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A secondary source analyzes a primary source.

Many scholarly journal articles and books (except works of fiction and memoirs/autobiographies) are secondary sources. For example, a journal article that presents the scientific findings of an experiment is a primary source while a magazine article that talks about the findings of that journal article would be a secondary source.

The differences between primary and secondary sources can be nuanced and can depend on how a source is being used by a researcher.  Watch the video to get more information on these two types of sources and where their identification can be complicated.