3.1 What is an Annotated Bibliography?

An Annotated Bibliography is one approach for documenting your research on a topic. It should be constructed using a thorough, systematic literature search of the peer reviewed literature on your topic. We are interested primarily in the peer reviewed literature because we we want to understand the scholarly debate that has unfolded about our topic. The peer review process is also one indicator of quality.

We typically think of peer review as falling into two categories - books and journal articles. While the process for reviewing books is different from articles, academic books are typically sent out for review before they are published by the publisher. Peer reviewed books are typically published by either a university press (e.g. Oxford University Press or The University of California Press) or by a publishing house that specializes in academic content (e.g. John Wiley & Sons).

Journal articles that are peer reviewed will be published in an academic journal. There are many journals that publish sociological content, along with others that publish more broadly in the social sciences (Social Science & Medicine is a great example). Beaware that not all journals are created equal - there is a whole group of so-called “predatory” journals (along with fake conferences) that capitalize on the “publish or perish” culture of academia as well as the relative isolation of many scholars in developing countries. While there are some lists of “predatory” journals, learning how to evaluate all articles critically is perhaps the best way to protect yourself against citing poor research.