Editing Primary source (section)

{{Short description|First-hand account of information}}
{{For|Wikipedia's policy on the use of primary sources|Wikipedia:No original research#Primary, secondary, and tertiary sources|selfref=y}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}

[[File:Pompeii-couple.jpg|thumb|right|This wall painting found in the Roman city of [[Pompeii]] is an example of a primary source about people in Pompeii in Roman times ([[portrait of Terentius Neo]]).]]

In the study of [[history]] as an academic discipline, a '''primary source''' (also called an '''original source''') is an [[Artifact (archaeology)|artifact]], [[document]], [[diary]], [[manuscript]], [[autobiography]], recording, or any other [[source of information]] that was created at the time under study. It serves as an original source of information about the topic. Similar definitions can be used in [[library science]] and other areas of scholarship, although different fields have somewhat different definitions.
In [[journalism]], a primary source can be a person with direct knowledge of a situation, or a document written by such a person.<ref>{{cite web |last=Peace |first=Kristin |title=Journalism: Primary Sources |url=http://infoguides.pepperdine.edu/c.php?g=287355&p=1915752 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180118181232/https://infoguides.pepperdine.edu/c.php?g=287355&p=1915752 |archive-date=Jan 18, 2018 |access-date=17 January 2018 |publisher=Pepperdine University}}</ref>

Primary sources are distinguished from ''[[secondary source]]s'', which cite, comment on, or build upon primary sources. Generally, accounts written after the fact with the benefit of hindsight are secondary.<ref>"[https://web.archive.org/web/20130726061349/http://www.lib.umd.edu/ues/guides/primary-sources Primary, secondary and tertiary sources]". University Libraries, University of Maryland.</ref> A secondary source may also be a primary source depending on how it is used.<ref>"[http://www.ithacalibrary.com/sp/subjects/primary Primary and secondary sources] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160301225514/http://www.ithacalibrary.com/sp/subjects/primary |date=1 March 2016 }}". Ithaca College Library.</ref> For example, a [[memoir]] would be considered a primary source in research concerning its author or about their friends characterized within it, but the same memoir would be a secondary source if it were used to examine the culture in which its author lived. "Primary" and "secondary" should be understood as relative terms, with sources categorized according to specific historical contexts and what is being studied.<ref name=Handlin/>{{rp|118–246}}<ref name="Kragh">{{Cite book |last=Kragh |first=Helge |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OX7d7u_2rF4C&pg=PA121 |title=An Introduction to the Historiography of Science |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1989 |isbn=0-521-38921-6 |page=121 |quote=[T]he distinction is not a sharp one. Since a source is only a source in a specific historical context, the same source object can be both a primary or secondary source according to what it is used for.}}</ref>