There are many publications that can be very relevant to the text you are writing but not scientific. Depending on your task, there may be different requirements on what you should use for publications and how you can use them in your task, therefore it is important to be able to distinguish between different types of publications. Regardless of the type of publication, you should always reflect on the following.

Quality, always be source-critical
Relevance to your work

The quality of a publication depends on a variety of factors. Read more about it in the module on source criticism.

Different types of publications that you may come across

Below highlight some types of the materials you may come across when searching.

Books

There are many different types of non-fiction books, but the majority of these cannot be considered scientific even if they are based on science. That is, they summarize research in a field with a specific target group in mind, such as textbooks, but they rarely present new research findings for the first time, such as a scientific article. In other words, they are secondary sources of research, that is, they interpret and summarize other sources. Textbooks are often published in different editions and it is important to be observant about which edition you use.

Degree theses and essays

Degree theses and essays from students are not considered scientific, however, they can be useful for getting inspiration for topic choices and tips on references. You can find them in the database DiVA.

Public document (legislation, SCB statistics, official material)

Public document is material such as laws, investigations, statistics produced by the public administration such as authorities, county councils and municipalities. It can be useful in the introduction to, for example, an essay, but it does not count as scientific.

Web pages

Web pages can contain relevant information, even if it is not scientific, that can be used in, for example, introductory sections. Always be critical of the content and observant of who is the sender.

Journals

Types of Information Sources

University of Texas Libraries. (2023, June 15). Types of Information Sources. Evaluating Sources. https://guides.lib.utexas.edu/BA324

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic License.