No, an encyclopedia is a tertiary source. Encyclopedias provide extensive information about a particular topic, time period, or person in the form of entries arranged in alphabetical order. Encyclopedias, indexes, and works alike are known for compiling primary and secondary sources. As a result, they are considered tertiary sources.
The main characteristic of tertiary sources is that they repackage information. They don’t analyze sources as a secondary source would. Tertiary sources gather, compile, and organize information in a specific order, just like an encyclopedia would. Dictionaries and some textbooks are categorized as tertiary sources as well when they aim to list information.
Nevertheless, there is always an exception to the rule. Depending on the scope of your research, encyclopedias can be referenced as primary sources in some cases. For example, the Encyclopedia Britannica, one of the most popular encyclopedias, was first published in 1768 and is considered a primary source for historians because of the significant value it gained over time.
How to cite an encyclopedia
The citation style used will determine the exact citation format. This is how you would cite an entry in the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Language in APA:
Byrd, D. (2011). Phonetics. In P. C. Hogan (Ed.), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Language Sciences. Cambridge University Press.
Instead of worrying about the correct format of your citation in any given citation style, you can use a reference manager like Paperpile to automatically and correctly generate your citation for you:
Frequently Asked Questions about encyclopedias as primary sources
📒 Is an encyclopedia a secondary source?
No, an encyclopedia is a tertiary source. Encyclopedias, indexes, and works alike are known for compiling primary and secondary sources. As a result, they are considered tertiary sources.
🔖 Is an encyclopedia entry a secondary source?
No, an encyclopedia entry is a tertiary source. An encyclopedia entry references information without any analysis or opinion; therefore, it is a tertiary source.
📖 Is an encyclopedia article a secondary source?
No, an encyclopedia article is a tertiary source. An encyclopedia article references information without any analysis or opinion; therefore, it is a tertiary source.
🕯️ Is the Encyclopedia Britannica a primary source?
No, the Encyclopedia Britannica is generally a tertiary source. An encyclopedia references information without any analysis or opinion; therefore, it is a tertiary source. Nevertheless, depending on the scope of your research, encyclopedias can be referenced as primary sources. The Encyclopedia Britannica, first published in 1768, is one of the most popular encyclopedias, and is considered a primary source for historians because of the significant value it gained over time.
💻 Is the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy a primary source?
No, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is a tertiary source. An encyclopedia references information without any analysis or opinion; therefore, it is a tertiary source.
No, an encyclopedia is a tertiary source. Encyclopedias provide extent information about a particular topic, time period, or person in the form of entries arranged in alphabetical order.
A primary source is an original document "created or experienced contemporaneously with the event being researched." Interviews, reports, speeches, tweets, blogs, or diary entries are good examples of primary sources. A subject encyclopedia is not a primary source, but rather a secondary source.
In most cases you should avoid using dictionaries and encyclopedias as cited sources in your papers. However, there may be some cases where it would be appropriate.
Therefore, encyclopedias are reliable sources of information because they have been edited by experts in various fields. There are two types of encyclopedias: general and specialized subject encyclopedias. General encyclopedias, such as World Book, provide concise overviews on a wide variety of topics.
Entries are reviewed by an editorial board, but they are not “peer-reviewed”. Most professors that ask for scholarly sources are looking for articles from academic, peer-reviewed journals. Using this definition, encyclopedia articles do not qualify.
Encyclopedia.com has more than 100 trusted sources, including encyclopedias, dictionaries, and thesauruses including The Columbia Encyclopedia, Oxford's World Encyclopedia, and the Encyclopedia of World Biography. with facts, definitions, biographies, synonyms, pronunciation keys, word origins, and abbreviations.
Theses, dissertations, scholarly journal articles (research based), some government reports, symposia and conference proceedings, original artwork, poems, photographs, speeches, letters, memos, personal narratives, diaries, interviews, autobiographies, and correspondence.
If you accessed the encyclopedia or dictionary through a website, provide the url instead. If a dictionary or encyclopedia entry has no author, the in-text citation should include the title of the entry.
Encyclopedias are best suited to providing background information rather than in-depth analysis or novel perspective. The "conversation" among literary scholars and historians—or academics in any other discipline for that matter—does not occur within the pages or pixels of encyclopedia articles.
The online encyclopedia does not guarantee the validity of its information. It is seen as a valuable "starting point" for researchers when they pass over content to examine the listed references, citations, and sources. Academics suggest reviewing reliable sources when assessing the quality of articles.
Encyclopedias are highly recommended as a starting point for your research on a particular topic. Encyclopedias will give you introductory information to help you broaden or narrow your topic, while also providing keywords and terms needed to conduct further research.
Potentially appropriate: books, encyclopedias, and other scholarly works. Another potential source that you might use when writing a research paper is a book, encyclopedia, or an official online source (such as demographic data drawn from a government website).
No, an encyclopedia is a tertiary source. Encyclopedias, indexes, and works alike are known for compiling primary and secondary sources. As a result, they are considered tertiary sources.
Authors of articles in general encyclopedias, or encyclopedias that cover all subject areas (such as the Encyclopedia Britannica), are not always listed. There are few situations in which you would list an entire encyclopedia in your references; you will need to list the individual article(s) that you consulted.
Encyclopedias are often called tertiary sources, but sometimes they can be secondary sources or primary sources. They compile information from trusted experts and produce short entries on each item.
Tertiary sources are publications that summarize and digest the information in primary and secondary sources to provide background on a topic, idea, or event. Encyclopedias and biographical dictionaries are good examples of tertiary sources.
The Encyclopedia Britannica contains carefully edited articles on all major topics. It fits the ideal purpose of a reference work as a place to get started, or to refer back to as you read and write. The articles in Britannica are written by expert authors who are both identifiable and credible.
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