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| Home > Creation of Scientific Literature > 1 - 2 -3 | Definitions |
Before research begins, the researcher (i.e., the scientist) identifies the topic of interest. Inspiration for a topic can come from many sources--a journal article, a news clipping, or a science documentary on TV. The researcher needs to be intrigued by a topic, then ask questions about what he or she wants to investigate further.
Research includes library research, through which the scientist refines his or her hypotheses, and experimental research in the laboratory or field, through which the scientist tests his or her hypotheses. Preliminary research activities would include finding out what is already known about a topic, finding out what is not known, and using this information to refine the hypothesis. Then original research begins--designing experiments to test scientific hypotheses.
Original research done by scientists is first shared through informal communication with colleagues, which sometimes helps to refine, direct, or stimulate new research.
At yearly conferences, scientists from particular specialities gather to present their work to each other. Published conference proceedings and the original conference presentations themselves are usually the first public presentation of a research project. These sources qualify as primary literature, but are not cited or used in writing very often, because the presentations are usually incomplete and much shorter than a full writeup in a journal. The bests source for all the details on a particular research project would usually be in a journal article.
One of the most important stages in the cycle of scientific literature is the writing and dissemination of journal articles. Articles in scientific journals present new results from scientific research in an authoritative context and preserve the results of past research. The most respected journals include articles that are peer reviewed by other scientists who can best evaluate the work. Sometimes book chapters will also have original reports of research, but often they are summaries of work that was originally published elsewhere, so they would qualify as secondary literature.
The cycle continues as the results of research presented first in
journal articles are later refined and summarized for a wider audience (students, general readers) in edited volumes
(such as Annual Review of Psychology) and textbooks. These types of scientific literature present information that
over time, through research, dissemination, and examination by other scientists, comes to be considered most significant
and authoritative. Such sources are enormously important in the teaching of science.
Edited volumes, books that describe research, textbooks, and other works that describe, synthesize and summarize
the theories and results of research are called secondary literature. Many popular scientific magazines such as
Psychology Today and Science News belong to the secondary literature category, but they are geared for a much more
general audience rather than scholars.
Finally in the cycle of scientific literature, information is compiled into scientific reference sources, such as encyclopedias and handbooks (sometimes text books are also considered to be in this category). Reference sources offer overviews of scientific topics, data, facts, and definitions. Generally reference sources are viewed as giving authoritative scientific information, but among different reference works, information may vary. This is a reflection of the fact that reference sources distill scientific information based on original research, an activity that always questions how things work. Reference sources may be used in preparing for a new topic and a new research project, and in starting activities that will lead to the production of new scientific literature.
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