Study Set Content:
Condensation and summarization of the information found in primary literature
Tertiary Literature:
Most efficient source of information, but not the most current
Tertiary Literature:
Example: Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)
Primary Literature
Advantage over primary literature is efficiency in locating articles of specific interest
Secondary Literature
Different systems have different posting guidelines and lag time ranges from 3 weeks to a year
Secondary Literature:
Example: PubMed
Secondary Literature:
Lag time of 3-5 years
Tertiary Literature:
Quality of the information varies, depending on author’s ability to evaluate primary literature and document it
Tertiary Literature:
Examples: American Hospital Formulary Service (AHFS), Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, Drug Information Handbook
Tertiary Literature
Textbooks
Tertiary
Compendia
Tertiary
Indexing and abstracting databases
Secondary
Original investigations and clinical research
Primary
Review articles
Tertiary
computerized Databases
Tertiary
Relevance of the reference to the question type
Tertiary literature
Credibility of the information provided
Tertiary literature
Consider lag time
Secondary literature
Was the search strategy adequate?
secondary literature
Expertise, training, experience of the authors
Tertiary
