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”; without 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 or reports commonly called “Research Papers/ Journal Papers” which are written in thespecific format and then submitted for publication.Other than this, Primaryliterature also includes Articles,Dissertations, Thesis, Conference Proceeding papers, Video recording, Reviewpapers/reports, Manuscript, Extending abstracts and Patents.
Mostly the primary literatureis published in journals, but some of the researches are published asdissertations or thesis, conference papers and reports. Let’s start to discussfrom Article first, what is actuallyan article is? An article isbasically to explain the methods and results of original research performed bythe 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. Now move on to dissertation, it is comprehensive and detailed form of researchwhere the researcher describes the whole scenario in depth. Whereas, thesis issimilar to dissertation. Another important paper which is going to discussedthat is conference proceeding paper, it is presented in the internationalconferences, national conferences and workshops are considered as primaryliterature to obtain feedback from the audience. The video recording also useby the researchers 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.
PrimaryScientific Literature Primary scientificliterature has several characteristics: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 the detailed introduction, identification of researchobjectives, research questions, guidelines of research path, collectingrelevant information, interpreting data, analyzes data and developunderstanding with the context of research. 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 show an original research, only focuses on précising theliterature.
The handbooks tell thedeep overview of research methods and combines both theories and methodologiesof qualitative and quantitative. The magazinesare also considered as secondary literature because the knowledge is taken fromdifferent channels and combined at one place. Appearance wise it looks attractiveand may contains pictures and graphical presentations, general audience iscommonly use to read. Another important kind which possess secondary literaturethat is newspapers, broadly usearound the world, mostly people choose to study newspaper and get informationfrom it, as it is supposed a good source of knowledge. Now turn to describe newsletters, it is basically in printedform which covers the news of business activities and send through email to allemployees, customers and people who are interested in knowing.
The last thingwhich is also reflects the secondary literature is manuals, it is almost thesame of textbook, provides the relevant information to the researcher, it isnot only useful for the researchers also the common people can read and takeessential literature from it. 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.
