BIO230 Self-guided Annotated Bibliography Assignment

Weighting:
1 % + 0.5 % in-class assignment = 1.5 % of your final grade.

Learning Objectives:

Understand the basic steps in the process of writing a scholarly article.

Recall how to distinguish between review and primary research articles and understand
the different parts of both types. This is a review of what you learned in BIO130.

Practice some aspects of the prewriting process, including the critical reading of and
answering of directed questions about an assigned review article on the topic of your
annotated bibliography. Specifically, the student will critically read the review article
identifying a central purpose (thesis), importance, main articles or research cited, and
how that article or research supports the central purpose of the review article.

Develop an understanding of your annotated bibliography topic and prepare for your
annotated bibliography assignment.

Tasks:

Carefully read the Self-Guided Annotated Bibliography Assignment Introduction and

Appendices 1-3.

Be prepared to participate in an in-class assignment in which you will be required to

discuss and provide rationale for your answers to the questions in the assignment.

Refer to the course site on Blackboard for animations and information directly related to
this assignment. This information can be found under the tab Additional Information.
Some of the information and animations you have seen before in BIO130 and are
provided here for review; other materials are new. You may need these resources for the
successful completion of the annotated bibliography assignment due at the beginning of
Lab 3.

Due Date:
Cycle 1: At the beginning of your regularly scheduled lab the Week of Sept. 29th.
Cycle 2: At the beginning of your regularly scheduled lab the Week of Oct. 6th.

BIO230 Self-Guided Annotated Bibliography Assignment 2014

Introduction:
Importance of developing writing skills
Why does the university (represented by your professors and TAs) put so much emphasis on
the development of skills in undergraduate students that will allow them to find, read, critically
analyze (remember critical analysis does not necessarily mean negative criticism), and write
about scholarly scientific literature? There are actually a number of interrelated reasons
including:
Biology is a collective enterprise; the growth of our understanding depends on the work and
insight of many individuals and on the exchange of data and ideas. Ultimately, biologists
must be effective writers because no experiment can contribute to the existing scientific
knowledge unless it has been described so others working in the same field can access this
information. Essentially you are being trained as a young biologist and scholar.
Searching for and reading the current scholarly literature provides detailed and up-to-date
information on your topic. Information in textbooks, while originating from peer-reviewed
literature, is usually less detailed and can quickly become out-of-date, particularly in rapidlygrowing areas of cell and molecular biology.
Scientific literature provides a context for discoveries, as well as a description of how these
discoveries were actually made. Detailed Materials and Methods sections enable scientists
to repeat, modify, and extend experiments. Reading the original literature also gives you the
opportunity to view the data for yourself and see whether you agree with the authors
conclusions (critical analysis).
Critical analysis of the primary literature will become more common in your courses as you
progress. Many courses, particularly those in the upper years, have no textbook and rely
completely on the primary research literature. In order to successfully write research papers
and the introduction and discussion of upper-year laboratory reports, you will need to
practice critical analysis of the literature. In other words, you need to know how to locate the
scholarly work of others, how to critically evaluate these sources, and how to incorporate this
information effectively into your own writing.
The ability to read and critically analyze literature (be it scholarly or otherwise) will be a skill
that will stay with you after you graduate regardless of the path you choose. These skills are
important in all disciplines, not only the sciences, and will enable you to make good decisions
in the work place and elsewhere. For example, you will be able to read original health or
medical studies reported in the media and determine whether the media reports support what
the authors or journalists actually concluded (this is not always the case!).

Scientific Writing
Imagine that you have just been assigned a lab report or another piece of scholarly scientific
writing on a topic for which you have very little background knowledge. You likely are not sure or
only have vague ideas of where to begin, but you do know that you want a good grade and are
more likely to succeed if you get started earlier rather than leaving it to the last minute.
So what is the process in generating a scholarly piece of writing? Whether it is a primary
research article, a review article, or a formal lab report, they are essentially the same for all
disciplines and include the following stages (adapted from 1see References section in
Prewriting Part 1 for full citation):

