一次資料と二次資料:見分け方

• 問いを名指しする。 「新聞は1918年のインフルエンザをどう記述したか」と「歴史家はいま、1918年のインフルエンザの原因を何だと論じているか」は、同じ切り抜きを二つの仕方で仕分けます。
• 一次。 その問いのための直接証拠:当事者や目撃者の記録、オリジナルの創作、生データ、または新しい結果を報告する経験的論文。
• 二次。 それらの材料についての後年の分析、総合、または論証——モノグラフ、レビュー論文、教科書の章、歴史家の解釈。
• 三次。 一次と二次の仕事を方向づけのためにまとめたもの:百科事典、ハンドブック、ほとんどのWikipedia記事。
• 行き詰まったら。 問いを一文節だけ変える。分類がひっくり返るなら、その資料はもともと「本質的に」一種類ではなかった。

Primary sources are the raw materials of history — original documents and objects which were created at the time under study. They are different from secondary sources, accounts that retell, analyze, or interpret events, usually at a distance of time or place.

A primary source is a first-hand record of an event or topic created by a participant in or a witness to that event or topic.

A secondary source is second-hand information written or created after an event. Secondary sources may summarize, interpret, review, or criticize existing events or works.

LOC の公式の対:

An original painting by Mary Cassatt / a book about the artist Mary Cassatt. President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address / an article about Abraham Lincoln. A photograph of Harry Houdini / a website about Houdini’s magic tricks. An original Gershwin musical score / a recent recording of Gershwin songs.

What constitutes a useful and reliable source will vary according to both your assignment and the methods used in a particular field of study. As you approach a paper in an unfamiliar field, it will be important to remember that within each field of study, scholars distinguish between primary sources, or the raw material that they analyze as they attempt to answer a question, and secondary sources, or the analyses of that raw material done by other scholars in the field.

Primary sources provide firsthand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic or question under investigation.

They are usually created by witnesses or recorders who experienced the events or conditions being documented. Often these sources are created at the time when the events or conditions are occurring, but primary sources can also include artwork, autobiographies, memoirs, and oral histories recorded later.

Primary sources are materials in a variety of formats that serve as original evidence documenting a time period, an event, a work, people, or ideas.

However, you should be aware that there's nothing inherent in a source that makes it primary or secondary. Instead, its category depends on how you treat it, which in turn depends on your research question.

Black Reconstruction in America, written in 1935 by W.E.B. Du Bois, could be used as a secondary source for research about 19th-century America, since Du Bois draws on a range of government reports, biographies, and existing historical narratives in order to make a claim about the past. However, it could also be used as a primary source for research about Du Bois’s life or black intellectual culture during the 1930s.

Like books, serials can function both as primary sources and secondary sources depending on how one approaches them.

For instance, an article on slavery in a recent issue of the Journal of Southern History should be read as a secondary source, as a scholar’s attempt to interpret primary source materials such as ledgers, diaries, or government documents in order to write an account of the past. An article on slavery published in the Journal of Southern History in 1935, however, can be read not only as a secondary source on slavery but also—and perhaps more appropriately—as a primary source that reveals how scholars in the 1930s interpreted slavery.

新聞:

2001年9月12日の The New York Times は、米国の新聞が翌朝に攻撃をどう報じたかについては一次です。同じ号は、裁判所記録、フライトデータ、公式調査から文書化できる出来事の、記者による再構成として使うなら二次です。

伝記:

リンカーンの伝記は、リンカーンについては二次です。後の十年が彼をどう描いたかを研究するなら一次です。

レビュー論文:

mRNA ワクチンの現行の文献レビューは、ワクチンについては二次です。刊行年にその分野が何を確定済みと扱っていたかを研究するなら一次です。

文学

For example, for literary scholars, primary sources include fiction and poetry, while secondary sources include criticism written by other scholars about those literary texts.

歴史学

Historians, on the other hand, grapple with primary sources such as letters, diaries, and eyewitness accounts produced at the time of an event, as well as with secondary sources such as arguments presented by other historians.

社会学

Sociologists tend to rely for raw material on quantitative data, such as surveys, censuses, and other statistics, or qualitative data, such as observation and interviews.

心理学と経済学

Social scientists in some fields, such as psychology and economics, also consider empirical journal articles (articles that describe the results of original research) published in peer-reviewed journals to be primary sources.

人類学と歴史学の論文

Social scientists in other fields, such as anthropology and history, however, do not consider research articles primary sources because articles in these fields do not typically present raw data.

自然科学

Natural scientists consider empirical articles published in peer-reviewed journals to be primary sources.

