What are tertiary sources?
These are sources that summarise, abstract or index the information derived from primary or secondary sources. These sources can assist you to find background information on your topic (such as definitions, names and dates) or take you to relevant books and general articles. Examples of tertiary sources include: • encyclopedias • dictionaries • atlases • handbooks • chronologies • indexes • review articles. Tertiary sources are usually another step removed from the original information. This doesn’t mean that they are necessarily less accurate than secondary sources. Academic publishers generally take great care to ensure that their reference works are as reliable and authoritative as possible. But, be aware that reference materials published by some commercial publishers are not always consistent in quality.
