Wikipedia:Identifying and using tertiary sources: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 19:34, 10 November 2021

Revision as of 19:36, 10 November 2021

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{{nutshell|1=Analysis and evaluation require reliable secondary sources, and we cannot cite tertiary sources for them. Tertiary sources differ from secondary ones by not themselves providing significant analysis, commentary, or synthesis. However, some tertiary sources are secondary in some applications.}}

Generally speaking, [[tertiary source]]s (for Wikipedia purposes, as discussed at {{section link|Wikipedia:No original research|Primary, secondary and tertiary sources}}, and {{Section link|Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources|Primary, secondary, and tertiary sources}}) include any compilation of information, without significant new analysis, commentary, or synthesis, from primary and secondary sources, especially when it does not indicate from which sources specific facts were drawn. The distinction between tertiary and [[secondary source]]s is important, because Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:No original research|no original research]] policy states: "Articles ''may'' make an analytic, evaluative, interpretive, or evaluativesynthetic claim ''{{em|only if''}} that has been published by a reliable secondary source."{{Update inline|date=November 2021|reason=Presumably this was true at one point, but it has since become false: the quoted statement does not appear in WP:NOR.}} Thus, such claims cannot be cited to tertiary or [[primary source]]s.

== Identifying ==