TITLE        A guide to the zoological literature : the animal kingdom 
   PUBLISHER    Englewood, Colo. : Libraries Unlimited, 1994.
   SUBJECT      Zoology -- Bibliography.
   1 > Science-Reference      QL45.2 .B43 1994
  

• Quaternary literature is sometimes spoken of rather sneeringly ("...includes most encyclopedias, all news articles, and most general articles in trade magazines..."), but can be of great use in the early stages of exploration of a subject --and therefore is definitely included in the purview of Biology 182.