How to Judge a Secondary Source
How do you know that secondary sources are of a high enough quality to be used in research papers? Circa’s experts give some quick tips below.
It might seem that all secondary sources, especially printed secondary sources, might be of equal value. But there are ways to determine which secondary sources are more valuable than others. In fact, some secondary sources should not be used when looking for general background information or current historical debates. To understand whether you should use a secondary source, go through our checklist below.
Who wrote the book?
One of the first criteria to consider is the author. Who is the author? Do they have an appropriate background that would give them the knowledge and skills to research and write this book? You might assess this fact by seeing if the author has written similar books on related subjects or if the author was professionally trained. Furthermore, you can asses if the author has any biases that might make their writings less credible. Such biases might make books even by the most well-trained scholars unusable.
Who published the book?
The next question to consider is who published the book and why. Is it published by a major book publisher? By a publisher that puts its books through peer review (when other scholars check non-fiction books)? Or is this a book published by a government, institution, or other group with a particular interest in mind? Such secondary sources might still be usable, but you should take their contexts into account.
When was it published?
It might seem to you that the date when a secondary source was published should not matter. Surely history doesn’t change that much? Incorrect! Historians are constantly updating the ways in which they research, understand, and write about the past. Using a book written more than a decade ago runs the risk that scholarship has moved beyond the arguments that the author is making. That said, this temporal rule can sometimes be broken: some classics, written decades ago, made such enormous impacts on the field of history and made such astute observations that they are still widely cited today. If you are in doubt, you can do a quick check on Google scholar to see if this book is cited by current researchers.
What kinds of sources does the author use?
The more history books you read, the more often you will start reading history books at the end of the book. Not to catch spoilers about the ending (that’s usually no surprise!) but instead to check out the kinds of sources that the author has used to write the book. Where did the author uncover the information in the book? Was it through other secondary sources or did the author do primary research? Did the author focus too much on one kind of source or archive or did the author spread out their research across a wide range of perspectives? Answers to these questions might affect how much you rely on the book or indeed whether you decide to use it at all in your research.
What about digital sources?
For digital sources, it is possible to ask yourself the same questions as for written sources. Sometimes online secondary sources are quite excellent—writers might release additional information online to accompany recent book projects, for instance. At the same time, the internet is filled with writings from non-experts, from small tweets to student research projects. This checklist for determining whether a printed secondary source is of academic quality can also help you determine whether these digital sources are usable in your research.
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