13 What Types of Sources Should I Use for Academic Research?
With exploratory research, the quality of your sources matters. It’s important to rely on high-quality sources. In many cases, your instructor may want you to use at least a few peer-reviewed journal articles. These types of articles often review existing scholarly literature, provide original research, give case studies, or provide expert commentary or perspectives.
The two types of sources you may consider are primary sources and secondary sources. Always make sure you check in with your instructor and read your assignment instructions carefully so that you find and use the right kinds of sources.
Primary and Secondary Sources
Primary sources serve as an original source of information about the topic. In journalism, a primary source can be a person with direct knowledge of a situation, or a document written by such a person. Examples of primary sources include personal interviews, your own original research, newspaper articles, media (such as photos or videos), and primary texts like novels or the Declaration of Independence.
Secondary sources are documents or recordings that discuss information originally presented elsewhere. A secondary source contrasts with a primary source, which is an original source of the information being discussed. A secondary source is one that gives information about a primary source. In this source, the original information is selected, modified and arranged in a suitable format. Secondary sources involve generalization, analysis, interpretation, or evaluation of the original information.
Examples of secondary sources include books and academic journal articles. Your instructor may also allow you to use high-quality journalism sources such as articles in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, or similar publications, for your assignments. Google Scholar is one way to search for peer-reviewed journal articles (though you should never pay for a source!). We will explore Perplexity.ai as a researcher below.
As you begin your research, you may also want to spend some time with your campus librarian to explore resources that are available to help you. For example, as we saw above, CQ Researcher is a database that many college libraries provide. These current-event focused articles can provide you with an objective overview of a potential topic and point you in the right direction for more specific academic sources that you can use in your paper. Our college library is largely online. The campus librarian can help you to navigate the search tools and databases that will be best for your topic.
Using Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools to Find Sources
Generative artificial intelligence tools have been hit or miss when it comes to research. Initially, chatbots like ChatGPT “hallucinated” (made up) fake sources when you asked for academic sources. But they are increasingly accurate. One tool I like to use to start research is Perplexity.ai. Let’s use our narrow and focused research question from the previous section to test this tool out.
Research Question: How will changes in the world climate increase health risks for people worldwide?
Prompt for Perplexity: I am working on a 6-8 page research paper for an English 102 course. My research question is “How will changes in the world climate increase health risks for people worldwide?” Can you please suggest some peer-reviewed journal articles that will help me to answer this question?
Perplexity AI Response: To help with your research paper on how changes in world climate will increase health risks globally, I can suggest several peer-reviewed journal articles that would be valuable sources:
- “Climate Change and Human Health” from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). This comprehensive article discusses various health effects of climate change, including:
- Heat-related illnesses
- Vector-borne diseases
- Cardiovascular and respiratory diseases due to declining air quality
- Mental health stress
Luber, G., & Prudent, N. (2009). Climate change and human health. Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association, 120, 113–117. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2744549/
- “Extreme Weather and Climate Change: Population Health and Health System Implications” also from NCBI. This review covers:
- Health impacts of extreme weather events like heat waves, cyclones, and floods
- Projected risks of climate change on population health and health systems
- Recommendations for building climate-resilient health systems
Ebi, K. L., Vanos, J., Baldwin, J. W., Bell, J. E., Hondula, D. M., Errett, N. A., Hayes, K., Reid, C. E., Saha, S., Spector, J., & Berry, P. (2021). Extreme weather and climate change: Population health and health system implications. Annual Review of Public Health, 42, 293–315. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-012420-105026
- A position paper from the American College of Physicians published in the Annals of Internal Medicine titled “Climate Change and Health”. While not a research article per se, this paper provides:
- Recommendations for global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
- Suggestions for the healthcare sector to implement sustainable practices
- Advocacy for climate change adaptation and mitigation policies
Crowley, R. A. (2016). Climate change and health: A position paper of the American College of Physicians. Annals of Internal Medicine, 164(9), 608-610. https://doi.org/10.7326/M15-2766
These sources offer peer-reviewed, scientific information directly related to your research question. They cover a range of health risks associated with climate change, from direct impacts like extreme weather events to indirect effects on disease patterns and health systems.