BIO230 Self-Guided Annotated Bibliography Assignment 2014

PrewritingThis is where you consider your audience, purpose, scope, context, and structure of
the assignment. This is also the stage where you will do your research of the secondary and
primary literature. You will remain in this stage for a while -- researching, reading, adjusting your
central purpose (thesis), scope, and structure as you learn more about your topic from reading
the literature. It is at this stage that you may create an annotated bibliography, which is in the
broadest sense a list of useful references with your own notes summarizing the main
points/findings including an indication of how each one contributes to your central purpose.
DraftingThis is when you really start to write. You will be putting your ideas together into
paragraphs that fall within the structure that you have determined for the assignment. This is an
iterative stage tooas you write, you may change your central purpose, scope, context and
structure. You may discover that you need to do more research. Remember, it is critical to write
in your own words (see Appendix 3 and pages 17-19 of your Course Manual).
RevisingThis is a stage often misunderstood by students. This is not spell checking or
grammar (see below for that step). This is where you re-write sentences to make your meaning
more clear, add or delete entire paragraphs, reorganize individual sentences or paragraphs, or
in some cases decide it is just easier to start over. It is common in this stage to discover that
you need more evidence to support your central purpose and you head back to the literature to
find what you need.
EditingThis is the stage where you will check grammar and spelling. You will also be looking
for wordiness and awkward phrases. You may adjust the format (e.g. add headings) and will
check punctuation. You should also ensure that you have not plagiarized any of your sources
(See appendix 3 and pages 17-19 of the BIO230H Course Manual).
PublishingThis is where you hand in your work for evaluation by your TA or professor. In
some cases you may (just like your professors) hand it in for evaluation by a professional
journal, symposium or conference.
As you can see from the steps indicated above, you are certainly correct in thinking you need to
start as early as you can! To help you get started, we have designed a self-guided annotated
bibliography assignment to guide you through some aspects of the prewriting stage of writing a
scientific paper--namely the process of reading a review article and answering a series of
directed questions. The work you will do for this assignment may not be easy (Be patient!), but
is very important for at least two reasons. First, this assignment will provide you with guidance
and practice for what you will need to do for your individual annotated bibliography assignment
(we recommend that you work on it shortly after you finish Lab 2!). Secondly, this work will
greatly improve your information literacy and critical thinking skills. These are very important for
your development as a biologist and a scholar, as well as having applications to life outside the
university.
The following two sections will help you to develop these core skills. Please note that while the
prewriting topics have been separated and presented in one particular order to make the
information easier to digest, in reality these topics overlap and in the course of writing a
scientific article or assignment you would move back and forth between all of them several
times.

BIO230 Self-Guided Annotated Bibliography Assignment 2014

Prewriting Part 1: Developing a Central Purpose for Scientific Writing

Imagine that your TA has asked you to write a scholarly scientific article on the topic of stem
cells. Typical goals in scientific writing include: describing a new concept; describing the current
state of research or thinking on an issue; showing improvements to an existing method or the
development of a new method; or showing and explaining the results of an experiment that you
conducted (2). You could choose any one of these general goals to develop and refine your
central purpose and scope, but in this case (since you will not be doing experiments in the lab
on this topic) you would most likely focus on some aspect of the first two goals. You would come
up with some initial general ideas and then head directly to the literature (more on this in the
next section; also remember that your assigned review article will contain an excellent list of
references related to your topic). As you read more, you will change your search terms and
ultimately refine your central purpose and scope. You may do this several times until you feel
comfortable enough with your central purpose to start an annotated bibliography or work on the
structure for the first draft of a manuscript.
But what does a central purpose in scholarly scientific writing look like? It can be much like a
thesis statement that you have encountered in the past, but not always. For example, thesis
statements are rare in primary research articles. Authors of primary research articles will
certainly have a central purpose (usually a description and analysis of a series of experiments
that attempt to answer a question or address a hypothesis), but rarely will there be an obvious
thesis statement(s). However, in other types of scientific writing, a thesis statement or
paragraph will fit the goals of the piece of writing and can be quite obvious. Review articles often
fit into this category. The annotated bibliography that you will produce will need to be prefaced
with a central purpose or thesis statement. So how do you create a good thesis statement in
science? Beth Hedengren (adapted from 1) suggests asking yourself a series of simple
questions and provides the example shown below.

Questions
What is your topic?
What is your stance on the topic? State this as
a complete sentence.
Why do you believe this? State your reasons
in a because clause.

Responses
Effectiveness of cystic fibrosis drugs
Tobramycin is the most efficient drug in
treating cystic fibrosis.
Because it directly kills problem-causing
bacteria, is easy to administer, and can be
used safely on small children.
Why would someone disagree with this? State Although drugs like Pulmozyme produce the
the opposing opinion in an although clause.
same effects via a different mechanism of
decreasing the thickness of lung mucous.
Although clause
Although drugs like Pulmozyme produce the
+
same effects via a different mechanism of
Stance on topic
decreasing the thickness of lung mucous,
Tobramycin is the most efficient drug in
+
treating cystic fibrosis because it directly
Because clause
=
kills problem-causing bacteria, is easy to
Draft thesis statement (may need to be
administer, and can be used on small children
revised or simplified)
safely.
The example above shows how you can get started drafting a central purpose or thesis
statement. The statement in the example is not perfect (it is phrased a little awkwardly), but it

BIO230 Self-Guided Annotated Bibliography Assignment 2014

does provide a framework to create an annotated bibliography since all that is needed for each
citation is a description and analysis of the evidence or thinking that can be used by the student
to support his/her thesis statement. Then, if the student were to subsequently write a research
article, the annotated bibliography would be invaluable in creating a first draft since the evidence
required for each paragraph to support the central purpose/thesis statement of the paper has
already been summarized in the students own words.
Literature Cited:
1. Adapted from: Hedengren, Beth. A TAs Guide to Teaching Writing in all Disciplines.
Bedford/St. Martins New York. 2004. With permission - Universal Access Copyright.
2. Adapted from: Porush, David. A Short Guide to Writing About Science. New York: Longman.
1995. With permission - Universal Access Copyright.

