write a note on bibliography in research methods

How to Write a Bibliography for a Research Paper

Do not try to “wow” your instructor with a long bibliography when your instructor requests only a works cited page. It is tempting, after doing a lot of work to research a paper, to try to include summaries on each source as you write your paper so that your instructor appreciates how much work you did. That is a trap you want to avoid. MLA style, the one that is most commonly followed in high schools and university writing courses, dictates that you include only the works you actually cited in your paper—not all those that you used.

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• If your assignment calls for a bibliography, list all the sources you consulted in your research.
• If your assignment calls for a works cited or references page, include only the sources you quote, summarize, paraphrase, or mention in your paper.
• If your works cited page includes a source that you did not cite in your paper, delete it.
• All in-text citations that you used at the end of quotations, summaries, and paraphrases to credit others for their ideas,words, and work must be accompanied by a cited reference in the bibliography or works cited. These references must include specific information about the source so that your readers can identify precisely where the information came from.The citation entries on a works cited page typically include the author’s name, the name of the article, the name of the publication, the name of the publisher (for books), where it was published (for books), and when it was published.

The good news is that you do not have to memorize all the many ways the works cited entries should be written. Numerous helpful style guides are available to show you the information that should be included, in what order it should appear, and how to format it. The format often differs according to the style guide you are using. The Modern Language Association (MLA) follows a particular style that is a bit different from APA (American Psychological Association) style, and both are somewhat different from the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS). Always ask your teacher which style you should use.

A bibliography usually appears at the end of a paper on its own separate page. All bibliography entries—books, periodicals, Web sites, and nontext sources such radio broadcasts—are listed together in alphabetical order. Books and articles are alphabetized by the author’s last name.

Most teachers suggest that you follow a standard style for listing different types of sources. If your teacher asks you to use a different form, however, follow his or her instructions. Take pride in your bibliography. It represents some of the most important work you’ve done for your research paper—and using proper form shows that you are a serious and careful researcher.

Bibliography Entry for a Book

A bibliography entry for a book begins with the author’s name, which is written in this order: last name, comma, first name, period. After the author’s name comes the title of the book. If you are handwriting your bibliography, underline each title. If you are working on a computer, put the book title in italicized type. Be sure to capitalize the words in the title correctly, exactly as they are written in the book itself. Following the title is the city where the book was published, followed by a colon, the name of the publisher, a comma, the date published, and a period. Here is an example:

Format : Author’s last name, first name. Book Title. Place of publication: publisher, date of publication.

• A book with one author : Hartz, Paula.  Abortion: A Doctor’s Perspective, a Woman’s Dilemma . New York: Donald I. Fine, Inc., 1992.
• A book with two or more authors : Landis, Jean M. and Rita J. Simon.  Intelligence: Nature or Nurture?  New York: HarperCollins, 1998.

Bibliography Entry for a Periodical

A bibliography entry for a periodical differs slightly in form from a bibliography entry for a book. For a magazine article, start with the author’s last name first, followed by a comma, then the first name and a period. Next, write the title of the article in quotation marks, and include a period (or other closing punctuation) inside the closing quotation mark. The title of the magazine is next, underlined or in italic type, depending on whether you are handwriting or using a computer, followed by a period. The date and year, followed by a colon and the pages on which the article appeared, come last. Here is an example:

Format:  Author’s last name, first name. “Title of the Article.” Magazine. Month and year of publication: page numbers.

• Article in a monthly magazine : Crowley, J.E.,T.E. Levitan and R.P. Quinn.“Seven Deadly Half-Truths About Women.”  Psychology Today  March 1978: 94–106.
• Article in a weekly magazine : Schwartz, Felice N.“Management,Women, and the New Facts of Life.”  Newsweek  20 July 2006: 21–22.
• Signed newspaper article : Ferraro, Susan. “In-law and Order: Finding Relative Calm.”  The Daily News  30 June 1998: 73.
• Unsigned newspaper article : “Beanie Babies May Be a Rotten Nest Egg.”  Chicago Tribune  21 June 2004: 12.

Bibliography Entry for a Web Site

For sources such as Web sites include the information a reader needs to find the source or to know where and when you found it. Always begin with the last name of the author, broadcaster, person you interviewed, and so on. Here is an example of a bibliography for a Web site:

Format : Author.“Document Title.” Publication or Web site title. Date of publication. Date of access.

Example : Dodman, Dr. Nicholas. “Dog-Human Communication.”  Pet Place . 10 November 2006.  23 January 2014 < http://www.petplace.com/dogs/dog-human-communication-2/page1.aspx >

After completing the bibliography you can breathe a huge sigh of relief and pat yourself on the back. You probably plan to turn in your work in printed or handwritten form, but you also may be making an oral presentation. However you plan to present your paper, do your best to show it in its best light. You’ve put a great deal of work and thought into this assignment, so you want your paper to look and sound its best. You’ve completed your research paper!

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How to Create a Bibliography

• First Online: 01 October 2023

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• Rohan Reddy 4 ,
• Samuel Sorkhi 4 ,
• Saager Chawla 4 &
• Mahadevan Raj Rajasekaran 5  

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This chapter describes the fundamental principles and practices of referencing sources in scientific writing and publishing. Understanding plagiarism and improper referencing of the source material is paramount to producing original work that contains an authentic voice. Citing references helps authors to avoid plagiarism, give credit to the original author, and allow potential readers to refer to the legitimate sources and learn more information. Furthermore, quality references serve as an invaluable resource that can enlighten future research in a field. This chapter outlines fundamental aspects of referencing as well as how these sources are formatted as per recommended citation styles. Appropriate referencing is an important tool that can be utilized to develop the credibility of the author and the arguments presented. Additionally, online software can be useful in helping the author organize their sources and promote proper collaboration in scientific writing.

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Reddy, R., Sorkhi, S., Chawla, S., Rajasekaran, M.R. (2023). How to Create a Bibliography. In: Jagadeesh, G., Balakumar, P., Senatore, F. (eds) The Quintessence of Basic and Clinical Research and Scientific Publishing. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-1284-1_39

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Harvard Guide to Using Sources 

• The Honor Code
• Bibliography

If you are using Chicago style footnotes or endnotes, you should include a bibliography at the end of your paper that provides complete citation information for all of the sources you cite in your paper. Bibliography entries are formatted differently from notes. For bibliography entries, you list the sources alphabetically by last name, so you will list the last name of the author or creator first in each entry. You should single-space within a bibliography entry and double-space between them. When an entry goes longer than one line, use a hanging indent of .5 inches for subsequent lines. Here’s a link to a sample bibliography that shows layout and spacing . You can find a sample of note format here .

Complete note vs. shortened note

Here’s an example of a complete note and a shortened version of a note for a book:

1. Karen Ho, Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street (Durham: Duke University Press, 2009), 27-35.

1. Karen Ho, Liquidated , 27-35.

Note vs. Bibliography entry

The bibliography entry that corresponds with each note is very similar to the longer version of the note, except that the author’s last and first name are reversed in the bibliography entry. To see differences between note and bibliography entries for different types of sources, check this section of the Chicago Manual of Style .

For Liquidated , the bibliography entry would look like this:

Ho, Karen, Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street . Durham: Duke University Press, 2009.

Citing a source with two or three authors

If you are citing a source with two or three authors, list their names in your note in the order they appear in the original source. In the bibliography, invert only the name of the first author and use “and” before the last named author.

1. Melissa Borja and Jacob Gibson, “Internationalism with Evangelical Characteristics: The Case of Evangelical Responses to Southeast Asian Refugees,” The Review of Faith & International Affairs 17, no. 3 (2019): 80-81, https://doi.org/10.1080/15570274.2019.1643983 .

Shortened note:

1. Borja and Gibson, “Internationalism with Evangelical Characteristics,” 80-81.

Bibliography:

Borja, Melissa, and Jacob Gibson. “Internationalism with Evangelical Characteristics: The Case of Evangelical Responses to Southeast Asian Refugees.” The Review of Faith & International Affairs 17. no. 3 (2019): 80–93. https://doi.org/10.1080/15570274.2019.1643983 .

Citing a source with more than three authors

If you are citing a source with more than three authors, include all of them in the bibliography, but only include the first one in the note, followed by et al. ( et al. is the shortened form of the Latin et alia , which means “and others”).

1. Justine M. Nagurney, et al., “Risk Factors for Disability After Emergency Department Discharge in Older Adults,” Academic Emergency Medicine 27, no. 12 (2020): 1271.

Short version of note:

1. Justine M. Nagurney, et al., “Risk Factors for Disability,” 1271.

Nagurney, Justine M., Ling Han, Linda Leo‐Summers, Heather G. Allore, Thomas M. Gill, and Ula Hwang. “Risk Factors for Disability After Emergency Department Discharge in Older Adults.” Academic Emergency Medicine 27, no. 12 (2020): 1270–78. https://doi.org/10.1111/acem.14088 .

Citing a book consulted online

If you are citing a book you consulted online, you should include a URL, DOI, or the name of the database where you found the book.

1. Karen Ho, Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street (Durham: Duke University Press, 2009), 27-35, https://doi-org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/10.1215/9780822391371 .

Bibliography entry:

Ho, Karen. Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street . Durham: Duke University Press, 2009. https://doi-org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/10.1215/9780822391371 .

Citing an e-book consulted outside of a database

If you are citing an e-book that you accessed outside of a database, you should indicate the format. If you read the book in a format without fixed page numbers (like Kindle, for example), you should not include the page numbers that you saw as you read. Instead, include chapter or section numbers, if possible.

1. Karen Ho, Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street (Durham: Duke University Press, 2009), chap. 2, Kindle.

Ho, Karen. Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street . Durham: Duke University Press, 2009. Kindle.

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Bibliography: Definition and Examples

Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms

• An Introduction to Punctuation
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• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
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A bibliography is a list of works (such as books and articles) written on a particular subject or by a particular author. Adjective : bibliographic.

