What is an annotated bibliography? For student nurses
1. What is an annotated
bibliography?
Holly Singleton
Information Skills Adviser
2. Today we will cover:
- What an annotated bibliography is
- What you need to include
- How to successfully assess journal
articles
- Searching for more evidence
- Where to get help if you need it
3. 1. A list of citations of books, journal
articles or other resources
4. 2. Each citation is followed by an
evaluative description – the annotation.
5. 3. The purpose of the annotation is to
inform the reader of the relevance,
accuracy and quality of the sources
referenced.
6. Annotations should:
Summarise (topics and main arguments)
Assess (point of view, accuracy, currency)
Reflect (How is this source helpful to you?)
Try not to just describe what the article is saying!
11. As you read your chosen articles ask yourself the
following questions:
12. WHO?
Who wrote the article? What are the author’s
credentials? Do they have the necessary
experience and qualifications to write on this
topic? Are they linked with a reputable
organisation or institution?
13. Look out for:
• Can you find any other articles or
resources by the author?
• Try to find out about where the author
works, or what their experience is – it may
not necessarily tell you this in the article!
14. WHEN?
When was the article published? Would the
article be considered current or out-of-date? Do
you think there is more up-to-date material
available?
15. Look out for:
• The publication date of the article (it
should be on the front page)
• Do a search for articles on the same topic
from the past 5 years – are they agreeing
or disagreeing with the information in your
chosen article?
16. WHAT?
What was the author’s purpose for writing this
article? Who is the intended audience?
17. Look out for:
• Think about the author’s written tone and
what the subject matter is – that will give
you a clue as to who the intended
audience is!
• Remember to read the article thoroughly
to understand its purpose – you may need
to read it more than once.
18. HOW?
If the article is a research study describe the
methods used in gathering the information.
19. Look out for:
• If the study is presented numerically – e.g. a
survey of a large number of people and the
results are shown in percentages – this is
known as quantitative research.
• If the study is telling us about people’s opinions
and feelings on a certain topic – e.g. interviews
with a few people – this is known as qualitative
research.
20. Look out for:
• Once you’ve identified whether research article
is quantitative or qualitative, you can start to
evaluate if these were the best methods to use
for this study.
21. Look out for:
• Try to evaluate how the research was
conducted: did the study involve lots of
participants, or not that many? Was the study
only carried out in a particular area?
22. How do I find other journal
articles to support what I say or
to use as evidence?
23. You may need to find and read other journal articles to
learn more about the topics of your chosen articles, and
also to help you assess them.
You can look for other journal articles through online
databases, found through the library website.
25. The details you need to reference a journal article can normally
be found on the first page:
26. The format of your reference should look like this:
Surname, Initial. (Date) Title of the article,
Title of the journal the article came from,
volume number (issue number), page
number range.
An example with a real journal article:
Clarke, C. (2014) Promoting the 6Cs of
nursing in patient assessment, Nursing
Standard, 28 (44), pp. 52-59.
27. You can find a link to the full Harvard referencing style
guide through this link:
https://my.lsbu.ac.uk/page/referencing-your-work
Always refer to the guide to make sure you are
referencing in the correct way!
29. Contact your Information Skills Adviser
LLR-hsc@lsbu.ac.uk
Book an appointment with us or just ask a
question!
Editor's Notes
What will be covered into today’s session
An annotated bibliography is made up of 3 things: 1. A list of citations of books, journal articles or other resources
Underneath your citation or reference you follow this with an evaluative description – otherwise known as the annotation
Try to avoid just describing the article in your annotation – the real purpose is to explain to the reader the relevance, accuracy and quality of the source
Your annotations should summarise: a concise overview of what the article is saying
Assess – I’ll talk about this in a bit more detail in a minute
Reflect – this is when you can explain how the source is helpful or relevant to you
So here are the 3 steps explained with an example of an annotated bibliography
Orange = step 1 = your citation or reference
Purple = step 2 = your evaluative annotation – notice how the writer hasn’t just described the article (read out some examples from the annotation)
Green = step 3 = ensure that you are informing the reader of relevance, quality and accuracy – but also summarising and reflecting
In the above we can see relevance/accuracy/quality – as well as the general points of the articles concisely summarised
So I’ve explained the importance of your assessing your articles rather than describing them – but how do you actually go about asessing a journal article?
How much detail on this? Are they expecting identification of
