Scientific literature is the main elementof all researches, as it is the only medium for stating the results ofscientific research. The basic purpose of scientific knowledge is to discoversomething new or to build a new research on the basis of previous research.
Therecord of scientific research is available in printed or non-printed form in acertain field i.e. Book or Journal.The scientific literatureis categorized in to two basic categories; “Primary Literature” and the “SecondaryLiterature”.Primary literature describes the “original research”; deprived of any notesor in other terms, it refers to account of research which is carried out by anindividual or by a group of researchers which is published in a Peer-reviewed scientific journal. Thesetypes of descriptions commonly called”Research Papers / Journal Papers” which are written in the specific formatand then submitted for publication. Other than this, primary literature alsoincludes Articles, Dissertations,Thesis, Conference Proceeding papers, Video recording, Review papers/reports, Manuscript,Extending abstracts and Patents.
Mostlythe primary literature is published in journals, but some of the researches arepublished as dissertations or thesis, conference papers and reports. Let’sstart to discuss from Article first, what is actually an article is? An articleis basically to explain the methods and results of original research performedby the researcher, it can be surveys, experiments, interviews etc. but in allsituations the raw data have been gathered, analyzed by the researcher and thenpropose conclusion which is standardized, on the other hand short communicationand rapid communication are also the parts of research article.
Now move on todissertation, it is comprehensive and detailed form of research where theresearcher describes the whole scenario in depth. Whereas, thesis is similar todissertation. Another important paper which is going to discussed that isconference proceeding paper, it is presented in the international conferences,national conferences and workshops are considered as primary literature toobtain feedback from the audience. The video recording also use by theresearchers for recording the experiments accurately and verify theirobservations correctly. Moreover the review paper/report highlights thepractical aspects and also it examines the progress in a certain topic, inshort it summarizes the recent knowledge of a topic and creates understandingand develop interest for the reader.
As far as manuscript is concerned it isunpublished version of a research, and also it is handwritten or the originaltext by the researcher. An extending abstract declares the abstract which is anextract of research means the summary of any paper, mostly readers takes thewhole idea after reading it .Last but not the least, patents are very importantfor the researcher because it is an authority or license from the governmentfor the limited time period.Characteristicsof Primary Scientific Literature 1. “Materials and Methods”section and “Results”section.2.
Use “We” or “I” to describe what was done.3. Veryspecific: mention particular places, organisms, etc.4.Papers generally start with an introduction; an overview to set the stage forthe research. Secondary literature consists on those publications which are basedon primary sources for collecting information. The purpose of this publicationis to summarizing and gathering knowledge in a specific area for otherresearchers, so that they can utilize the information accordingly. It includes textbooks, Internet, reviews, handbooks, Magazines,Newspapers, Newsletters and manuals.
The textbook provides thedetailed introduction, identification of research objectives, researchquestions, guidelines of research path, collecting relevant information,interpreting data, analyzes data and develop understanding with the context ofresearch. The internet is widely use across the world as it is a big source ofgathering data and information, the secondary literature generally comes fromthe past researches where the internet plays an important role for acquiringprevious papers. About the reviews, it does not shows an original research,only focuses on précising the literature. The handbooks tells the deep overviewof research methods and combines both theories and methodologies of qualitativeand quantitative. The magazines are also considered as secondary literaturebecause the knowledge is taken from different channels and combined at oneplace. Appearance wise it looks attractive and may contains pictures andgraphical presentations, general audience is commonly use to read.
Anotherimportant kind which possess secondary literature that is newspapers, broadlyuse around the world, mostly people choose to study newspaper and getinformation from it, as it is supposed a good source of knowledge. Now turn todescribe newsletters, it is basically in printed form which covers the news ofbusiness activities and send through email to all employees, customers andpeople who are interested in knowing. The last thing which is also reflects thesecondary literature is manuals, it is almost the same of textbook, providesthe relevant information to the researcher, it is not only useful for theresearchers also the common people can read and take essential literature fromit. As we studied from everyaspect that the secondary literature gets from the previous papers whichcontains large amount of information that can be very helpful for the newlyresearch papers. From the researcher’s point of view secondary literature isthe chief constituent in terms of, it highlights the purpose or aim of conductingresearch, research objectives, research methodology, which type of analysistool will be used for testifying the results and verification of observations.
Althoughthe secondary publications are not very much systematized as compare to primarypublications, however it is a mandatory requirement for the paper. Therefore, themain objective of secondary literature is to gaining knowledge for the specificarea of interest.It is concluded that, forthe research paper literature plays a backbone, as it is considered a mainsource of information which helps to researcher for getting past knowledge andbuild a new research in the specific are of interest.