Also known as a list of works cited , a bibliography may appear at the end of a book, report , online presentation, or research paper . Students are taught that a bibliography, along with correctly formatted in-text citations, is crucial to properly citing one's research and to avoiding accusations of plagiarism . In formal research, all sources used, whether quoted directly or synopsized, should be included in the bibliography.

An annotated bibliography includes a brief descriptive and evaluative paragraph (the annotation ) for each item in the list. These annotations often give more context about why a certain source may be useful or related to the topic at hand.

• Etymology:  From the Greek, "writing about books" ( biblio , "book", graph , "to write")
• Pronunciation:  bib-lee-OG-rah-fee

Examples and Observations

"Basic bibliographic information includes title, author or editor, publisher, and the year the current edition was published or copyrighted . Home librarians often like to keep track of when and where they acquired a book, the price, and a personal annotation, which would include their opinions of the book or of the person who gave it to them" (Patricia Jean Wagner, The Bloomsbury Review Booklover's Guide . Owaissa Communications, 1996)

Conventions for Documenting Sources

"It is standard practice in scholarly writing to include at the end of books or chapters and at the end of articles a list of the sources that the writer consulted or cited. Those lists, or bibliographies, often include sources that you will also want to consult. . . . "Established conventions for documenting sources vary from one academic discipline to another. The Modern Language Association (MLA) style of documentation is preferred in literature and languages. For papers in the social sciences the American Psychological Association (APA) style is preferred, whereas papers in history, philosophy, economics, political science, and business disciplines are formatted in the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) system. The Council of Biology Editors (CBE) recommends varying documentation styles for different natural sciences." (Robert DiYanni and Pat C. Hoy II, The Scribner Handbook for Writers , 3rd ed. Allyn and Bacon, 2001)

APA vs MLA Styles

There are several different styles of citations and bibliographies that you might encounter: MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard, and more. As described above, each of those styles is often associated with a particular segment of academia and research. Of these, the most widely used are APA and MLA styles. They both include similar information, but arranged and formatted differently.

"In an entry for a book in an APA-style works-cited list, the date (in parentheses) immediately follows the name of the author (whose first name is written only as an initial), just the first word of the title is capitalized, and the publisher's full name is generally provided.

APA Anderson, I. (2007). This is our music: Free jazz, the sixties, and American culture . Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

By contrast, in an MLA-style entry, the author's name appears as given in the work (normally in full), every important word of the title is capitalized, some words in the publisher's name are abbreviated, the publication date follows the publisher's name, and the medium of publication is recorded. . . . In both styles, the first line of the entry is flush with the left margin, and the second and subsequent lines are indented.

MLA Anderson, Iain. This Is Our Music: Free Jazz, the Sixties, and American Culture . Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2007. Print. The Arts and Intellectual Life in Mod. Amer.

( MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers , 7th ed. The Modern Language Association of America, 2009)

Finding Bibliographic Information for Online Sources

"For Web sources, some bibliographic information may not be available, but spend time looking for it before assuming that it doesn't exist. When information isn't available on the home page, you may have to drill into the site, following links to interior pages. Look especially for the author's name, the date of publication (or latest update), and the name of any sponsoring organization. Do not omit such information unless it is genuinely unavailable. . . . "Online articles and books sometimes include a DOI (digital object identifier). APA uses the DOI, when available, in place of a URL in reference list entries." (Diana Hacker and Nancy Sommers, A Writer's Reference With Strategies for Online Learners , 7th ed. Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011)

• What Is a Bibliography?
• What Is a Citation?
• MLA Bibliography or Works Cited
• What Is a Senior Thesis?
• MLA Sample Pages
• How to Write a Bibliography For a Science Fair Project
• Turabian Style Guide With Examples
• APA In-Text Citations
• Definition and Examples of Title Case and Headline Style
• Tips for Typing an Academic Paper on a Computer
• Documentation in Reports and Research Papers
• 140 Key Copyediting Terms and What They Mean
• Writing an Annotated Bibliography for a Paper
• MLA Style Parenthetical Citations
• Definition of Appendix in a Book or Written Work
• How to Use Block Quotations in Writing

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Types of Documentation

Bibliographies and Source Lists

What is a bibliography.

A bibliography is a list of books and other source material that you have used in preparing a research paper. Sometimes these lists will include works that you consulted but did not cite specifically in your assignment. Consult the style guide required for your assignment to determine the specific title of your bibliography page as well as how to cite each source type. Bibliographies are usually placed at the end of your research paper.

What is an annotated bibliography?

A special kind of bibliography, the annotated bibliography, is often used to direct your readers to other books and resources on your topic. An instructor may ask you to prepare an annotated bibliography to help you narrow down a topic for your research assignment. Such bibliographies offer a few lines of information, typically 150-300 words, summarizing the content of the resource after the bibliographic entry.   

Example of Annotated Bibliographic Entry in MLA Style

Waddell, Marie L., Robert M. Esch, and Roberta R. Walker. The Art of Styling         Sentences: 20 Patterns for Success. 3rd ed. New York: Barron’s, 1993.         A comprehensive look at 20 sentence patterns and their variations to         teach students how to write effective sentences by imitating good style.

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Table of Contents: Online Guide to Writing

Chapter 1: College Writing

How Does College Writing Differ from Workplace Writing?

What Is College Writing?

Why So Much Emphasis on Writing?

Chapter 2: The Writing Process

Doing Exploratory Research

Getting from Notes to Your Draft

Introduction

Prewriting - Techniques to Get Started - Mining Your Intuition

Prewriting: Targeting Your Audience

Prewriting: Techniques to Get Started

Prewriting: Understanding Your Assignment

Rewriting: Being Your Own Critic

Rewriting: Creating a Revision Strategy

Rewriting: Getting Feedback

Rewriting: The Final Draft

Techniques to Get Started - Outlining

Techniques to Get Started - Using Systematic Techniques

Thesis Statement and Controlling Idea

Writing: Getting from Notes to Your Draft - Freewriting

Writing: Getting from Notes to Your Draft - Summarizing Your Ideas

Writing: Outlining What You Will Write

Chapter 3: Thinking Strategies

A Word About Style, Voice, and Tone

A Word About Style, Voice, and Tone: Style Through Vocabulary and Diction

Critical Strategies and Writing

Critical Strategies and Writing: Analysis

Critical Strategies and Writing: Evaluation

Critical Strategies and Writing: Persuasion

Critical Strategies and Writing: Synthesis

Developing a Paper Using Strategies

Kinds of Assignments You Will Write

Patterns for Presenting Information

Patterns for Presenting Information: Critiques

Patterns for Presenting Information: Discussing Raw Data

Patterns for Presenting Information: General-to-Specific Pattern

Patterns for Presenting Information: Problem-Cause-Solution Pattern

Patterns for Presenting Information: Specific-to-General Pattern

Patterns for Presenting Information: Summaries and Abstracts

Supporting with Research and Examples

Writing Essay Examinations

Writing Essay Examinations: Make Your Answer Relevant and Complete

Writing Essay Examinations: Organize Thinking Before Writing

Writing Essay Examinations: Read and Understand the Question

Chapter 4: The Research Process

Planning and Writing a Research Paper

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Ask a Research Question

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Cite Sources

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Collect Evidence

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Decide Your Point of View, or Role, for Your Research

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Draw Conclusions

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Find a Topic and Get an Overview

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Manage Your Resources

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Outline

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Survey the Literature

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Work Your Sources into Your Research Writing

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Human Resources

Research Resources: What Are Research Resources?

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found?

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Electronic Resources

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Print Resources

Structuring the Research Paper: Formal Research Structure

Structuring the Research Paper: Informal Research Structure

The Nature of Research

The Research Assignment: How Should Research Sources Be Evaluated?

The Research Assignment: When Is Research Needed?

The Research Assignment: Why Perform Research?

Chapter 5: Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity

Giving Credit to Sources

Giving Credit to Sources: Copyright Laws

Giving Credit to Sources: Documentation

Giving Credit to Sources: Style Guides

Integrating Sources

Practicing Academic Integrity

Practicing Academic Integrity: Keeping Accurate Records

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Paraphrasing Your Source

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Quoting Your Source

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Summarizing Your Sources

Types of Documentation: Bibliographies and Source Lists

Types of Documentation: Citing World Wide Web Sources

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - APA Style

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - CSE/CBE Style

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - Chicago Style

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - MLA Style

Types of Documentation: Note Citations

Chapter 6: Using Library Resources

Finding Library Resources

Chapter 7: Assessing Your Writing

How Is Writing Graded?

How Is Writing Graded?: A General Assessment Tool

The Draft Stage

The Draft Stage: The First Draft

The Draft Stage: The Revision Process and the Final Draft

The Draft Stage: Using Feedback

The Research Stage

Using Assessment to Improve Your Writing

Chapter 8: Other Frequently Assigned Papers

Reviews and Reaction Papers: Article and Book Reviews

Reviews and Reaction Papers: Reaction Papers

Writing Arguments

Writing Arguments: Adapting the Argument Structure

Writing Arguments: Purposes of Argument

Writing Arguments: References to Consult for Writing Arguments

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Anticipate Active Opposition

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Determine Your Organization

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Develop Your Argument

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Introduce Your Argument

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - State Your Thesis or Proposition

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Write Your Conclusion

Writing Arguments: Types of Argument

Appendix A: Books to Help Improve Your Writing

Dictionaries

General Style Manuals

Researching on the Internet

Special Style Manuals

Writing Handbooks

Appendix B: Collaborative Writing and Peer Reviewing

Collaborative Writing: Assignments to Accompany the Group Project

Collaborative Writing: Informal Progress Report

Collaborative Writing: Issues to Resolve

Collaborative Writing: Methodology

Collaborative Writing: Peer Evaluation

Collaborative Writing: Tasks of Collaborative Writing Group Members

Collaborative Writing: Writing Plan

General Introduction

Peer Reviewing

Appendix C: Developing an Improvement Plan

Working with Your Instructor’s Comments and Grades

Appendix D: Writing Plan and Project Schedule

Devising a Writing Project Plan and Schedule

Reviewing Your Plan with Others

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Citing Sources: Sample Notes and Bibliography Citations

• Style Links & Samples
• Sample Reference List Citations
• Sample Notes and Bibliography Citations
• Sample Author Date Citations
• Citing Nontraditional Sources in Chicago
• Sample Citations
• Major Changes to the New MLA
• Capitalization and Personal Names in Foreign Languages
• Citing Primary Sources
• Ancient Texts
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The following examples display the entry first as it would appear in the bibliography (B) , the footnote/endnote (F) , and the shortened footnote/endnote (SF) , which is used when a source is cited more than once. Notes are numbered consecutively throughout a paper and include references to specific page numbers. Bibliographic entries use hanging indentation, while footnotes and endnotes use paragraph-style indentation. See the information box to the right for more information.

