• 3-minute read
• 9th January 2015

Second-Hand References: How to Cite Secondary Sources

Citing your sources is tricky at the best of times, especially with the number of referencing systems available. Perhaps the trickiest aspect of referencing we see as proofreaders, however, is use of secondary sources.

What Are Secondary Sources?

Secondary sources – also known as indirect sources or secondary references – are sources we cite without having access to the original text.

We might, for example, find a statistic in a book but not be able to find the original report it was taken from. In these circumstances, we can ‘borrow’ the citation from the book in which we found it. However, we also need to indicate clearly where we found the citation: i.e. we need to cite both the secondary source and the text in which we found it cited.

When Should I Use a Secondary Source?

The short answer is only when necessary. Ideally, whenever you see a citation that may be useful in your own work, you should seek out the original source and use that. The advantages of referring to the full original text are twofold:

1. You can check the citation was used appropriately in the place where you found it
2. You will gain a better understanding of the subject under discussion

Using the original source will therefore make your work stronger. It can also save you from misusing a source that someone else cited inappropriately.

If, however, you’ve tried to find the original and had no luck (e.g. if it’s out of publication), it’s fine to use secondary references instead.

An Example (Using Harvard Style)

So how should you cite a secondary source? The key phrase here is ‘cited in’. With Harvard style referencing, for instance, your citations should include the year of publication for the secondary source, followed by ‘cited in’, the author name and year of publication of the text where the citation appears:

Author named in text: According to Radcliffe (2004 cited in Maconie, 2013, p. 6) ‘no other band is quite like the Human League’.

Author not named in text: Some critics consider the Human League unique (Radcliffe, 2004 cited in Maconie, 2013).

In the reference list, for secondary citations, you should only include the source you’ve read. For the above example, then, the reference list would need an entry for Maconie but not Radcliffe.

Most referencing systems use a format similar to the one shown above. It’s important to check your university’s style guide on this point, though, as there are differences between systems. APA, for example, uses ‘as cited in’ rather than just ‘cited in’ and excludes the year of publication for the secondary source:

Critics consider the Human League unique (Radcliffe, as cited in Maconie, 2013).