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Gateway to Neuroscience LC: Primary & Secondary Articles

Primary and Secondary (Review) Articles

List of Source Types

  Primary Research Article Secondary (Review) Article
 

 

Single Article

 Review Article from Many Primary Articles
Definition An article that describes and discusses a research project or experiment that was performed by the authors An article that describes and discusses one or more published research articles and synthesizes the information without actually conducting experiments
Purpose To communicate new knowledge obtained from experimentation and observation

To communicate the current (or in some cases, historical) state of research on a specific topic.

To provide a synthesis of information on a topic as a comprehensive introduction to that topic
Features
  • Abstract
  • Introduction and literature review
  • Methods
  • Results
  • Discussion (and conclusion)
  • Works Cited/References

Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion is often referred to as the IMRD structure.
  • Abstract
  • Introduction and extensive literature review, which may be organized into numerous concepts or facets of the topic.*
  • Discussion may include the methods and results of different research studies
  • Works Cited/References

*Beware, a review article that compares details of multiple studies may actually include methods and results sections in which the methods and results of other studies are described.
Clue in Abstract

Phrasing that identifies direct experimentation or hands-on work. Use of action verbs.

"Purpose: To administer the CDT naturalistically to a healthy older aging population..."

"Main Outcome and Measure: Blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) functional MRI was conducted as participants completed the CDT..."

"Brain activity during CDT performance was contrasted to rest periods..."

"Performance on the CDT was evaluated using a standardized scoring system..."

Phrasing that specifies a purpose to review or provide a current summary of knowledge on a specific topic

e.g. (from article cited below)

"Objective: The main scope of the present review therefore consists of evaluating if results of investigations conducted on emotional and behavioral disorders of patients with right and left FTLD, support the “right hemisphere” or the “valence” hypothesis."

***Note use of "evaluating" here is not about results of a primary study by the authors but references other investigations (studies or experiments) performed by other people.
Example Talwar, N. A., Churchill, N. W., Hird, M. A., Pshonyak, I., Tam, F., Fischer C. E., ... Schweizer, T. A. (2019). The Neural Correlates of the Clock-Drawing Test in Healthy Aging. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 13(25). https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2019.00025 Loeffler, D. A. (2019). Influence of Normal Aging on Brain Autophagy: A Complex Scenario. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 11(49). https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2019.00049
Worth Noting Primary research articles do reference other people's work for the purpose of comparing their methods and results with those from the authors' own research

Another type of secondary article, of a less scholarly nature and intended for broader audiences, may actually be announcing and summarizing a published study in terms that can be easily understood.

For example:

California Institute of Technology. (2019, August 23). How memories form and fade: Strong memories are encoded by teams of neurons working together in synchrony. ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 17, 2019 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190823140729.htm

summarizes a recently published study in the journal Science.