Books with One Author:

Bibliography:  

Nagel, Joane.  Gender and Climate Change: Impacts, Science, Policy . New York: Routledge, 2016.

Footnote:  

    1. Joane Nagel,  Gender and Climate Change: Impacts, Science, Policy  (New York: Routledge, 2016), 107-8.

Shortened Footnote:

    1. Nagel,  Gender and Climate Change , 107-8 .  

Books with Multiple Authors:

Two Authors:

Weinberg, Arthur, and Lila Weinberg.  Clarence Darrow: A Sentimental Rebel . New York: Putnam's Sons, 1980.

    2. Arthur Weinberg and Lila Weinberg,  Clarence Darrow: A Sentimental Rebel  (New York: Putnam's Sons, 1980), 56.

Shortened Footnote:

    2. Weinberg and Weinberg,  Clarence Darrow , 56.  

Four or More Authors:

For four or more authors, list all of the authors in the bibliography; in the note, list only the first author, followed by  et al . (“and others”):

    2. Dana Barnes et al.,  Plastics: Essays on American Corporate Ascendance in the 1960s ...

    2. Barnes et al.,  Plastics ...

Work in an Anthology (a book with an editor who collected essays by different authors):

Bibliography:

Dayan, Peter. “The Romantic Renaissance.” In  Poetry in France , edited by Keith Aspley and Peter France, 333-43. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1992.

    3. Peter Dayan, “The Romantic Renaissance,” in  Poetry in France , ed. Keith Aspley and Peter France (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1992), 341.

Shortened Footnote:  

    3. Dayan, “The Romantic Renaissance,” 341.

Books with Edition Other than the First:

Rolle, Andrew F.  California: A History . 5th ed. Wheeling, IL: Harlan Davidson, 1998.

    4. Andrew F. Rolle,  California: A History , 5th ed. (Wheeling, IL: Harland Davidson, 1998), 243.

    4. Rolle,  California , 243.

Book with Editor in Place of Author:

Hall, Kermit L, and James W. Ely, Jr., eds.  The Oxford Guide to Supreme Court Decisions . New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

    5. Kermit L. Hall and James W. Ely, Jr., eds.,  The Oxford Guide to Supreme Court Decisions  (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 178.

    5. Hall and Ely,  The Oxford Guide to Supreme Court Decisions , 178.

Editor, Translator, Or Compiler Instead Of Author:

Lattimore, Richmond, trans.  The Iliad of Homer . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951.

    6. Richmond Lattimore, trans.,  The Iliad of Homer  (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951), 91–92.

    6. Lattimore,  Iliad , 24.

Electronic Books and Books Consulted Online :

Cite these as you would a traditional book, but add the medium in which the book was accessed or a DOI or URL to the end of the citation. Since some e-readers do not use traditional pages to cite locations in a text you can include a chapter, section, or other information to cite a location. 

Mackenzie, F. A.  Korea's Fight for Freedom.  Seattle, Washington: Amazon & Public Domain Books, 2004. Kindle edition.

Footnote: 

    7. F. A. Mackenzie,  Korea's Fight for Freedom  (Seattle, Washington: Amazon & Public Domain Books, 2004), location 35. Kindle edition.

    7. Mackenzie,  Korea's Fight for Freedom.

Thrall, Grant Ian.  Land Use and Urban Form.  New York: Methuen, 1987.  http://rri.wvu.edu/WebBook/Thrallbook/Land%20Use%20and%20Urban%20Form.pdf

    8. Grant Ian Thrall,  Land Use and Urban Form  (New York: Methuen, 1987),  http://rri.wvu.edu/WebBook/Thrallbook/Land%20Use%20and%20Urban%20Form.pdf .

    8. Thrall,  Land Use and Urban Form.

Bibliography: 

Park, Soyeon. Underground. Seoul, South Korea: Daltagi, 2011. PDF e-book.

    9. Soyeon Park,  Underground  (Seoul, South Korea: Daltagi, 2011), location 55. PDF e-book.

    9. Park,  Underground.

Articles, Magazines, and Newspapers

Scholarly Article:

In a note, list the specific page numbers consulted, if any. In the bibliography, list the page range for the whole article.

Robertson, Noel. "The Dorian Migration and Corinthian Ritual."  Classical Philology  75, no. 2 (1980): 1-22.

    10. Noel Robertson, "The Dorian Migration and Corinthian Ritual,"  Classical Philology  75, no. 2 (1980): 16.

    10. Robertson, "The Dorian Migration and Corinthian Ritual," 16.

Electronic Journals:

Bent, Henry E. "Professionalization of the Ph.D. Degree.”  College Composition and Communication  58, no. 4 (2007): 0-145. Accessed December 5, 2008. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1978286.

    11. Henry E. Bent, “Professionalization of the Ph.D. Degree,”  College Composition and Communication  58, no. 4 (2007): 141, accessed December 5, 2008, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1978286.

    11. Bent,  “Professionalization of the Ph.D. Degree,” 141.

King, Victoria. "The Domesday Book."  History Magazine , October/November 2001, 275-78.

    12. Victoria King, "The Domesday Book,"  History Magazine , October/November 2001, 276.

    12. King, "The Domesday Book," 276.

Online Magazines:

YoungSmith, Barron. "Green Room."  Slate , February 4, 2009. http://www.slate.com/id/2202431/.

    13. Barron YoungSmith, "Green Room,"  Slate , February 4, 2009, http://www.slate.com/id/2202431/.

    13. YoungSmith, "Green Room."

Newspaper Article:

Deo, Nisha. “Visiting Professor Lectures on Photographer.”  Exponent  (West Lafayette, IN), Feb. 13, 2009.

    14. Nisha Deo, “Visiting Professor Lectures on Photographer,”  Exponent  (West Lafayette, IN), Feb. 13, 2009.

    14. Deo, “Visiting Professor Lectures on Photographer.”

Newspaper Article (anonymous author):

"Senatorial Contest in Illinois – Speech of Mr. Lincoln."  New York Times,  July 16, 1858, 4.

    15. "Senatorial Contest in Illinois – Speech of Mr. Lincoln,"  New York Times , July 16, 1858, 4.

    15.  "Senatorial Contest in Illinois – Speech of Mr. Lincoln," 4.

• Unpublished Materials

Letters (Unpublished):

References to conversations or to letters, e-mail or text messages, and the like received by the author are usually run in to the text or given in a note. They are rarely listed in a bibliography. The Chicago Manual of Style 16, 14.222.

    16. Constance Conlon, e-mail message to author, April 17, 2000.

    16. Conlon, e-mail.

Unpublished Manuscripts:

Cotter, Cory. "The Weakest Link: The Argument for On-Wrist Band Welding." Unpublished manuscript, last modified December 3, 2008. Microsoft Word file.

    17. Cory Cotter, "The Weakest Link: The Argument for On-Wrist Band Welding" (unpublished manuscript, December 3, 2008), Microsoft Word file.

    17. Cotter, "The Weakest Link."

Lectures, papers presented at meetings, and the like:

D'Erasmo, Stacy. "The Craft and Career of Writing." Lecture, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, April 26, 2000.

    18. Stacy D'Erasmo, "The Craft and Career of Writing" (Lecture, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, April 26, 2000).

    18. D'Erasmo, "The Craft and Career of Writing."

Manuscript Collections:

Egmont Manuscripts. Phillipps Collection. University of Georgia Library.

    19. James Oglethorpe to the Trustees, 13 January 1733, Phillipps Collection of Egmont Manuscripts,14200:13, University of Georgia Library.

    19. Oglethorpe to the Trustees, 1733, Egmont Manuscipts.

Kallen, Horace. Papers. YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York.

    20. Alvin Johnson, memorandum, 1937, file 36, Horace Kallen Papers, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York.

    20. Memorandum, 1937, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

Revere Family Papers. Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston.

    21. Revere's Waste and Memoranda Book (vol. 1, 1761-83; vol. 2, 1783-97), Revere Family Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston.

    21. Waste and Memoranda Book, Revere Family Papers.

• Specialized Formats

National Park Service. “Catoctin Mountain Park.” Last modified November 8, 2011.      http://www.nps.gov/cato/index.htm .

    22. “Catoctin Mountain Park,” National Park Service, last modified November 8, 2011, http://www.nps.gov/cato/index.htm .

    22. “Catoctin Mountain Park.”

Neuman, Scott. “As Occupy Camps Close, What's Next For Movement?” National Public Radio . November 15, 2011.      http://www.npr.org/2011/11/15/142359267/as-occupy-camps-close-whats-next-for-movement .

    23. Scott Neuman, “As Occupy Camps Close, What's Next For Movement?,” National Public Radio , November 15, 2011, http://www.npr.org/2011/11/15/142359267/as-occupy-camps-close-whats-next-for-movement .

