PHCY 504 - Primary and Secondary Literature Tutorial: Scholarly Literature & Searching Library Databases
Created by Health Science Librarians
What is Scholarly Literature?
What is scholarly literature?
Scholarly literature is
- authored by credentialed professors, researchers, or other scholars in a field for scholars and researchers in that field -- a scholarly article will have a clearly defined author or authors and will usually indicate where the author is working and in what position.
- peer-reviewed -- it has been vetted by experts in the field before publication; if the research method is not rigorous enough, it will not be published.
- reviewed by an editorial board before publication -- a scholarly journal will have an editorial review board listed at the beginning of the journal; these are people who are generally associated with a university research center or scholarly research center.
- published by a reputable publisher
Scholarly literature includes:
- journal articles
- books
- conference proceedings
Scholarly literature does not include:
- websites
- magazines
- personal communication
- news articles
Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources
In general, scholarly information sources can be sorted into three types: primary, secondary, and tertiary.
| Type of Source | Definition | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Primary |
Primary sources are original materials on which other research is based.
The works present new thinking/discoveries/results and unite them with the existing knowledge base. |
Conference papers Monographs Technical Reports Theses & dissertations Journal articles reporting on primary studies (RCTs, observational studies, case-control studies, etc.) |
| Secondary |
Secondary sources are those which are published about the primary literature. They are sources that:
----OR----
|
Review articles (systematic reviews, literature reviews, comprehensive narrative reviews, etc.) Databases (PubMed, Embase, etc.)
|
| Tertiary |
Tertiary sources consist of information which is a distillation and collection of primary and secondary sources. They aim to provide a broad overview of a topic, or data, already proven facts, and definitions, often presented in a convenient form. They provide no new information |
Reference works (encyclopedias, textbooks, guides, handbooks) Point of care resources (Micromedex, UpToDate, Facts & Comparisons) |
You previously learned about tertiary resources, so this guide focuses on primary and secondary sources.
Databases - PubMed & Embase
When searching for pharmacy-related scholarly information or literature, you will want to consider the following secondary sources: PubMed and Embase.
PubMed and Embase are the two major health sciences databases. PubMed has a slight focus on literature from the US, and Embase has a slight focus on literature from Europe and Japan.
PubMed and Embase have a number of similarities. Both databases:
- have millions of citations from thousands of journals
- cover over 60 years (limited historical coverage dating to the 19th century)
- use a controlled vocabulary for indexing literature: MeSH in PubMed, Emtree in Embase
However, there are some key differences between PubMed and Embase.
PubMed:
- is sponsored by the NIH and the National Library of Medicine
- is freely available to everyone
- contains MEDLINE plus ~6 months of new publications not yet indexed for MEDLINE
Embase:
- is sponsored by Elsevier, a publishing company based in the Netherlands
- is subscription only (you may not have access at another institution or private company)
- includes MEDLINE content and articles that are only indexed in Embase
- includes more detailed drug indexing to make it easier to find drug literature
Primary and Secondary Literature - A Word of Caution
Once you've found your journal articles (primary and secondary literature), it's up to you to figure out how good the studies are. Less than ten percent of articles published in core medical journals are both high quality AND clinically useful. You'll need to be a discerning reader to determine the quality and significance of any literature you find in your searches. Later sessions of this course will focus on study design and critical appraisal of published studies.
It is also good to be aware of the inherent biases that may exist in scholarly literature. Certain types of studies are more likely to be overrepresented, such as those in the USA and Europe, with positive results, focused on white populations, or by authors affiliated with highly funded institutions. Other types of studies are more likely to underrepresented in the literature, such as those set in the Global South, with negative results, on BIPOC populations, or by authors with less funding. This may mean the first literature results you see are missing perspectives that would be useful, so it's recommended to run multiple searches in different places to confirm the information you've found and the comprehensiveness of your search.
