Flagged in 2-5% of citations. Every 'as cited in' is an admission that you're relying on someone else's reading of the original research. Your committee expects you to read it yourself.
Reduce reliance on secondary sources — cite primary sources directly.
A secondary source citation—formatted as '(Smith, 2010, as cited in Jones, 2020)'—means you're citing Smith's work without having read it. You're trusting Jones's interpretation of what Smith said. In a doctoral dissertation, this is a significant credibility issue. Your committee expects you to engage directly with the primary research. When they see 'as cited in,' they read: 'I couldn't find the original source' or worse, 'I didn't bother to look.'
Secondary citations are occasionally unavoidable. The original source may be out of print, in a language you don't read, or behind an institutional paywall your library can't access. APA allows secondary citations for these situations. But when a dissertation has five, ten, or fifteen 'as cited in' references, the committee sees a pattern of corner-cutting. Most primary sources are findable through interlibrary loan, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, or direct email to the author.
The deeper problem with secondary sources is accuracy. When Jones (2020) cites Smith (2010), Jones is selecting, paraphrasing, and potentially reframing Smith's work to serve Jones's argument. The nuance of Smith's original findings may be lost or misrepresented. By citing the secondary source, you're importing someone else's interpretation into your literature review as if it were the original. If your committee checks the original Smith (2010) and finds your characterization doesn't match, your credibility takes a serious hit.
Secondary citations ("as cited in") signal that you didn't read the original work. Committees view this as insufficient scholarship.
Students use secondary sources because they're easier to find in recent textbooks or review articles.
Every "as cited in" is a red flag. If a source is important enough to cite, it's important enough to read.
Piaget argued that children develop through stages (as cited in Neutzling, 2020).
Piaget (1952) argued that children develop through stages. (citing the original work directly)
Bandura's work is widely available—there's no reason to cite it secondarily. Access the original source directly.
Self-efficacy is defined as the belief in one's ability to succeed (Bandura, 1977, as cited in Pajares, 2006).
Self-efficacy is defined as "the belief in one's capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments" (Bandura, 1997, p. 3).
Classic psychology source cited through a popular website. The original 1943 article is freely available.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs suggests that belonging must be satisfied before esteem needs (Maslow, 1943, as cited in McLeod, 2020).
Maslow (1943) proposed a hierarchical model of human motivation in which belonging needs must be substantially satisfied before esteem needs become salient, though subsequent research has questioned the strict hierarchical ordering (Wahba & Bridwell, 1976).
Foundational educational theory should always be cited from the primary translated source, which is widely available.
Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (as cited in Wertsch, 1985) describes the gap between what a learner can do independently and with guidance.
Vygotsky (1978) described the zone of proximal development as the distance between a child's independent problem-solving ability and the level achievable through adult guidance or collaboration with more capable peers.
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