Biological Sciences: Journals vs. Magazines

A primary source is a document or record which reports a study, experiment, event or other phenomenon firsthand.   

Primary sources are usually written by the person(s) who did the research, conducted the study, ran the experiment, or witnessed the event. Primary sources are detailed first reports of the results of this original research.

Look for the following elements when deciding whether a journal article is a primary source reporting the results of original research:

• Problem and Purpose
• Significance
• literature review or synthesis of the theory and other research relevant to the topic being studied
• a description of the population or sample in the study;human subjects
  
• an outline of methodology;
• Interventions
• Sample
• Instruments
• data collection
• data analysis
  
•  a report of results and a discussion of their significance; implications
  
• conclusions

Clues for Determining Whether Article is Primary and Scholarly:

• Article is more than 8 pages long
• Article has headings such as: "literature review," "population," "methodology," "results," etc.
• Contains keywords such as "study" or "research"