Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper: Annotated Bibliography

An annotated bibliography is a list of resources with citations related to a particular topic or arranged thematically that include a brief descriptive or evaluative summary. The annotated bibliography can be arranged chronologically by date of publication or alphabetically by author, with citations to print and/or digital materials, such as, books, newspaper articles, journal articles, dissertations, government documents, pamphlets, web sites, etc., multimedia sources like films and audio recordings, or documents and materials preserved in archival collections.

Harner, James L. On Compiling an Annotated Bibliography. 2nd edition. New York: Modern Language Association, 2000.

In lieu of writing a formal research paper or in preparation for a larger project, your professor may ask you to develop an annotated bibliography. An annotated bibliography may be assigned for a number of reasons, including: 1) to show that you understand the literature underpinning a research problem; 2) to demonstrate that you can conduct an effective and thorough review of pertinent literature; or, 3) to share sources among your classmates so that, collectively, everyone in the class obtains a comprehensive understanding of key research about a particular topic.

On a broader level, writing an annotated bibliography can lay the foundation for conducting a larger research project. It serves as a method to evaluate what research has been conducted and where your proposed study may fit within it. By critically analyzing and synthesizing the contents of a variety of sources, you can begin to evaluate what the key issues are in relation to the research problem and, by so doing, gain a better perspective about the deliberations taking place among scholars. As a result this analysis, you are better prepared to develop your own point of view and contributions to the literature.

In summary, a good annotated bibliography...

• Encourages you to think critically about the content of the works you are using, their place within the broader field of study, and their relation to your own research, assumptions, and ideas;
• Provides evidence that you have read and understood your sources;
• Establishes validity for the research you have done and of you as a researcher;
• Gives you an opportunity to consider and include key digital, multimedia, or archival materials among your review of the literature;
• Situates your study and underlying research problem in a continuing conversation among scholars;
• Provides an opportunity for others to determine whether a source will be helpful for their research; and,
• Could help researchers determine whether they are interested in a topic by providing background information and an idea of the kind of scholarly investigations that have been conducted in a particular area of study.

In addition, writing an annotated bibliography helps you develop skills related to critically reading and identifying the key points of a research study and to effectively synthesize the content in a way that helps the reader determine its validity and usefulness in relation to the research problem or topic of investigation.

Annotated Bibliographies. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Annotated Bibliographies. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Annotated Bibliography. The Waldin Writing Center. Waldin University; Hartley, James. Academic Writing and Publishing: A Practical Guide. (New York: Routledge, 2008), p. 127-128.

Types

1. Descriptive: This annotation describes the source without summarizing the actual argument, hypothesis, or message in the content. Like an abstract, it describes what the source addresses, what issues are being investigated, and any special features, such as appendices or bibliographies, that are used to supplement the main text. What it does not include is any evaluation or criticism of the content. This type of annotation seeks to answer the question: Does this source cover or address the topic I am researching? Collectively, this type of annotated bibliography characterizes prior research about a topic or serves as a review of the literature before conducting a broader research study.
2. Informative/Summative: This type of annotation summarizes what the content, message, or argument of the source is. It generally contains the hypothesis, methodology, and conclusion or findings, but like the descriptive type, you are not offering your own evaluative comments about such content. This type of annotation seeks to answer these types of questions: What are the author's main arguments? What are the key findings? What conclusions or recommended actions did the author state? Collectively, this type of annotated bibliography summarizes the way in which scholars have studied and documented outcomes about a topic.
3. Evaluative/Critical/Analytical: This annotation includes your evaluative statements about the content of a source. It is the most common type of annotation your professor will ask you to write. Your critique may focus on describing a study's strengths and weaknesses or it may describe the applicability of the conclusions to the research problem you are studying. This type of annotation seeks to answer these types of questions: Is the reasoning sound? Is the methodology sound? Does this source address all the relevant issues? How does this source compare to other sources on this topic? Collectively, this type of annotated bibliography offers a detailed analysis and critical assessment of the research literature about a topic.

Choosing Sources for Your Bibliography

There are two good strategies you should use to begin identifying possible sources for your bibliography--one that looks back into the literature and one that looks forward.