    23. Neuman,  “As Occupy Camps Close, What's Next For Movement?”

"Illinois Governor Wants to 'Fumigate' State's Government.” CNN.com . Last modified January 30, 2009.      http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/30/illinois.governor.quinn/.

    24. "Illinois Governor Wants to 'Fumigate' State's Government,” CNN.com, Last modified January 30, 2009, http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/30/illinois.governor.quinn/.

    24. "Illinois Governor Wants to 'Fumigate' State's Government.”

Cases and Court Decisions:

Note: Almost all legal works use notes for documentation and few use bibliographies. The examples in this section, based on the recommendations in The Bluebook, are accordingly given in note form only. The Chicago Manual of Style 16, 14.283.

A. Constitutions,

    25. U.S. Const. art. I,  § 4, cl. 2.

    26. U.S. Const. amend. XIV,  § 2.

B. United States Supreme Court decisions,

    27. AT&T Corp. v. Iowa Utils. Bd., 525 U.S. 366 (1999).

Shortened Footnote: 

    27. AT&T , 525 U.S. at 366-367.

C. Lower federal-court decisions,

    28. United States v. Dennis, 183 F. 201 (2d Cir. 1950).

    28. Dennis , 183 F. at 202.

D. State- and local-court decisions,

    29. Williams v. Davis, 27 Cal. 2d 746 (1946).

    29. Williams , 27 Cal. 2d 746.

Legislative and Executive Documents:

A. Laws and statutes,

    30. Homeland Security Act of 2002, Pub. L. No. 107-296, 116 Stat. 2135 (2002).

    31. Homeland Security Act of 2002, 6 U.S.C. § 101 (2002).

B. Bills and resolutions,

    32. Homeland Security Act of 2002, H.R. 5005, 107th Cong. (2002).

C. Hearings,

    33. Homeland Security Act of 2002: Hearing on H.R. 5005, Day 3, Before the Select Comm. on Homeland Security , 107th Cong. 203 (2002) (statement of David Walker, Comptroller General of the United States).

Guggenheim, Davis, dir. ​ An Inconvenient Truth. Hollywood, CA: Paramount, 2006. DVD.

Footnote: 1. Davis Guggenheim, dir.,  An Inconvenient Truth  (Hollywood, CA: Paramount, 2006), DVD.

1. An Inconvenient Truth.

Table of Contents

Use this list to jump to specific sample types:

• Articles, Magazine, and Newspapers

Information about Footnotes and Endnotes

Notes and Bibliography

The Notes and Bibliography style of Chicago citations uses footnotes or endnotes to introduce resources as they are cited in a document. There is a bibliography at the end of the document.

When using the Notes and Bibliography style, be aware of the following:

• Footnotes appear at the bottom of the page, while endnotes all appear together at the end of the document, before the bibliography.
• Footnotes use Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, ...) to consecutively count, while endnotes use Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, ...).
• Use the abbreviation “ibid.” (“the same place”) with a page number when repeating the same source that is used immediately before it. E.g.: Ibid., 63.
• In footnotes and endnotes, all authors’ names are written naturally: First name Last name.
• Bibliographic entries have hanging indentation (all lines after the first are indented to be underneath the first line), while footnotes and endnotes use paragraph-style indentation (where all lines have the same indentation and fall directly underneath the previous line).
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• Next: Sample Author Date Citations >>
• Last Updated: Feb 15, 2024 12:48 PM
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Writing your Dissertation / Thesis

• Getting started
• Dissertations and theses
• Bibliographic research and literature review
• Citations and bibliography
• Copyright and plagiarism
• Ask a Librarian

Bibliographic research

The search and collection of information from published sources (books, journals, newspapers, etc.) nowadays may include other types of documents, such as websites, reports from bibliographic databases, etc.

Searching for bibliographic sources relevant to your project is an integral and unavoidable part of the thesis work.

To find out how to conduct your bibliographic research, we suggest you consult the Bibliographic Research Guide .

For a start, you can consult the Library books on academic writing (how to write assignments, presentations, theses ...):

Literature review

Literature review is the analysis of the academic literature (articles, books, dissertations, theses, etc.) that you have identified when performing your search on the topic.

A review of the relevant literature for the topic selected is a key element of any academic project (dissertation or PhD thesis, writing an article for an academic journal…) for several reasons:

• it provides you with the conceptual context for your research

• it allows you to acquire, deepen and organize knowledge in the chosen research area

• helps you define or better focus your research objectives

Furthermore, its objectives are:

• describing the state-of-the-art on the given subject (what is the knowledge achieved so far in the research area in which your project fits?)
• identifying strengths and weaknesses, potential gaps in the current knowledge, unexplored empirical issues, or issues that need to be updated
• understanding how the research question is positioned within the field (to what extent does your work provide an original contribution to the research context?)

Want to learn more about the literature review? Explore the Project Planner on SAGE Research Methods .

If you notice that a significant book or resource is not included in the Library collections, please let us know : the Library will consider acquiring it!

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Citation styles & tools.

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• Other citation styles
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I Need Help Formatting My Citations!

For assistance with any of your writing, please visit Center for Excellence in Writing and Communication at the Science Library.

Why Are Citations Important?

Citations are for transparency and access. Academic papers are conversations between multiple authors and responsible scholarship dictates that we properly credit scholars with their work when it is mentioned.

In addition to proving that you've done your due diligence as an academic, citations let readers know what you've read and where they can access a source you've used.

APA Style (American Psychological Association)

Used primarily in Education, Behavioral Sciences, and Social Sciences.

• This style supports disciplines that emphasizes the date in publication. In APA Style, the date directly follows the author's name.
• Uses parenthetical in-text citations. Sources are compiled on a "References" page.

Chicago (also known as Turabian) Citation Style

Notes and bibliography systems.

• Used in some Humanities disciplines (including History, Literature, and the Arts).
• This system can accommodate a variety of source types that are more difficult to format in the author-date system.
• Uses footnotes for in-text citations. Sources are compiled on a "Bibliography" page.

Author-date systems

• Used in the Sciences and some Social Sciences disciplines.
• This systems looks and functions very similarly to APA Style.
• Utilizes parenthetical in-text citations. Sources are compiled on a "References" or "Literature Cited" page.

MLA Style (Modern Language Association)

• Humanities research emphasizes authorship. In MLA style citations, the author is most important data point.
• Uses parenthetical in-text citations. Sources are compiled on a "Works Cited" page.
• Next: APA >>
• Last Updated: Mar 20, 2024 2:28 PM
• URL: https://guides.lib.uci.edu/citation-styles-and-tools

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Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Assignments

• Annotated Bibliography
• Analyzing a Scholarly Journal Article
• Group Presentations
• Dealing with Nervousness
• Using Visual Aids
• Grading Someone Else's Paper
• Types of Structured Group Activities
• Group Project Survival Skills
• Leading a Class Discussion
• Multiple Book Review Essay
• Reviewing Collected Works
• Writing a Case Analysis Paper
• Writing a Case Study
• About Informed Consent
• Writing Field Notes
• Writing a Policy Memo
• Writing a Reflective Paper
• Writing a Research Proposal
• Generative AI and Writing
• Acknowledgments

An annotated bibliography is a list of cited resources 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.

Beatty, Luke and Cynthia Cochran. Writing the Annotated Bibliography: A Guide for Students and Researchers . New York: Routledge, 2020; Harner, James L. On Compiling an Annotated Bibliography . 2nd edition. New York: Modern Language Association, 2000.

Importance of a Good Annotated Bibliography

In lieu of writing a formal research paper or in preparation for a larger writing project, your professor may ask you to develop an annotated bibliography. An annotated bibliography may be assigned for a number of reasons, including :

• To show that you can identify and evaluate the literature underpinning a research problem;
• To demonstrate that you can identify and conduct an effective and thorough review of pertinent literature;
• To develop skills in discerning the most relevant research studies from those which have only superficial relevance to your topic;
• To explore how different types of sources contribute to understanding the research problem;
• To be thoroughly engaged with individual sources in order to strengthen your analytical skills; or,
• To share sources among your classmates so that, collectively, everyone in the class obtains a comprehensive understanding of 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 of this analysis, you are better prepared to develop your own point of view and contributions to the literature.

In summary, creating 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;
• Gives you practical experience conducting a thorough review of the literature concerning a research problem;
• 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 the 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 summary, 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.

NOTE: Do not confuse annotating source materials in the social sciences with annotating source materials in the arts and humanities. Rather than encompassing forms of synopsis and critical analysis, an annotation assignment in arts and humanities courses refers to the systematic interpretation of literary texts, art works, musical scores, performances, and other forms of creative human communication for the purpose of clarifying and encouraging analytical thinking about what the author(s)/creator(s) have written or created. They are assigned to encourage students to actively engage with the text or creative object.

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; Writing an Annotated Bibliography. Assignment Structures and Samples Research and Learning Online, Monash University; Kalir, Remi H. and Antero Garcia. Annotation . Essential Knowledge Series. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2021.

Structure and Writing Style

I.  Types

• 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 synthesizes prior research about a topic or serves as a review of the literature before conducting a broader research study.
• 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.
• Evaluative/Critical/Analytical : This annotation includes your own 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.

NOTE:   There are a variety of strategies you can use to critically evaluate a source based on its content, purpose, and format. A description of these strategies can be found here .

II.  Choosing Sources for Your Bibliography

There are two good strategies to begin identifying possible sources for your bibliography--one that looks back into the literature and one that projects forward based on tracking sources cited by researchers.

