Counseling & Family Therapy Research Guide

Basically, a primary source is an original research report.  A secondary source is a synthesis of others' work.

Primary source research articles generally include the following: abstract; research question; introduction; literature review; research methodology; setting/context/location; participants; findings or results; discussion; implications or conclusions; and suggestions for further research.

Phrases that might be found in the abstract for a primary source article include "the study findings," "the purpose of this study is," and "the participants were observed for." Phrases that might be found in the abstract for a secondary source include "this review synthesized research," and "in this article, I critique a component of the curriculum."

Here are some resources to help clarify the difference between primary and secondary sources.

http://www.utexas.edu/nursing/norr/html/links/research_qua.html

Quantitative Studies generate numerical data or data that can be converted into numbers. Examples of quantitative studies:

The studies presented here increase in validity, reliability and level of evidence as you go down the list.

Case series and Case reports consist of collections of reports on the treatment of individual patients or a report on a single patient. Because they are reports of cases and use no control groups to compare outcomes, they have little statistical validity.

Case control studies are studies in which patients who already have a specific condition are compared with people who do not have the condition. The researcher looks back to identify factors or exposures that might be associated with the illness.  They often rely on medical records and patient recall for data collection. These types of studies are often less reliable than randomized controlled trials and cohort studies because showing a statistical relationship does not mean than one factor necessarily caused the other. 

Cohort studies identify a group of patients who are already taking a particular treatment or have an exposure, follow them forward over time, and then compare their outcomes with a similar group that has not been affected by the treatment or exposure being studied. Cohort studies are observational and not as reliable as randomized controlled studies, since the two groups may differ in ways other than in the variable under study.  

Randomized controlled clinical trials are carefully planned experiments that introduce a treatment or exposure to study its effect on real patients. They include methodologies that reduce the potential for bias (randomization and blinding) and that allow for comparison between intervention groups and control (no intervention) groups.  A randomized controlled trial is a planned experiment and can provide sound evidence of cause and effect.  

Systematic Reviews  focus on a clinical topic and answer a specific question. An extensive literature search is conducted to identify studies with sound methodology. The studies are reviewed, assessed for quality, and the results summarized according to the predetermined criteria of the review question.

A Meta-analysis will thoroughly examine a number of valid studies on a topic and mathematically combine the results using accepted statistical methodology to report the results as if it were one large study.

Adapted from http://guides.mclibrary.duke.edu/content.php?pid=431451&sid=3530453

Qualitative Studies explore and understand people's beliefs, experiences, attitudes, behavior and interactions. They generate non-numerical data. Examples of qualitative studies:

• Phenomenological studies investigate the meaning of a phenomenon among those who experienced it.
• Ethnography is a systematic study of the features and interactions of a particular culture.
• In Grounded Theory Studies is research where data are collected, analyzed, and used to develop a theoretical explanation and generate hypotheses for further research.
• Historical method examines social phenomena by studying their historical context or their past.
• Case Studies use the in-depth description of essential dimensions and processes of the phenomenon being studied.

Adapted from http://www.utexas.edu/nursing/norr/html/links/research_qua.html

A peer reviewed source is one where an author's work is critiqued or evaluated by experts in the same field or discipline before being published.  The reviewers are examining how this new work contributes to the discipline. Many scholarly journals use a peer review process before publishing an article.  If you aren't sure if the journal in which the article appears is peer-reviewed, look at the journal's home page which should indicate if it is peer-reviewed.

Anatomy of a Scholarly Article (NCSU Libraries)

Click on the highlighted areas for clues to identify scholarly articles.