Another
important type of scientific literature is created when other
scientists integrate information from the primary literature into review
articles or books. These reviews are called secondary literature, and
they are useful in providing a broad overview of a field or by providing
a synthesis of the ideas of many people.
These
articles and books may present tables and figures showing data from
experiments, but these have always been taken from the primary
literature which originally published the results.
There
may be a literature cited section in which the author refers to other
people's publications, but a secondary article may describe or explain
things without giving specific references. Sometimes one of these
articles or books provides a synthesis of a field that is sufficiently
unique that it can be considered a primary source because it contributes
a new understanding and shapes the future of research in that area.
