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Jumpstarting Your Annotated Bibliography

Step 1: Write your topic here____________________________________________________

Step 2:

The Libraries’ databases are electronic collections of articles from various journals. You can access the databases on the Libraries’ home page at http://www.lib.ua.edu near the center of the screen. After you click the “Databases” link, you can select the database that you want from the alphabet on the right side of the screen. Select one of the following databases: Research Library Complete, Academic Search Elite, PsycInfo, Criminal Justice Abstracts, or Sociological Abstracts.

Step 3:

Search in the database by typing in your topic plus the keyword statistic* (The asterisk makes the databases search for all possible endings of the word, including statistic, statistics, statistical, etc.)

Examples:
“ death penalty” and statistic*
murder and statistic*
“ domestic violence” and statistic*

Put common phrases in quotation marks as in the above examples. You may wish to limit your search to “peer-reviewed” articles before searching.

Step 4:

If you don’t find enough articles, try using alternate keywords for your topic. For example, if you don’t find enough searching with “death penalty,” try searching with “capital punishment.” Also, you can try searching with alternate keywords for statistics such as quantitative, figures, rates, etc.

Step 5:

Once you find enough articles, scroll through the list. Remember that the newest articles are at the top of the list. Give preference to the articles that have PDF full-texts. Also remember to look for articles that are more than one or two pages. Once you find some good articles, you can print them out or email them to yourself if the articles have full-texts.

If the articles are not full-text, search in the Libraries Catalog under “Basic Search” for the “journal title.” The journal will appear if is available. The note “electronic resource” next to the journal title means that you may be able to find the article that you need in full-text in another database. If there is no “electronic resource” note, jot down the location and call number of the journal. Be sure to also jot down the citation from the database. Go to the appropriate campus library to retrieve the journal

Step 6:

After you find ten sources, write a bibliography in APA format. Articles cited in APA format look like this:

PDF or Print Articles
When there is no issue number:
Mellers, B.A. (2000). Choice and the relative pleasure of consequences.
           Psychological Bulletin, 126, 910-924

When there is an issue number (put the issue number is parentheses after the volume number):
Klimoski, r. & Palmer, S. (1993). The ADA and the hiring process in
            organizations. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 45(2), 10-36

HTML Articles
Borman, W. C., Hanson, M.A., Oppler, H.S., Pulakos, E.D., and & White, L.A.
             (1993). Role of early supervisory experience in supervisor performance. Journal of Applied               Psychology, 78, 443-449. Retrieved November 12, 2004 from Research Library Complete               database.

Step 7:

Prepare an annotation for each article. Follow the instructions and examples given on the handouts distributed in class. Here are some additional questions that will help you writing annotations for statistical research. You do not necessarily have to answer each question for every annotation.

1. What is the thesis of the article? How do the statistics in the article support the thesis? Do some of the statistics seem to contradict the thesis? Is the article clearly organized? (answer these questions in the first one or two sentences of the annotation)
2. Who is the author? What are their degrees or other credentials? Do you think the author is biased? Why or why not? (For example, a cigarette company investigating the health effects of smoking is probably biased!)
3. Does the author only use descriptive statistics, or do they analyze their statistics? How did the author analyze the statistics? (multivariate analysis, longitudinal, experimental etc.) Is their analysis sound and valid? Did the author make any mistakes?
4. Did the author use any qualitative data to support their arguments (in addition to statistics)?
5. Were the statistics gathered recently? How does the date of collection affect your interpretation of the statistics? (For example, New York City crime rates from 1993 could be very different from current New York City crime rates.)
6. Did the author leave anything out of their sample (if they used a sample)? Could there be any omissions that would skew the sample? How generalizable are the findings? (For example, a survey of that only collected data about UA students’ views of crime may not be generalizable to all college students in the United States)
7. How did the author present the statistics? (bar charts, pie charts, graphs ,etc.) Are the charts or graphs clear and easy to understand? Is the data in the graphs or charts represented as percentages, rates, or absolute numbers? How does this affect your interpretation of the data?
8. Did the author compare their statistics with previous authors? Did other authors’ statistics support or contradict your author’s work? Does your common sense agree with the findings?
9. Is there anything that the author could have done to improve the article?
10. What did you learn from the article, especially the statistics? How does the article help you understand your topic? Did the article reveal something about your topic that you did not know before? (Avoid simply restating the thesis. Tell something you personally found particularly interesting, significant, or relevant to your topic).

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