• The first strategy is to identify several recently published [within the past few years] scholarly books using the USC Libraries catalog or journal articles found by searching a comprehensive, multidisciplinary database like ProQuest Multiple . Review the list of references to sources cited by the author(s). Review these citations to identify prior research published about your topic. For a complete list of scholarly databases GO HERE .
• The second strategy is to identify one or more books, book chapters, journal articles, or research reports on your topic and paste the title of the item into Google Scholar [e.g., from Negotiation Journal , entering the title of the article, " Civic Fusion: Moving from Certainty through Not Knowing to Curiosity " ]. If it is a short title or it uses a lot of common words, place quotation marks around the title so Google Scholar searches the source as a phrase rather than a combination of individual words. Below the citation may be a "Cited by" reference link followed by a number [e.g., Cited by 45]. This number refers to the number of times a source has subsequently been cited by other authors in other sources after the item you found 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 course is on international social movements and the research problem you choose to study is to compare cultural factors that led to protests in Egypt with the factors that led to protests against the government of the Philippines in  the 1980's, you should consider including non-U.S., historical, and, if possible, foreign language sources in your bibliography.

NOTE:   Appropriate sources to include can be anything that you believe 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, or official memorandums. If you want to include these types of sources in your annotated bibliography, consult with a librarian if you're not sure where to locate them.

III.  Strategies to Define the Scope of Your Bibliography

It is important that the scope of sources cited and summarized in your bibliography are well-defined and sufficiently narrow in coverage to ensure that you're not overwhelmed by the number of potential items to consider including. Many of the general strategies used to narrow a topic for a research paper are the same that be applied to framing the scope of sources to include in an annotated bibliography.

• Aspect -- choose one lens through which to view the research problem, or look at just one facet of your topic [e.g., rather than annotating a bibliography of sources about the role of food in religious rituals, create a bibliography on the role of food in Hindu ceremonies].
• Time -- the shorter the time period to be covered, the more narrow the focus [e.g., rather than political scandals of the 20th century, cite literature on political scandals during the 1980s].
• Comparative -- a list of resources that focus on comparing two or more issues related to the broader research topic can be used to narrow the scope of your bibliography [e.g., rather than college student activism during the 20th century, cite literature that compares student activism in the 1930s and the 1960s]
• Geography -- the smaller the area of analysis, the fewer items there are to consider including in your bibliography [e.g., rather than cite sources about trade relations in West Africa, include only sources that examine, as a case study, trade relations between Niger and Cameroon].
• Type -- focus your bibliography on a specific type or class of people, places, or things [e.g., rather than health care provision in Japan, cite research on health care provided to the elderly in Japan].
• Source -- your bibliography includes specific types of materials [e.g., only books, only scholarly journal articles, only films, only archival materials, etc.]. However, be sure to describe why only one type of source is appropriate.
• Combination -- use two or more of the above strategies to focus your bibliography very narrowly or to broaden coverage of a very specific research problem [e.g., cite literature only about political scandals during the 1980s that took place in Great Britain].

IV.  Assessing the Relevance and Value of Sources All the items included in your bibliography should reflect the source's contribution to understanding the research problem . In order to determine how you will use the source or define its contribution, you will need to critically evaluate the quality of the central argument within the source or, in the case of including  non-textual items, determine how the source contributes to understanding the research problem [e.g., if the bibliography lists sources about outreach strategies to homeless populations, a non-textual source would be a film that profiles the life of a homeless person]. Specific elements to assess a research study 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 strength of 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(s) frame the research questions or in the way the author goes about investigating the questions [the method]?
• Does the research findings make new connections or promote new ways of understanding the problem?
• Are you interested in the way the author(s) use a theoretical framework or a key concept?
• Does the source refer to and analyze a particular body of evidence that you want to highlight?
• 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, arranged chronologically by publication date, or arranged under headings that list different types of sources [i.e., books, articles, government documents, research reports, etc.]. If the bibliography includes a lot of sources, items may also be subdivided thematically, by time periods of coverage or publication, or by source 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. Note that most professors assign annotated bibliographies that only need to be arranged alphabetically by author.

Introduction Your bibliography should include an introduction that describes the research problem or topic being covered, including any limits placed on items to be included [e.g., only material published in the last ten years], explains the method used to identify possible sources [such as databases you searched or methods used to identify sources], the rationale for selecting the sources, and, if appropriate, an explanation stating why specific types of some sources were deliberately excluded. The introduction's length depends, in general, on the complexity of the topic and the variety of sources included.

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 or area of study.

Annotation The second part of your entry 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 describe the content and provide critical commentary that evaluates the source and its relationship to the topic.

In general, the annotation should include one to three sentences about the item in the following order : (1) an introduction of the item; (2) a brief description of what the study was intended to achieve and the research methods used to gather information; ( 3) the scope of study [i.e., limits and boundaries of the research related to sample size, area of concern, targeted groups examined, or extent of focus on the problem]; (4) a statement about the study's usefulness in relation to your research and the topic; (5) a note concerning any limitations found in the study; (6) a summary of any recommendations or further research offered by the author(s); and, (7) a critical statement that elucidates how the source clarifies your topic or pertains to the research problem.

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 An annotation can vary in length from a few sentences to more than a page, single-spaced. However, they are normally about 300 words--the length of a standard paragraph. The length also depends 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 are 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.

Annotated Bibliographies. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Annotated Bibliographies. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Annotated Bibliography. The Writer’s Handbook. Writing Center. University of Wisconsin, Madison; Annotated Bibliography. Writing Center. Walden University; Annotated Bibliography. Writing Skills, Student Support and Development, University of New South Wales; Engle, Michael et al. How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography. Olin Reference, Research and Learning Services. Cornell University Library; Guidelines for Preparing an Annotated Bibliography. Writing Center at Campus Library. University of Washington, Bothell; Harner, James L. On Compiling an Annotated Bibliography . 2nd edition. New York: Modern Language Association, 2000; How to Write an Annotated Bibliography. Information and Library Services. University of Maryland; Knott, Deborah. Writing an Annotated Bibliography. The Lab Report. University College Writing Centre. University of Toronto; Norton, Donna. Top 32 Effective Tips for Writing an Annotated Bibliography Top-notch study tips for A+ students blog; Writing from Sources: Writing an Annotated Bibliography. The Reading/Writing Center. Hunter College.

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Note-taking for Research

As you determine which sources you will rely on most, it is important to establish a system for keeping track of your sources and taking notes. There are several ways to go about it, and no one system is necessarily superior. What matters is that you keep materials in order; record bibliographical information you will need later; and take detailed, organized notes.

Keeping Track of Your Sources

As you conduct research, taking time to keep track of source information and to organize that information now will help ensure that you are not scrambling to find it at the last minute, which easily leads to problems ranging from incomplete essays to plagiarism. Throughout your research, record bibliographical information for each source as soon as you begin using it. Maintaining an electronic list (even by copying and pasting information) can be quick and efficient, but you may instead feel more in control of the information you’ve collected by using pen-and-paper methods, such as a notebook or note cards.

The table below shows the kinds of details you should record for commonly used source types. Use these details to develop a working bibliography —a preliminary list of sources that you will later use to develop the final Works Cited page of your essay.

Details for Commonly Used Source Types

Your research may involve less common types of sources not listed above. For additional information on citing different sources, see the chapter MLA Format and Citation.

Taking Notes Efficiently

Good researchers stay focused and organized as they gather information from sources. Before you begin taking notes, take a moment to step back and think about your goal as a researcher—to find information that will help you answer your research question. When you write your essay, you will present your conclusions about the subject supported by your research. That goal will determine what information you record and how you organize it.

Writers sometimes get caught up in taking extensive notes, so much so that they lose sight of how their notes relate to the questions and ideas they started out with. Remember that you do not need to write down every detail from your reading. Focus on finding and recording details that will help you answer your research questions. The following strategies will help you take notes efficiently.

Use Headings to Organize Ideas

Whether you use old-fashioned index cards or organize your notes using word-processing software, such as MS Word or Google Docs, record just one major point from each source at a time, and use a heading to summarize the information covered. Keep all your notes in one file, digital or otherwise. Doing so will help you identify connections among different pieces of information. It will also help you make connections between your notes and the research questions and subtopics you identified earlier.

Know When to Summarize, Paraphrase, or Directly Quote a Source

Your notes will fall under three categories—summary notes, paraphrased information, and direct quotations from your sources. Effective researchers make choices about which type of notes is most appropriate for their purpose.

• Summary notes give an overview of the main ideas in a source in a few sentences or a short paragraph. A summary is considerably shorter than the original text and captures only the major ideas. Use summary notes when you do not need to record specific details but you intend to refer to broad concepts the author discusses.
• Paraphrased notes restate a fact or idea from a source using your own words and sentence structure, particularly in a way that better suits your purpose and audience than the way the original source said it.
• Direct quotations use the exact wording used by the original source and enclose the quoted material in quotation marks. It is a good strategy to copy direct quotations when an author expresses an idea in an especially lively or memorable way. However, do not rely exclusively on direct quotations in your note taking.

Most of your notes should be paraphrased from the original source. Paraphrasing as you take notes is usually a better strategy than copying direct quotations, because it forces you to think through the information in your source and understand it well enough to restate it. In short, it helps you stay engaged with the material instead of simply copying and pasting. For more information on this, see the section Summary, Paraphrasis, and Quotation.

Maintain Complete, Accurate Notes

Regardless of the format used, any notes you take should include enough information to help you organize ideas and locate them instantly in the original text if you need to review them. Make sure your notes include the vital bibliographic information noted above.

Throughout the process of taking notes, be scrupulous about making sure you have correctly attributed each idea to its source. Always include source information so you know exactly which ideas came from which sources. Use quotation marks to set off any words for phrases taken directly from the original text. If you add your own responses and ideas, make sure they are distinct from ideas you quoted or paraphrased.

Finally, make sure your notes accurately reflect the content of the original text. Make sure quoted material is copied verbatim. If you omit words from a quotation, use ellipses to show the omission and make sure the omission does not change the author’s meaning. Paraphrase ideas carefully, and check your paraphrased notes against the original text to make sure that you have restated the author’s ideas accurately in your own words. For more information on this, see the section Summary, Paraphrasis, and Quotation.

