Question

A student who is researching the "literature" on what is known about search algorithms and their relationship to the free spread of information reads an important secondary source that refers heavily to a primary source. The primary source is not available online or publicly. Which source should the student describe and cite when reviewing the literature on this topic in a research paper?

Answer 1

The secondary source

Step-by-step explanation:

When you cite and review literature in a research paper you can only cite sources you directly had contact with, this means, you, as a researcher, had first-hand contact with.

Remember that primary sources refer to sources that obtained the data directly from the population while secondary sources refer to sources that didn't obtained data directly from them.

No matter what kind of source we're talking about, when citing literature in a paper you can only cite the ones YOU had contact with.

This student reads an important secondary source that refers to a primary source, however, since the primary source is not available online or publicly, the student doesn't have direct access to it.

Therefore, the student cannot cite the primary source and will cite and describe the secondary one when reviewing the literature on this topic in a research paper.