What is an annotated bibliography?*

A bibliography is a list of sources (books, journals, Web sites, periodicals, etc.) one has used for researching a topic. Bibliographies are sometimes called "References" or "Works Cited" depending on the style format you are using. A bibliography usually just includes the bibliographic information (i.e., the author, title, publisher, etc.).

An annotation is a summary and/or evaluation. Therefore, an annotated bibliography includes a summary and/or evaluation of each of the sources. Depending on your project or the assignment, your annotations may do one or more of the following.

• 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?

Your annotated bibliography may include some of these, all of these, or even others. If you're doing this for a class, you should get specific guidelines from your instructor.

*definition from the Purdue Online Writing Lab

Note: Citations with more than one line of text should have a hanging indent of 1/2 inch or 5 spaces.

Important Elements:

• Author (last name, initials only for first & middle names)
• Date of publication of article (year and month for monthly publications; year, month and day for daily or weekly publications)
• Title of article (capitalize only the first word of title and subtitle, and proper nouns)
• Title of publication in italics (i.e., Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Newsweek, New York Times)
• Volume number in italics and issue number, if given
• Page numbers of article
• For articles retrieved online, include URL or DOI, if available

Article in a monthly magazine:

Swedin, E. G.  (2006, May/June). Designing babies: A eugenics race with China? The Futurist, 40, 18-21.

Article in an online magazine:

Romm, J. (2008, February 27). The cold truth about climate change. Salon.com. Retrieved from http://www.salon.com/2008/02/27/global_warming_deniers/

Article in a weekly magazine:

Will, G. F. (2004, July 5). Waging war on Wal-Mart. Newsweek, 144, 64.

Article in a daily newspaper:

Dougherty, R. (2006, January 11). Jury convicts man in drunk driving death. Centre Daily Times, p. 1A.

Article in a scholarly journal with DOI:

Blattner, J., & Bacigalupo, A. (2007). Using emotional intelligence to develop executive leadership and team and organizational development. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 59(3), 209-219. doi:10.1037/1065-9293.59.3.209

Book Review:

Rifkind, D. (2005, April 10). Breaking their vows. [Review of the book The mermaid chair, by S.M. Kidd]. Washington Post, p. T6.

If you are citing an entire website, it is not necessary to include a citation for the website in your reference list. Simply include the title and address within the text of your paper.

Example:
The Safe Child website includes practical information for parents on how to help their children cope with bullying (http://safechild.org).

When citing specific information from individual web pages, use the following elements to create your citation. For more information on creating citations when some of the elements are missing, see the APA Style Blog post on Missing Pieces.

Note: Citations with more than one line of text should have a hanging indent of 1/2 inch or 5 spaces.

Important Elements

• Author (if known). If no author, use title
• Date of publication. If no date, use n.d.
• Title of Web page
• URL (Web address) of the Web page

Note on titles: only italicize the title of a document that stands alone (books, reports, etc.), but not the title of a document that is part of a greater whole. If you are not sure whether something stands alone (such as a document on a website), choose not to italicize.

Web page with author

Kraizer, S. (2011). Safety on the Internet. Retrieved from http://safechild.org/categoryparents/safety-on-the-internet/

Web page with group author

American Cancer Society. (2015). Genetics and cancer. Retrieved from http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/geneticsandcancer/index

Web page with no author

Claustrophobia. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/claustrophobia/Pages/Introduction.aspx