Use a System That Works for You

There are several formats you can use to take notes. No technique is necessarily better than the others—it is more important to choose a format you are comfortable using. Choosing the format that works best for you will ensure your notes are organized, complete, and accurate. Consider implementing one of these formats when you begin taking notes:

• Use index cards. This traditional format involves writing each note on a separate index card. It takes more time than copying and pasting into an electronic document, which encourages you to be selective in choosing which ideas to record. Recording notes on separate cards makes it easy to later organize your notes according to major topics. Some writers color-code their cards to make them still more organized.
• Use note-taking software. Word-processing and office software packages often include different types of note-taking software. Although you may need to set aside some time to learn the software, this method combines the speed of typing with the same degree of organization associated with handwritten note cards.
• Maintain a research notebook. Instead of using index cards or electronic note cards, you may wish to keep a notebook or electronic folder, allotting a few pages (or one file) for each of your sources. This method makes it easy to create a separate column or section of the document where you add your responses to the information you encounter in your research.
• Annotate your sources. This method involves making handwritten notes in the margins of sources that you have printed or photocopied. If using electronic sources, you can make comments within the source document. For example, you might add comment boxes to a PDF version of an article. This method works best for experienced researchers who have already thought a great deal about the topic because it can be difficult to organize your notes later when starting your draft.

Choose one of the methods from the list to use for taking notes. Continue gathering sources and taking notes. In the next section, you will learn strategies for organizing and synthesizing the information you have found.

The Writing Textbook Copyright © 2021 by Josh Woods, editor and contributor, as well as an unnamed author (by request from the original publisher), and other authors named separately is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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How to Write an Annotated Bibliography

Writing annotations.

• Introduction
• New RefWorks
• Formatting Citations
• Sample Annotated Bibliographies

An annotation is a brief note following each citation listed on an annotated bibliography.  The goal is to briefly summarize the source and/or explain why it is important for a topic.  They are typically a single concise paragraph, but might be longer if you are summarizing and evaluating.

Annotations can be written in a variety of different ways and it’s important to consider the style you are going to use.  Are you simply summarizing the sources, or evaluating them?  How does the source influence your understanding of the topic?  You can follow any style you want if you are writing for your own personal research process, but consult with your professor if this is an assignment for a class.

Annotation Styles

• Combined Informative/Evaluative Style - This style is recommended by the library as it combines all the styles to provide a more complete view of a source.  The annotation should explain the value of the source for the overall research topic by providing a summary combined with an analysis of the source.  

Aluedse, O. (2006). Bullying in schools: A form of child abuse in schools.  Educational Research Quarterly ,  30 (1), 37.

The author classifies bullying in schools as a “form of child abuse,” and goes well beyond the notion that schoolyard bullying is “just child’s play.” The article provides an in-depth definition of bullying, and explores the likelihood that school-aged bullies may also experience difficult lives as adults. The author discusses the modern prevalence of bullying in school systems, the effects of bullying, intervention strategies, and provides an extensive list of resources and references.

Statistics included provide an alarming realization that bullying is prevalent not only in the United States, but also worldwide. According to the author, “American schools harbor approximately 2.1 million bullies and 2.7 million victims.” The author references the National Association of School Psychologists and quotes, “Thus, one in seven children is a bully or a target of bullying.” A major point of emphasis centers around what has always been considered a “normal part of growing up” versus the levels of actual abuse reached in today’s society.

The author concludes with a section that addresses intervention strategies for school administrators, teachers, counselors, and school staff. The concept of school staff helping build students’ “social competence” is showcased as a prevalent means of preventing and reducing this growing social menace. Overall, the article is worthwhile for anyone interested in the subject matter, and provides a wealth of resources for researching this topic of growing concern.

(Renfrow & Teuton, 2008)

• Informative Style -  Similar to an abstract, this style focuses on the summarizing the source.  The annotation should identify the hypothesis, results, and conclusions presented by the source.

Plester, B., Wood, C, & Bell, V. (2008). Txt msg n school literacy: Does texting and knowledge of text abbreviations adversely affect children's literacy attainment? Literacy , 42(3), 137-144.

Reports on two studies that investigated the relationship between children's texting behavior, their knowledge of text abbreviations, and their school attainment in written language skills. In Study One, 11 to 12 year-old children reported their texting behavior and translated a standard English sentence into a text message and vice versa. In Study Two, children's performance on writing measures were examined more specifically, spelling proficiency was also assessed, and KS2 Writing scores were obtained. Positive correlations between spelling ability and performance on the translation exercise were found, and group-based comparisons based on the children's writing scores also showed that good writing attainment was associated with greater use of texting abbreviations (textisms), although the direction of this association is not clear. Overall, these findings suggest that children's knowledge of textisms is not associated with poor written language outcomes for children in this age range. 

(Beach et al., 2009)

• Evaluative Style - This style analyzes and critically evaluates the source.  The annotation should comment on the source's the strengths, weaknesses, and how it relates to the overall research topic.

Amott, T. (1993). Caught in the Crisis: Women in the U.S. Economy Today . New York: Monthly Review Press.

A very readable (140 pp) economic analysis and information book which I am currently considering as a required collateral assignment in Economics 201. Among its many strengths is a lucid connection of "The Crisis at Home" with the broader, macroeconomic crisis of the U.S. working class (which various other authors have described as the shrinking middle class or the crisis of de-industrialization).

(Papadantonakis, 1996)

• Indicative Style - This style of annotation identifies the main theme and lists the significant topics included in the source.  Usually no specific details are given beyond the topic list . 

Example: 

Gambell, T.J., & Hunter, D. M. (1999). Rethinking gender differences in literacy. Canadian Journal of Education , 24(1) 1-16.

Five explanations are offered for recently assessed gender differences in the literacy achievement of male and female students in Canada and other countries. The explanations revolve around evaluative bias, home socialization, role and societal expectations, male psychology, and equity policy.

(Kerka & Imel, 2004)

Beach, R., Bigelow, M., Dillon, D., Dockter, J., Galda, L., Helman, L., . . . Janssen, T. (2009). Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.  Research in the Teaching of English,   44 (2), 210-241. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/27784357

Kerka, S., & Imel, S. (2004). Annotated bibliography: Women and literacy.  Women's Studies Quarterly,  32 (1), 258-271. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/233645656?accountid=2909

Papadantonakis, K. (1996). Selected Annotated Bibliography for Economists and Other Social Scientists.  Women's Studies Quarterly,   24 (3/4), 233-238. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40004384

Renfrow, T.G., & Teuton, L.M. (2008). Schoolyard bullying: Peer victimization an annotated bibliography. Community & Junior College Libraries, 14(4), 251-­275. doi:10.1080/02763910802336407

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Notes-Bibliography

The notes-bibliography method employs footnotes or endnotes along with a bibliography organized in alphabetical order. Often your instructor or publisher will specify whether they prefer that you use footnotes or endnotes.

Citing Sources in the Text

Notes come at the bottom of each page, separated from the text with a typed line, 1 and 1/2 inches long. Some instructors will allow you to (or prefer that you) place notes, instead, as endnotes on a separate page (titled Notes) at the end of your paper, after any appendices. To acknowledge a source in your paper, place a superscript number (raised slightly above the line) immediately after the end punctuation of a sentence containing the quotation, paraphrase, or summary–as, for example, at the end of this sentence. 1 Do not put any punctuation after the number.

In the footnote or endnote itself, use the same number, but do not raise or superscript it; put a period and one space after the number. The first line of each note is indented five spaces from the left margin. Publishers often prefer notes to be double spaced.

If a single paragraph of your paper contains several references from the same author, it is permissible to use one number after the last quotation, paraphrase, or summary to indicate the source for all of the material used in that paragraph.

Generally, there is no need to use the abbreviations “p.” and “pp.” before page numbers; simply list the appropriate numbers as the last piece of information in the note.

What follows is a sample set of footnotes/endnotes. Please notice the order of the items in each note as well as the punctuation. The first time a work is cited, full information is given (author, title, volume, publication information, page, etc.).

Sample Notes (First References)

Book by a Single Author, First Edition

Steven Nadler, A Book Forged in Hell: Spinoza’s Scandalous Treatise and the Birth of the Secular Age (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011), 8.

Author First name Last name, Book title (Publisher city: Publisher, year), page number.

Book by a Singe Author, Later Edition

Paul S. Boyer, Purity in Print: Book Censorship in America from the Gilded Age to the Computer Age , 2nd ed. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002), 24.

Author First name Middle initial. Last name, Book title , number ed. (Publisher city: Publisher, year), page number.

Book by a Single Author, Reprinted

Leonora Neville, Authority in Byzantine Provincial Society, 950-1100 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004; repr., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 101.

Author First name Last name, Book title (Original publisher city: Original publisher, original year; repr., Reprint publisher city, Reprint publisher, reprint year), page number. 

Book by Two Authors

Gerald Marwell and Pamela Oliver, The Critical Mass in Collective Action (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 104.

First author first name Last name and Second author first name Last name, Book title (Publisher city: Publisher, year), page number. 

Book by Three Authors

Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck, Mastering the Art of French Cooking (New York: Knopf, 1961), 23.

First author first name Last name, Second author first name Last name, and Third author first name Last name, Book title (Publisher city: Publisher, year), page number. 

Book by More Than Three Authors

Anne Ellen Geller et al., The Everyday Writing Center (Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2007), 52.

First author first name Last name et al., Book title (Publisher city, State initials: Publisher, year), page number. 

An Anthology with no Known Author

O: A Presidential Novel , (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2011), 3.

Anthology title , (Publisher city: Publisher, year) page number. 

[If the author of an anonymously published book has been revealed, you can put that name in brackets at the beginning of the note. If the author is unknown but a particular writer is strongly suspected, you can put a question mark after the bracketed name.]

Book with Organization as Author

Central Intelligence Agency, CIA World Factbook (Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 2009), 64.

Organization name, Book title (Publisher city: Publisher, year), page number.