Now that you’ve seen how Perplexity works, try it for yourself using your narrow and focused research question. What did you find? Make sure you include an AI acknowledgement statement and a reference to the tool you used. Here’s an example:
I acknowledge the use of Perplexity.Ai to help me locate high-quality sources to answer my research question. I chose to use Perplexity because I was curious about how it works and I thought it might save me some time in locating the best sources for my topic. Here is a link to my chat: “Sources”
Reference: Perplexity.ai (2024). I am working on a 6-8 page research paper. https://www.perplexity.ai/search/i-am-working-on-a-6-8-page-res-.KqwNIu0SyCV38v1a0XU6g
Stop and Reflect
It’s important for you to critically evaluate any output you get from a generative AI tool. It’s also helpful to review your prompts and think about ways to improve them in the future. After completing this exercise, I decided I should revise my prompt to ask for APA references so that I do not have to create them myself. You should always check any reference, whether it’s from a chatbot or from the library’s citation generator, to make sure it’s correct. Here’s the new prompt:
I am working on a 6-8 page research paper for an English 102 course. My research question is “How will changes in the world climate increase health risks for people worldwide?” Can you please suggest some peer-reviewed journal articles that will help me to answer this question? Please include APA style references for each of the peer-reviewed articles you recommend.
As you interact with generative AI tools, you’ll learn to refine your prompts to get the information you need.
Now let’s reflect on the quality of the sources. These are all published in peer reviewed journals. The first source from 2009 is an older one. In general, for scientific and medical questions, it’s best to find sources within the last seven years. But there can be good reasons to include older sources. Perhaps the source is foundational. I think that’s the case here. This 2009 paper set the stage for further work on health and climate change. The final source is a position paper from a credible, recognized medical association. Position statements can also be useful for research questions because they establish the consensus of a particular discipline.
Look over the sources you found in your interaction with Perplexity. What do you notice about them? Are they high-quality? Can they help you to answer your research question? How useful is a tool like Perplexity to your academic research process?
Other Types of Sources You Can Use for Your Paper
While peer reviewed journal articles are the most credible and reliable sources for academic research, you can also use other types of sources in your paper, including any of the primary sources listed above. If you want to conduct original research, Google Forms can be a useful tool. Please make sure you check in with me if you plan to survey your classmates. More formal original research requires Institutional Review Board (IRB) review to make sure that the research minimizes harm to human participants. You won’t need to worry about this in our course, but you should be aware that as your studies advance, you may need to work with an Institutional Review Board in the future.
Personal interviews with experts are an efficient and effective way to learn more about your research question. You do not need to include a reference on your references page for interviews or other types of personal communications.To cite an interview in APA style, we only use an in text citation like this: (J. Mendoza, personal communication, date). We cite emails in the same way.
If you can’t interview an expert in person, a YouTube video, podcast, or TED talk may be another way to get the information you need. Sometimes you can find a podcast or TED talk from a scholar that helps to explain the research in their peer-reviewed work. This can be an efficient way to learn more about a subject (since peer reviewed articles are not always easy to read!).
In this class, you may use high-quality journalism sources including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other high-quality publications. Just remember that I do not expect you to use any sources that are behind a paywall. If you need help getting access to an article, please reach out to your instructor or to one of our campus librarians for help.
Finally, you can definitely use a book as a source! This may be most useful if you have already read a book on your topic, or if you only need a small portion of the book.
What about generative artificial intelligence tools? You can definitely use them to establish some background information and learn key terms, but I don’t recommend citing them as a source for factual information for the same reason I don’t recommend citing a Wikipedia article in academic research (though I do recommend reading Wikipedia articles and reviewing their sources). Keep in mind that chatbots make things up. You should always verify any “facts” that a chatbot gives you using a credible, reliable source.
Remember to reach out any time you have questions or need help when you are locating and working with sources.
