When building the knowledge base for your thesis you will need information, which can be found in different types of publications. Identifying the different types of publications, finding and selecting those that are relevant to your topic is an essential part of the information search process.

To be able to choose the right sources of information for your work, you need to be able to do source criticism. The principle is to use original sources where the information or theory is first mentioned.

Publications can be grouped as follows:

Research publications
Theses
Professional publications
General publications

When writing a thesis it is recommended to use primarily research publications and professional publications.

Research publications

Research publications can be divided into two categories:

primary sources
secondary sources

Primary sources are original sources that express new information for the first time. Primary sources include:

articles reporting new research, published in scientific journals
review articles in scientific journals, presenting and commenting on previous research
dissertations and research reports
books, such as monographs and collections of articles

Secondary sources summarize, structure, assemble, and help find information presented in primary sources. The most commonly used secondary sources are:

textbooks
bibliographical references
abstracts
reference works (including handbooks, dictionaries and encyclopedias)

The aim of the thesis is to use primary sources, preferably scientific articles.

Theses

Theses are useful sources of information at different stages of writing your own thesis.

Theses can be used as a source of information as follows:

Dissertations can be used to learn about the subject and to find sources. However, do not refer directly to the thesis. In English, a search on Google Scholar will find a good selection of theses.
As a general rule, you can use university dissertations and theses as official sources for your thesis. Master's theses and dissertations from universities of applied sciences can also be used as sources for theses in some of Laurea's fields of study.

Theses and dissertations are now mainly published in electronic format. University theses (master's theses, licentiate theses, doctoral theses) should be searched for in universities' publication archives.
The publication archives of Finnish universities have been compiled for specific fields of study in Laurea's LibGuides, on the theses tab. Dissertations can also be searched for at the national Finna site. Finna.fi contains theses, books, and other publications from all universities and universities of applied sciences.

If you want to browse theses from universities of applied sciences only, go to the Theseus database. It contains all the theses and dissertations published by Finnish universities of applied sciences, as well as other publications by universities of applied sciences.

Professional publications

Professional publications can typically be divided into professional journals and reference books, which can be used as textbooks or professional handbooks. Professional journals are important sources of new information for learning and working life. They provide rapid access to specialist news and often deal with topics in a practical way. They typically publish interviews with experts. Professional publications can contain both first-hand and second-hand information.

It should be noted that in non-fiction books, new research data can be published even with a delay of several years. You can find publications of professional knowledge in Laurea Finna and through the national Finna.fi service.

General publications

General interest publications include, for example, general news. The content may be mainly entertainment, as in general interest magazines. The popularization of science is also generalization. If general-interest publications present research results, they may do so in a summarized and condensed form. Publications usually contain second-hand information. The original sources may not be mentioned accurately. On the other hand, newspapers, for example, may inform you that a new research publication (original source) or project report has been published.