This is the old version of the Earth Science guide. You can find the new guide by following this link: https://libguides.southernct.edu/earthscience
Science literature is made up of primary and secondary literature, or scholarly literature--research reports and analysis--and tertiary literature--news, opinion, and summaries. In most cases, you should use the "most primary" source available for academic work.
Primary and secondary sources (scholarly):
Scholarly literature (primary and secondary) is mostly made up of journal articles, mainly searched through online databases, or scholarly books, searched in the Library Catalog. See the Journal Articles tab and/or the Books tab for resources.
Tertiary sources (non-scholarly):
Tertiary literature is a general term for non-original or non-scholarly work. While you don't often use tertiary sources, they can be used for background information, identification of key vocabulary terms for searching, gaining a better understand of a topic, and quick information. Examples of tertiary sources are science stories in newspapers, textbooks, most dictionaries and encyclopedias See the Background Information tab for resources.
Updated news on the Earth and Climate from ScienceDaily.com
