Encyclopedia of Public Health

2008 Edition
| Editors: Wilhelm Kirch

Secondary Channels

Reference work entry
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5614-7_3120

Definition

Secondary channels provide information about primary research documents, and some even contain the documents. The major secondary channels are bibliographies, research registers, and references databases, including citation indexes. They are constructed by third parties for the explicit purpose of providing literature searchers with a relatively comprehensive list of studies relating to a topic. Secondary channels have summarized accounts that often include just research abstracts, research summaries, bibliographic information, or all three, which can be used to obtain the full reports.

Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 2008