This assignment requires you to compile an Annotated Bibliography of 40 entries (twice as many is ideal!), 85% of which must be from the past five years. Each annotated entry must concisely summarize key aspects of a study-participants, purpose, research design and methods, data analysis, key findings-and include a thoughtful evaluation of the significance of the study's findings and conclusions as they relate to your topic. In order to write quality entries, you must understand each study-what the researchers did, why they did it, and what they found and concluded. Be sure you paraphrase all content.
(Just so you know how much literature to read, but not necessarily include, in your Proposal Literature Review: You will need to exhaust the literature, which means you must keep reviewing articles until you reach saturation and are no longer learning anything new.)
All of the entries should be relevant to your goal of developing a research problem that contributes to theory in a topic area and to designing a study that addresses the problem. Organize the entries thematically into roughly the following categories:
- Seminal Articles
- Theory
- Issues and Debates
- Key Findings
- Designs
You will probably want to add categories specific to your topic area, and you may modify the recommended categories to organize the entries in a way that makes most sense. Be sure to include works that provide alternate or opposing perspectives on the proposed topic area in order to demonstrate unbiased research. Focus particularly on works that address main ideas in the field, describe areas of controversy, and indicate areas of incomplete knowledge and relate to your envisioned study's problem, purpose, and research questions. It may be helpful to create a spreadsheet of the studies in your topic area, which includes, among other things, the constructs studied, how the constructs were operationalized, and the findings. Sometimes having the summary information all viewable at one time helps identify a problem. Include historical and germinal works as well as current works.
Your goal in this assignment is to identify all of the peer-reviewed papers you will need to do subsequent assignments in this course and all or almost all you need to write your Concept Paper in your first DIS course (you will check for new articles on your topic before finalizing your Concept Paper.)
Hint: Don't neglect dissertations and theses. They often have excellent reference lists.
This bibliography will become the Appendix to your Concept Paper. It will support your problem statement and literature review. It will provide you with models and ideas for the design of your study. Do not rush this assignment. Ensure that entries you have used previously are still relevant and are written to standard.
You instructor may ask you to add, delete, or rewrite entries and resubmit this assignment. If you have questions about the appropriateness of an article, please submit for review by this Wednesday. If you are unsure of how to write an entry, submit a single entry for review before doing the assignment- no later than Wednesday.). Submit a paper comprised of at least 40 annotated bibliography entries.
Length: 150-250 words per entry