Library Home: Primary Sources: Primary Sources in Sciences

What are primary sources in the Sciences?

Original research conducted by scientists, usually published in scholarly and peer-reviewed journals, that results in the collection of data.
Data itself, that is collected through research is also a primary source.
Some features of these research articles include keywords/concepts of:

participants, survey, patients
methodology, procedure
results, conclusion, outcome

Examples:

Experimental data
Laboratory notes
Conference Proceedings
Technical Reports
Patents
Some peer-reviewed scientific journal articles of original research

Find Primary Sources in the Biological, Physical, Psychology Sciences

American Chemical Society Web Editions This link opens in a new window
Search by keyword or browse by title or subject area. Select articles that confirm ORIGINAL research.
PsycInfo (APA) 1887-Current This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive international coverage of scholarly literature in psychology. Limit by methodology, ie. case-studies, focus groups,

PubChem
Includes individual databases on Compounds, Substances, and BioAssays. Primary data sets, patents, and labs.
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
PLOS One is a peer-reviewed open access mega journal published by the Public Library of Science (PLOS) since 2006. Use the limiter for "Research Articles"

PubMed This link opens in a new window
Look for article types: Clinical Trial, Comparative/Observational Study, Controlled Clinical Trial, Dataset, Randomized Controlled Trial
ScienceDirect Health & Life Sciences College Edition This link opens in a new window
Select the RESEARCH limiter on the left to get primary source articles.