Editing Tertiary source (section)

{{short description|Index or textual consolidation of primary and secondary sources}}
{{Distinguish|Tertiary sector of the economy}}
{{For|Wikipedia's policy on the use of tertiary sources|Wikipedia:No original research#Tertiary}}
A '''tertiary source''' is an index or textual consolidation of already published [[Primary source|primary]] and [[secondary source]]s<ref name="umd">[https://guides.lib.odu.edu/informationliteracytutorials Primary, secondary and tertiary sources.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130703015116/http://www.lib.umd.edu/ues/guides/primary-sources |date=2013-07-03 }}". University Libraries, University of Maryland. Retrieve 07/26/2013</ref> that does not provide additional interpretations or analysis of the sources.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lib.odu.edu/genedinfolit/1infobasics/tertiary_information_sources.html|title=Tertiary Information Sources|date=September 2012|publisher=Old Dominion University -- ODU Libraries|access-date=20 June 2013}}</ref><ref name=JCU>"[http://libguides.jcu.edu.au/tertiary Tertiary sources] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141106174742/http://libguides.jcu.edu.au/tertiary |date=2014-11-06 }}". James Cook University.</ref> Some tertiary sources can be used as an aid to find key (seminal) sources, key terms, general [[common knowledge]]<ref name="newhaven">"[http://libguides.newhaven.edu/content.php?pid=465151&sid=3809011 Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Resources]". University of New Haven.</ref> and established [[mainstream science]] on a topic. The exact definition of ''tertiary'' varies by [[Academic discipline|academic field]]. 

[[Research|Academic research]] standards generally do not accept tertiary sources such as [[encyclopedia]]s as citations,<ref name="newhaven" /> although [[survey article]]s are frequently cited rather than the original publication.