Primary Sources
Key Words When Searching Databases
Examples of primary sources include diaries, personal journals, government records, court records, property records, newspaper articles, military reports, military rosters, original research experiments, and many other things.
If you are required to use primary sources in your research, how do you find them in article databases? There are some databases that clearly have historical and primary sources (Historical New York Times and Core Historical Literature of Agriculture). But it is usually not so obvious!
There are some key words to search for in the article's abstract (a succinct one paragraph summary of the entire paper), into a search box, or using ways to limit or select for database results. Look for, or enter, these terms when searching:
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Individuals
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Sciences
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Humanities
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Government/Business/Law
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Media
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autobiography
diary
obituary
interview
lecture
letter
personal account
blog post
tweet
social media post
sermon
speech
correspondence
testimonial
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case study
study
clinical report
data report
statistical report
laboratory notebook
survey
technical report
conference paper
dissertation
patent
proceedings
theses
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concert review
film review
theatre review
play
poem
novel
sculpture
art work
music performance
lyrics
score
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conference proceeding
transcript
congressional testimony
proceedings
court testimony
court decision
executive order
financial report
industry report
presidential document
proclamation
treaty
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photograph
cartoon
digital image
television program
radio broadcast
online news reports
sound recording
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