[WikiEN-l] Secondary sources

[Andrew Turvey]

Are we talking at cross purposes here? 

"Primary sources", "secondary sources" and "tertiary sources" are phrases that are regularly used by historians and other academics whose use considerable pre-date Wikipedia. 

Unpublished primary sources are regularly used in academic research. 

----- WJhonson at aol.com wrote: 
> From: WJhonson at aol.com 
> To: wikien-l at lists.wikimedia.org 
> Sent: Tuesday, 25 August, 2009 19:01:49 GMT +00:00 GMT Britain, Ireland, Portugal 
> Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Secondary sources 
> 
> In a message dated 8/25/2009 6:50:03 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
> andrewrturvey at googlemail.com writes: 
> 
> 
> > Not quite. The first publication can be a secondary source, for instance 
> > if the New York Times publishes an article on a car accident. A primary 
> > source is something like a census return or, in this case, a witness 
> > statement. >> 
> > 
> ------------------------ 
> 
> That is not correct Andrew. Each "source" must be published. Typically 
> witness statements are not themselves published. You are confusing first-hand 
> experience with primary source. A primary souce, even a census return is 
> not first-hand, it's merely first publication. 
> 
> If you took you example to extreme, then there would be no primary sources 
> at all. 
> 
> W.J. 
> 
> 
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