1. The first strategy is to identify several recent scholarly books using the University Libraries catalog or journal articles using a comprehensive database like Start Your Research about the topic of your annotated bibliography and review the sources cited by the author(s). The references to sources used by the author will effectively lead you to related sources about the topic.
2. The second strategy is to identify one or more important books, book chapters, journal articles, or other documents on your topic and paste the title of the item into Google Scholar [e.g., from Negotiation Journal, entering the article, "Civic Fusion: Moving from Certainty through Not Knowing to Curiosity"]. Place quotation marks around the title so Google Scholar searches as a phrase rather than a combination of individual words. Below the citation may be a "Cited by" reference followed by a linked number. This link will direct you to a list of study's that have cited that particular item after it was published.

Your method for selecting which sources to annotate depends on the purpose of the assignment and the research problem you are investigating. For example, if the research problem is to compare the social factors that led to protests in Egypt with the social factors that led to protests against the government of the Philippines in  the 1980's, you will have to consider including non-U.S., historical, and, if possible, foreign language sources in your bibliography.

NOTE:  Appropriate sources to include can be anything that has value in understanding the research problem. Be creative in thinking about possible sources, including non-textual items, such as, films, maps, photographs, and audio recordings, or archival documents and primary source materials, such as, diaries, government documents, collections of personal correspondence, meeting minutes, and official memorandums. Consult with a librarian if you're not sure how to locate these types of materials for your bibliography.

Assessing the Relevance and Value of Sources

All the items you include in your bibliography should reflect the source's contribution to understanding the research problem or the overall issue being addressed. In order to determine how you will use the source or define its contribution, you will need to assess the quality of the central argument within the source. Specific elements to assess include an item’s overall value in relation to other sources on the topic, its limitations, its effectiveness in defining the research problem, the methodology used, the quality of the evidence, and the author’s conclusions and/or recommendations.

With this in mind, determining whether a source should be included in your bibliography depends on how you think about and answer the following questions related to its content:

• Are you interested in the way the author frames the research questions or in the way the author goes about answering it [the method]?
• Does the research findings make new connections or promote new ways of understanding a problem?
• Are you interested in the way the author uses a theoretical framework or a key concept?
• Does the source refer to and analyze a particular body of evidence that you want to cite?
• How are the author's conclusions relevant to your overall investigation of the topic?

V.  Format and Content

The format of an annotated bibliography can differ depending on its purpose and the nature of the assignment. Contents may be listed alphabetically by author or arranged chronologically by publication date. If the bibliography includes a lot of sources, items may also be subdivided thematically, by time periods of coverage or publication, or by type. If you are unsure, ask your professor for specific guidelines in terms of length, focus, and the type of annotation you are to write.

Introduction
Your bibliography should include an introduction that describes the topic or subject area covered by the bibliography, explains the method used to identify possible sources [such as databases you searched], the rationale for selecting the sources, and, if appropriate, an explanation stating why specific types of sources were deliberately excluded. The introduction's length depends, in general, on the the complexity of the topic and the variety of sources.

Citation
This first part of your entry contains the bibliographic information written in a standard documentation style, such as, MLA, Chicago, or APA. Ask your professor what style is most appropriate, and be consistent! If your professor does not have a preferred citation style, choose the type you are most familiar with or that is used predominantly within your major.

Annotation
The second part should summarize, in paragraph form, the content of the source. What you say about the source is dictated by the type of annotation you are asked to write [see above]. In most cases, however, your annotation should provide critical commentary that examines the source and its relationship to the topic. Things to think critically about when writing the annotation include:

• Does the source offer a good introduction on the issue?
• Does the source effectively address the issue?
• Would novices find the work accessible or is it intended for an audience already familiar with the topic?
• What limitations does the source have [reading level, timeliness, reliability, etc.]?
• Are any special features, such as, appendices or non-textual elements effectively presented?
• What is your overall reaction to the source?
• If it's a website or online resource, is it up-to-date, well-organized, and easy to read, use, and navigate?

Length
Annotations can vary in length, from a couple of sentences to a couple of pages. However, they are normally about 300 words. The length will depend on the purpose of the annotated bibliography [critical assessments are generally lengthier than descriptive annotations] and the type of source [e.g., books generally require a more detailed annotation than a magazine article]. If you're just writing summaries of your sources, the annotations may not be very long. However, if you are writing an extensive analysis of each source, you'll need to devote more space.

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