Sources Mgmsisco Theinformation – If you’ve ever found yourself wondering “what are sources in the field of medicine?” or what is the difference between a journal article and a textbook,” then this article is for you. We’ll shed some light on the various types of sources, what they are used for, and how to find trustworthy resources for your papers.
First off, most sources people use to write research papers fall into three main categories: books, journals, and magazines. We’ll discuss each type of resource below and give examples of resources that fit in each category.
Books can be either primary or secondary depending on how they were created. A primary source is an original piece of research or writing that was published in a book format. Examples include an article from a medical journal, a novel where the author did extensive research before writing the fictional story, or a government report. Secondary sources are books that summarize or interpret primary sources. Examples would be textbooks, popular press articles about a new medical innovation, or a guidebook to the effects of too much time spent at the keyboard.
Journal articles share many characteristics with books, but have an important difference: they are published in journals and appear in serial order. That is, they are printed on a particular date and other articles that get accepted for publication also appear in that journal on approximately the same date. So if you’re looking for information about a medical procedure, for example, and you find an article in the journal Pediatrics, you can be almost certain the research was done on children and adolescents, even if it doesn’t explicitly say so. The last date that article appeared in that journal is also a good indication of how current the information is.
Magazine articles are similar to journal articles except they tend to reflect trends more than original research. They may also interpret, summarize and analyze original research.
Sometimes you’ll run into a source that doesn’t fit in one of these categories, such as an unpublished research paper or a chapter from a textbook. For these types of sources, the best thing to do is contact the author or publisher and ask for permission. Sometimes people will give you permission to use them as long as you follow their conditions; others won’t. If they don’t agree, you will either have to go through the editorial process once again (with articles being rejected each time) or find another source.
Sources are organized into categories based on general type of content, format in which they’re published, and contact information.
Books
These books fall into two main categories: those that explain how to use a particular piece of equipment and those that describe how a particular procedure works. The former category includes books written by manufacturers and physicians (such as how to use a stethoscope or how to perform open heart surgery). The latter category includes books written by researchers and others that are used to train health care professionals, such as textbooks and handbooks.
The most important thing to remember between a primary source such as a book and an authors’ intended audience is that the source was written with an audience in mind. Because of this, you can almost always tell whether an author was trying to inform or instruct a particular audience just by looking at the writing style.
