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International Development (SAIS)

Core starting points for SAIS Women Lead projects

Note that the full International Development guide has useful resources for your projects. Take a look at the options to the left for sectors, data, etc. The home page has added Starting Points.

Annotated Bibliographies

If your clients expect you to prepare an annotated bibliography, here are some guides. Annotated bibliographies consist of a list of citations, each followed by a brief descriptive / evaluative paragraph (the annotation) informing the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited.

To browse examples of annotated bibliographies published as articles:

Connect to ProQuest Databases

  • Enter "annotated bibliography" in search box 
  • Check the boxes next to "full text" and "scholarly journals"

Connect to JStor

  • Under "Item Type", select "Article" (to avoid reviews of book-length annotated bibliographies)

Try similar searches in other databases.

Evaluating Sources (aka The CRAAP Test)

Currency
Consider the date the source was published.  Based on what you know of the field and the subject, is it current enough to still provide relevant information? Why or why not?   

Relevance
How does this material contribute to your understanding of the problem/topic, or how is it useful to your research?       

Authority
Is the material peer reviewed? If not, what makes you trust the information?     
How do you know that the author is qualified to write on this topic? 

Accuracy
What gaps or inconsistencies do you see in the research?
Do the sources and/or methods used seem reasonable based on the topic, population and setting?
What could have been done to make them stronger?         

Purpose
Who/what audience is the article written for?         
What, if any, bias can you determine from the research?                                                                 

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Credit to the Meriam Library at CSU Chico for formulating the CRAAP test (PDF).