科学の二次資料

Secondary sources in the natural sciences include literature reviews and books.

Primary sources are the main text or work that you are discussing (e.g. a sonnet by William Shakespeare; an opera by Mozart); actual data or research results (e.g. a scientific article presenting original findings; statistics); or historical documents (e.g. letters, pamphlets, political tracts, manifestoes).

A single primary source may be found in a variety of formats. For example, the original of a handwritten letter by George Washington might be available to researchers at the Library of Congress, but a copy of that letter might be available elsewhere as microfilm, in a published collection of documents, or in electronic form online.

Born-digital materials start out in a digital form, like CDs or a website. Digitized materials are those that have been photographed or scanned to create a digital copy, like a PDF of a letter from an archive or a picture of a painting from a museum.

Although usually secondary sources, dissertations can themselves be primary sources or can be extremely helpful in identifying and locating primary sources.

Dissertations that function as primary sources might be edited versions of texts, or a doctoral thesis could be used to analyze the influence of a professor on a generation of graduate students and, by extension, on the teaching and writing in a discipline over a period of time.

その本:

Du Bois, W. E. B. Black Reconstruction: An Essay Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880. Harcourt, Brace, 1935.

二次となる対象:

再建期に何が起きたか、1860年代から1880年代の政府報告書が何を示すか。あなたは Du Bois の解釈を借りています。

一次となる対象:

1935年の黒人知識人が、Dunning School に抗して再建をどう書き直したか。いまや1935年の論証そのものが証拠です。

一次（実験／モデル）:

Watson, J. D., and F. H. C. Crick. "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid." Nature 171, no. 4356 (25 April 1953): 737–738. https://doi.org/10.1038/171737a0.

二次（後年の解釈）:

Olby, Robert. The Path to the Double Helix. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1974.

三次（方向づけのみ）:

1953年の論文を要約する百科事典または Wikipedia の項目。DOI と後年の歴史を見つけるために使い、構造の証拠として引用しないでください。

一次:

ソネットまたはオペラそのもの。コーネルの文言: "a sonnet by William Shakespeare; an opera by Mozart."

二次:

その作品の批評。分析はテクストから一歩離れています。

その資料:

Gardner, Alexander, photographer. Antietam, Md. President Lincoln with Gen. George B. McClellan and group of officers. 3 October 1862. Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2018666256/.

一次となる対象:

その一団がどう見えたか、どうポーズを取らされたか、戦時の写真家が1862年10月3日にリンカーンをどうフレーミングしたか。

二次となる場合:

後年のキャプションやウェブサイトの解説を、戦いそのものの証拠として扱うとき。写真は戦後報告の代用品ではありません。

1854年については一次:

症例がどこに集中したか、同時代の調査者が流行をどう描いたか。

後年の科学史については一次:

19世紀中葉の観察者が、疾病を社会的・空間的問題としてどう論じたか。

二次となる場合:

現代の教科書が疫学を教えるために Snow の地図を描き直すとき。授業については教科書を引用し、主張が1854年についてのものなら、文書化された Snow の複製を引用してください。

Tertiary sources are publications that summarize and digest the information in primary and secondary sources to provide background on a topic, idea, or event.

Encyclopedias and biographical dictionaries are good examples of tertiary sources.

• 使う。 論争の標準名を知る、DOI を見つける、誰もが引用するモノグラフを見る。
• 証拠として引用しない。 出来事が起きたこと、研究がある結果を見出したことの証拠として。百科事典が使った一次または二次資料を引用してください。
• 引用するのは、課題が参考図書そのものについてのときだけ——たとえば、Wikipedia が論争をどう枠づけるかについての論文。

一次——公式ポスター:

J. Howard Miller, We Can Do It!, ca. 1942–1943, War Production Board, National Archives Identifier 535413。NARA の静止画ノート は、Westinghouse が内部用にこのポスターを委嘱し、のちに公的な "Rosie the Riveter" イメージと結び付けられたと記録しています。

一次——国勢調査:

Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940。職業・産業の表、および National Archives の手稿調査票。

二次——後年の歴史:

Alice Kessler-Harris, Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982; 20th anniversary ed., 2003)。賃金労働についての長い論証のために使い、1940年代の証言として扱わないでください。

この組み合わせがすること:

ポスターは戦時の職場メッセージの証拠であり、何人の女性が工場に入ったかの証拠ではありません。国勢調査は申告された職業の証拠です。Kessler-Harris は、労働史家がのちにそれらの変化をどう解釈したかの証拠です。各資料は問いの異なる節に答えます。

When and where was it created?

Who created it?

For what purpose or audience was it produced?