 | This is an essay on Wikipedia:No original research, and Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Analysis and evaluation require reliable secondary sources, and we cannot cite tertiary sources for them. Tertiary sources differ from secondary ones by not themselves providing significant analysis, commentary, or synthesis. However, some tertiary sources are secondary in some applications. |
Generally speaking, tertiary sources (for Wikipedia purposes, as discussed at Wikipedia:No original research § Primary, secondary and tertiary sources, and Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources § Primary, secondary, and tertiary sources) include any compilation of information, without significant new analysis, commentary, or synthesis, from primary and secondary sources, especially when it does not indicate from which sources specific facts were drawn. The distinction between tertiary and secondary sources is important, because Wikipedia's no original research policy states: "Articles may make an analytic, evaluative, interpretive, or synthetic claim only if that has been published by a reliable secondary source." Thus, such claims cannot be cited to tertiary or primary sources.