[Since the CIA is the organization that both authored and published this book, it is referenced twice in this citation.]

An Anthology with Editors in Place of Authors

Henry Louis Gates and Nellie Y. McKay, eds., The Norton Anthology of African American Literature (New York: Norton, 1997), 172.

First editor first name Middle name Last name and Second editor first name Middle initial. Last name, eds., Anthology title (Publisher city: Publisher, year), page number. 

Chapter in an Edited Collection

Colleen Dunlavy, “Why Did American Businesses Get So Big?” in Major Problems in American Business History , ed. Regina Blaszczyk and Philip Scranton (New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 2006), 260.

Chapter Author First name Last name, “Chapter title” in Edited collection title , ed. First editor first name Last name and Second editor first name Last name (Publisher city: Publisher, year), page number. 

Article in a Journal

Raúl Sánchez, “Outside the Text: Retheorizing Empiricism and Identity,” College English 74 (2012): 243.

Author First name Last name, “Article title,” Journal title volume number (year): page number. 

[If a journal continues pagination across issues in a volume, you do NOT need to include the issue #.]

Book Review

Nancy Rose Marshall, review of Joseph Crawhill, 1861-1913: One of the Glasgow Boys , by Vivian Hamilton, Victorian Studies 42 (1999/2000): 359.

Reviewer first name Middle name Last name, review of Reviewed work , by Author of reviewed work first name Last name, Journal in which review appears volume number (year): page number.

Newspaper Article

Tyler Marshall, “200th Birthday of Grimms Celebrated,” Los Angeles Times , March 15, 1985, sec. 1A.

Article author first name Last name, “Article title,” Newspaper name , Month day, year, sec. number. 

[Since prominent newspapers may have several different daily or regional editions, you don’t need to include the page number in this note.]

Encyclopedia Entry

• John Morris-Jones, “Wales,” in Encyclopedia Britannica , 11th ed. (1911), 260.
• Author of entry first name Last name, “Title of entry,” in Encyclopedia title , number ed.  (year), page number. 
• Wikipedia , s.v. “Charles R. Van Hise,” last modified April 30, 2018, 15:21, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_R._Van_Hise.
• Encyclopedia name , s.v. “Title of entry,” last modified Month day, year, hour:minute, url. 

[“s.v.” is an abbreviation of “sub verbo” which is Latin for “under the word”]

Interview by Writer of Research Paper

Richard Davidson, interview by author, Madison, WI, April 20, 2012.

Interviewee first name Last name, interview by Interviewer name, City, State initials, Month day, year of interview. 

[Bibliographies only rarely include entries for personal interviews.]

Secondary Source

Coie et al., “The Science of Prevention: A Conceptual Framework and Some Directions for a National Research Program,” American Psychologist 48 (1993): 1022, quoted in Mark T. Greenberg, Celene Domitrovich, and Brian Bumbarger, “The Prevention of Mental Disorders in School-Age Children: Current State of the Field,” Prevention and Treatment 4 (2001): 5.

First author Last name et al., “Title of secondary source,” Journal containing secondary source volume number (year): page number, quoted in First author firt name Middle initial. Last name, Second author First name Last name, and Third author First name Last name, “Title of Primary source,” Journal containing primary source volume number (year): page number. 

[This indicates that you found the Coie et al. information in the Greenberg, Domitrovich, and Bumbarger article, not in the original article by Coie et al. In the bibliography, you would only cite the Greenberg, Domitrovich, and Bumbarger text.]

Performances

William Shakespeare, Othello , dir. Mark Clements, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Milwaukee, April 20, 2012.

Author of work performed, Title , dir. Director First name Last name, Performing company, City of performance, Month day, year of performance. 

[Live performances are not usually included in bibliographies. This is because, unless it has been recorded, a live performance cannot be located and reviewed by the reader.]

A Dissertation

Sara M. Lindberg, “Gender-Role Identity Development During Adolescence: Individual, Familial, and Social Contextual Predictors of Gender Intensification” (Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin- Madison, 2008), 24.

Dissertation author first name Middle initial. Last name, “Dissertation title” (Ph. D. diss, University, year), page number. 

Class Lecture

Morris Young, “What Is Asian American? What is Asian American Literature?” (lecture, Survey of Asian American Literature, University of Wisconsin-Madison, January 22, 2013).

Lecturer First name Last name, “Lecture title.” (lecture, Course title, University, Month day, year of lecture). 

Paper Presented at a Conference

Mary Louise Roberts, “The Public Practice of History in and for a Digital Age” (paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, New Orleans, January 3, 2013).

Author first name Middle name Last name, “Paper title” (paper presented at the Conference, Conference city, Month day, year of presentation).

Government Documents

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, Pub. L. No. 111-148, 124 Stat. 794 (2010).

Document title, Pub. L. No. numbers, volume number Stat. number (year).

Notes: Pub. L. is an abbreviation for “public law.” Stat. is an abbreviation for “statue.”

Steven Soderbergh, dir., Che: Part One , (2008; New York: IFC Films), DVD.

Director first name Last name, dir., DVD Title , (year of release; City of production: Producer), DVD. 

An Online Source That is Identical to a Print Source

Lee Palmer Wandel, “Setting the Lutheran Eucharist,” Journal of Early Modern History 17 (1998): 133-34, doi: 10.1163/157006598X00135.

Author First name Middle name Last name, “Article title,” Journal titler : volume number (year): page numbers, doi: number. 

[The Chicago Manual recommends including a DOI (digital object identifier) or a URL to indicate that you consulted this source online. If there’s a DOI, you should use that rather than a URL. If there is no DOI, use the URL, including “http://.” There’s no need to include an access date if the online source includes a publication or revision date.]

An Online Newspaper

Kirk Johnson, “Health Care Is Spread Thin on Alaskan Frontier,” New York Times , May 28, 2013, https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/29/us/health-care-in-vast-alaska-frontier-is-spread-thin.html.\

Article author first name Last name, “Title of article,” Newspaper , Month day, year issued. 

“Human Rights,” The United Nations, accessed August 5, 2018, http://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/human-rights/.

“Title of webpage,” Website moderator, Month day, year of access, url. 

[If a website has a publication or revision date, use that instead of an accessed date.]

Sample Notes (Second or Subsequent References)

When a source is used a second time, its reference is given in a shorter form. The Chicago Manual and Turabian suggest two ways to shorten second references. Either plan is acceptable, but you must remain consistent throughout your paper.

Method A: Shortened Form

For the second and all subsequent references to a work, use an abbreviated form. If the work and the author remain the same and if you are using only one book or article by that author, simply give the author’s last name and page reference. The following example has been shortened from the full information provided in note #3 above:

• Neville, 92.

If, however, you are using two or more works by that author, you must indicate which of the works you are citing. Use the last name, a shortened title, and page reference. The following example is shortened from the full information provided in note #1 above:

• Nadler, A Book Forged in Hell, 121.

If you use two authors with the same last name, give the full name in the shortened reference.

Method B: Latin Abbreviations

When referring to the same work as in the citation immediately preceding, use the abbreviation “Ibid.” for the second reference. “Ibid.” is an abbreviation for the Latin word “ibidem” which means “in the same place.” The abbreviation “Ibid.” is followed by a page number if the page from which the second reference is taken is different from the first. If the pages are the same, no number is necessary. As an example, here is how you would cite the first reference to a work:

• Eliza G. Wilkins, The Delphic Maxims in Literature (Chicago: Scott, Foresman and Co., 1929), 12.

If you continue drawing from the same page of the same source, your next reference would look like this:

If you continue drawing from the same source but the information comes from a different page, then your note would look like this:

Citing Sources at the End of the Text

The bibliography (as it is called in the note-bibliography system) is placed at the end of your paper, is a double-spaced alphabetized list of books, articles, and other sources used in writing the paper. This list provides all of the information someone would need to locate the source you’re referencing. (NOTE: This list titled “Bibliography” in the note-bibliography system and “References” in the author-date system. Otherwise, both follow the same format.)

The bibliographic form differs from notes in these ways:

• Sources are alphabetized. The author’s last name appears first (Smith, Betty) in a bibliography.
• While notes use commas and parentheses to separate items, a bibliography uses periods.
• While notes use two spaces after a period, a bibliography uses only one space after a period.
• While notes usually indicate specific pages from which you took information; a bibliography lists entire books or a complete chapter to which you referred.
• The first line of a bibliographic entry begins at the left margin and all the other lines are indented 1/2”. This is called a “hanging indent.”

If the author’s name or the title (or other item) is missing, simply go on to the next item as it should appear. When alphabetizing, use the author’s last name for your entry; if it is not given, simply go on to the next item in order (the title of the book or article, for example) and use that to alphabetize the entry.

A sample bibliography follows. Notice the form and order of the entries as well as the punctuation and arrangement within the entries. The sourced referenced are the same as those used in the notes citations above.

Bibliography

Boyer, Paul S. Purity in Print: Book Censorship in America from the Gilded Age to the Computer Age . 2nd ed. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002.

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Child, Julia, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck. Mastering the Art of French Cooking. New York: Knopf, 1961.

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Dunlavy, Colleen. “Social Conceptions of the Corporation: Insights from the History of Shareholder Voting Rights.” Wash. And Lee L. Rev 63 (2006a): 1347-1388.

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How to Write an Annotated Bibliography for Research

Introduction

What is an annotated bibliography, writing an annotated bibliography, analyzing an annotated bibliography.

A literature review is more than just a collection of articles that inform your research project. For a literature review to benefit your research, you need to structure it in a way that organizes scientific knowledge and synthesizes this knowledge to justify your research project.

An annotated bibliography is one tool that provides that organization. In this article, we will explore why it's important to craft an annotated bibliography for your research and what to put into one so it can serve as a foundation for your future research inquiries.

Annotated bibliographies are a tool to organize existing research in a way that helps you to demonstrate your familiarity with a particular research topic. Each annotated bibliography entry outlines each study in your literature review and includes your analysis of the study.

A bibliography refers to the full list of references included in your literature review. An annotation refers to notes, summaries, and reflections about each reference. Thus, an annotated bibliography consists of the references in your literature review and your notes on each reference.

How is it different from a literature review?

A literature review is a collection of articles on the latest research and the subsequent synthesis of the theoretical developments arising from that research. An annotated bibliography can help you achieve that synthesis by organizing the information in a systematic way and providing space for your analysis (and critiques, where appropriate).

How long is an annotated bibliography?

An annotated bibliography includes all the relevant contemporary research conducted on the topics covered by the research questions you want to address. Ultimately, the current state of the research area you are addressing will dictate the length of your literature review and annotated bibliography.

Research topics that have greater theoretical coherence will have more relevant studies, while less-explored research questions will have fewer studies. In the end, it is the up to the researcher's judgment to determine whether they have collected sufficient research for their annotated bibliography.

Organization of knowledge

We've all likely made the mistake of simply downloading journal articles and other scholarly publications relevant to our research and throwing them in a folder on our computer, seldom to be read until it comes time to write our paper. At this point, these articles are just a jumble of information that is difficult to sift through. Of course, it is possible to synthesize knowledge without using annotated bibliographies, but the process will be time-consuming and tedious.

Think of information that you collect for an annotated bibliography as unstructured data that needs to be organized in a way that facilitates the identification of useful insights. Having all the existing research distilled into a succinct form is important, but providing a structure that organizes that knowledge will make it much easier to synthesize theory and present theory in your resulting research manuscripts or presentations.

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An annotated bibliography is more of a visual organizer for your thoughts about the existing research than it is a required element in your paper or presentation. That said, there should be an intentional process applied to the writing of annotated bibliographies that is important to outline in this section.

Conducting a literature review

The literature review informs the annotated bibliography and the subsequent research inquiries that it provokes. Ultimately, you will want to search for the most recent scholarly articles containing the most relevant information that pertains to the concept or theory you want to research.

When putting together a literature review, remember to search for the most recent research articles outlining important theoretical developments relevant to your research question. Be sure to consult various web sites, scholarly databases, and bibliographies of key articles for research that aligns with your research interests.

How do you format an annotated bibliography?

While there is no particular standard used to write annotations, there are a few common criteria used to analyze existing research sources:

• Bibliographic citation . Citing research papers is an important part of the research publication process. By providing a reference in the proper citation format now, you can make it easier to copy and paste this reference entry into your paper later.
• Keywords . Articles often come with a list of keywords that make it easy for you to search for when conducting your literature review. They are also useful for determining what aspects of your research inquiry are and aren't being explored by the collected research.
• Study description . A brief summary (typically one paragraph) of each research paper can help you conduct your literature review. Complete sentences may not be necessary, but writing your own understanding of each paper now can make writing your background section easier later on.
• Research context . Context is important because cultural influences, historical factors, and other sociocultural resources inform the data collection and analysis. Be sure to outline the relevant details of the place in which the study was conducted.
• Methods . The various methods employed in qualitative research look at phenomena in profoundly different ways. Make sure to list the methods for each study to identify any methodological gaps when analyzing your annotated bibliography.
• Potential critiques . Use this space in your annotated bibliography to note what each study has overlooked in terms of theory or methods. These critiques will contribute to the problem statement that defines your research question and the resulting study.

Other items to include in your reference list might include DOI numbers, theoretical frameworks , study limitations, and any other information that would be worth sorting or filtering when you conduct your analysis .

Ultimately, the annotated bibliography format is either determined by your assignment guidelines (if it is a requirement of your coursework) or your own judgment (when you are distilling research for designing a study ). Some annotated bibliographies are written in paragraph form like a series of little essays, each describing a particular bibliographic citation. Others can also take the form of a table that visually organizes the information in a form where it is easy to spot patterns and limitations.

Whatever you decide, the format should be consistent across each annotated bibliography entry. The effort it takes to consistently format your bibliography will save time later on as your collected research will be easier to read and synthesize.

If you do use your annotated bibliography in your research paper for publication, ensure that your citations conform to Modern Language Association (MLA) format, American Psychological Association (APA) format, or the reference format used in the journal to which you are submitting your research. You can refer to a publication manual like the MLA Handbook, but it's probably more helpful to look for annotated bibliography examples online that can serve as models for your own bibliography.

Doing a quick search for journal articles that synthesize existing research in a literature review might give you some useful annotated bibliography examples.

Once you have organized your literature review in an annotated bibliography, the next step is identifying useful pathways for your own research to explore. Locating the gaps in the current scholarship is a necessary task for formulating a research question , defining your theoretical framework , and designing your overall study .

The Code-Document Analysis tool in ATLAS.ti can serve as a good annotated bibliography generator. Code your collected studies and analyze those codes in the Code-Document Analysis tool to gain a sense of what theories and developments are discussed in each study. By generating a visual understanding of the current state of research, you can make it easier to define subsequent lines of research inquiry that justify the study you want to conduct.

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Research Methods: Annotated Bibliographies

• Annotated Bibliographies
• Literature Reviews
• Scoping Reviews
• Systematic Reviews
• Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
• Persuasive Arguments
• Subject Specific Methodology

An annotated bibliography includes the citation for sources used to research a topic as well as a summary and/or evaluation of each of the sources. The citation style depends upon your discipline. Annotated bibliographies help you learn about your topic AND helps others learn about the topic.

Writing an annotated bibliography is excellent preparation for a research project. When you have to write annotations for each source, you're forced to read each source more carefully.

Steps & Elements

• Find relevant articles or other sources about your topic and read the articles.

Parts of an Annotation

• Summarize : Some annotations merely summarize the source. What are the main arguments? What is the point of this book or article? What topics are covered? If someone asked what this article/book is about, what would you say? The length of your annotations will determine how detailed your summary is.
• Assess : After summarizing a source, it may be helpful to evaluate it. Is it a useful source? How does it compare with other sources in your bibliography? Is the information reliable? Is this source biased or objective? What is the goal of this source?
• Reflect : Once you've summarized and assessed a source, you need to ask how it fits into your research. Was this source helpful to you? How does it help you shape your argument? How can you use this source in your research project? Has it changed how you think about your topic? 

Not all annotated bibliographies will include all of these elements! Look at your assignment, ask your instructor, or inquire about procedures in your discipline to determine what is often used.

• Annotations are written in paragraph form and are often two to eight sentences, but can be a couple of pages (depends on your purpose).
• University of North Carolina The Writing Center: Abstracts From the University of North Carolina Writing Center
• Annotated Bibliographies (Purdue OWL) Provides definitions and an overview on how to write annotated bibliographies.
• What goes into the content of the annotations? From The University of Wisconsin - Madison Writing Center
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What's an annotated bibliography?

Jump to: How to write an annotated bibliography | How to format an annotated bibliography

Your sources, explained

Annotated bibliographies contain short descriptions and evaluations of the sources you find related to a particular project or paper. They help us practice critical thinking skills such as summarizing, analyzing, and evaluating information. In an annotated bibliography, you explain to your readers the sources you used to learn about a particular topic or area of research. They can be a great starting point for research because they compile and evaluate the available information on a topic, helping readers (and you!) choose information that is relevant, credible, and useful.

The point of an annotated bibliography is to tell the story of your research. It's a way to prove that you've read and thought critically about the information you've encountered, and to help your readers quickly learn about sources that are important to a particular topic. When you sit down to write a paper after completing an annotated bibliography, you'll have a strong foundation of information on your topic and a plan for how to use that information to support your writing.

How do I get started?

Step 1: Cite

• Cite each source as you normally would for a bibliography or references list.
• Make sure you're following the citation style requirements of your course, major, or program.

Step 2: Summarize

• What's its thesis? What are the major points or pieces of evidence used to support that thesis? What are the authors' main conclusions?
• For empirical studies, it might be important to include information about the study's methods and participants.
• Annotations are typically brief, so keep your summary short (2-3 sentences).
• TIP: How would you describe the source to someone who doesn't know anything about the topic? Approaching a summary in this way can help you determine what's most important to include and what details you can leave out.

Step 3: Evaluate

• The authority and credibility of the source and its author(s) 
• The intended audience of the source (experts, the general public, students, etc.)
• The quality of the source's arguments and evidence
• How is the information useful, unique, or important? If it isn't, why?
• How does the source answer your research questions? Will you use it in your project or paper? Why or why not?

How do I format an annotated bibliography?

Check your style manual.

The manual for your required citation style will likely have guidance on how to format your annotated bibliography. Formatting guidelines for common citation styles at UJ are included here.

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How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography

• Critical Appraisal & Analysis
• Sample Annotations

Process of Creating an Annotated Bibliography

Organization, acknowledgements.

• Citation Styles

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Creating an annotated bibliography calls for the application of a variety of intellectual skills: concise exposition, succinct analysis, and informed library research.

• First, locate and record citations to books, periodicals, and documents that may contain useful information and ideas on your topic
• Briefly examine and review the actual items. Then choose those works that provide a variety of perspectives on your topic.
• Cite the book, article, or document using the appropriate style.
• evaluate the authority or background of the author,
• comment on the intended audience,
• compare or contrast this work with another you have cited, or (d) explain how this work illuminates your bibliography topic.

The organization of the annotated bibliography, if not prescribed by faculty instructions, may be one of various methods, including but not limited to:

• Alphabetical
• Chronological: either by date of publication or by period of subject matter (century, era, decade, event, year)
• By subtopic
• By format (articles, books, government documents, media, web pages, etc.)
• By language

This page was adapted with permission from the following:

http://guides.library.cornell.edu/ annotatedbibliograp hy

How to prepare an annotated bibliography Research & Learning Services Olin Library Cornell University Library  Ithaca, NY, USA

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