Prewriting Part 2: Scientific LiteratureReview and Primary Research A

As mentioned in Part 1, a key step of the prewriting stage is a review of the scientific literature. It
is difficult to determine the exact scope or structure for a piece of writing until you determine
what is already known about your topic. Also, while you may have started your literature review
with a central purpose and some preliminary ideas about a thesis statement in mind, you may
change your mind several times as you examine the scientific literature. We assume here that
you already know how to find scholarly review and primary research articles and that you know
the differences between these types of articles. We also assume that you know the parts of a
primary research article (see review in Appendix 1). These information literacy skills were taught
in BIO130. If you need a refresher, please check the BIO230 course website for notes and
animations.
In this example, you would use library resources to do some research on the subject area of
stem cells. To start with, you would look for articles that provide you with background knowledge
regarding what is known about stem cells, the function of stem cells, outcomes of stem cell
therapy, medical uses of stem cells, as well as issues that are interesting or unresolved
problems (or other aspects that you would like to write about).
Once you have a collection of review and primary articles related to stem cells, what is the best
approach to reading and analysing them? It is actually best when learning about an unfamiliar
topic to start with a secondary source such as a review article. The reason for this is that the
authors of the review article will give you an overview of the subject area. They do assume
some knowledge of the field, so you may need to refer to another secondary source such as
your textbook or the web if there are words or concepts in the review article that you do not
understand. As you read the review article, note areas that seem to be strongly understood or
supported by many experts in the field, as well as areas that are controversial or require more
study and research.
Next, read the primary articles. You may need to read them a number of times first skimming
to get a sense of the structure and to look at any summations within the piece, probably in the
form of tables or figures. You are reading to understand what the researchers did, what they
found, and how they interpreted it. Try not to get frustratedthe more practice you have reading
these papers the easier it gets.

BIO230 Self-Guided Annotated Bibliography Assignment 2014

Primary research papers in most scientific journals strictly adhere to a traditional format with
title, author(s), abstract (sometimes called summary), introduction, materials and methods,
results, discussion, and references. Although some journals (e.g., Science) do not explicitly print
the section headings, the content follows in that order. A growing number of journals provide the
materials and methods at the end of the article.
The context of a primary research article is set up in the introduction and elaborated in the
discussion section. The introduction is a good place to start when reading a paper, especially in
areas less familiar to you, as this section frames the scientific question that the article
addresses. The abstract, a concise description of the paper, is often very terse and thus is more
difficult to follow than the introduction.
A scientist will approach a primary paper in their own field critically, paying particular attention to
the results section. Remember that critical reading and analysis does not necessarily result in
negative criticism, but it does imply that you should be skeptical unless the authors results and
arguments are convincing. The results are usually presented as a series of tables, figures, or
photographs with associated written explanations. You should ask whether the authors
interpretation of the data is correct and whether the data presented supports the interpretation.
Scrutinising the data carefully is important, as is learning to evaluate the data independently of
the authors own interpretation. (A manuscript typically has one key figure you should be able
to pick this out when analysing the paper and the rest of the data are provided to
reinforce/supplement this key finding.)
During the course of reading and analysing these articles, you will undoubtedly refine your
central purpose or thesis, scope, and context numerous times. Furthermore, you may have to
return to the library resources and conduct more research to find more specific data, evidence,
arguments, etc. that support or refute your central purpose and developing thesis statement(s).

Some general guidelines for reading primary research articles:

You do not have to read the paper in the order it is presented, especially the first time
through. Start with the Introduction to get a sense of the researchers question and the scope of
the enquiry. Then move to the Discussion to see the authors conclusions and his/her level of
confidence in these. Next, move carefully through the Results taking note of key figures and
findings. Read the Materials and Methods last. These are generally very detailed and it is easy
to get overwhelmed in this section.
You may have to read an article several times before it makes sense. At first glance many
articles seem obscure and unnecessarily detailed. Careful reading of secondary sources such
as review articles and textbooks may help clarify obscurities and details.
2-7
Your first task is to discover the articles main point: What question or hypothesis is it
addressing, and what answer does it offer? It is often useful for you to write down the main
question/hypothesis and to summarize the conclusions in a couple of sentences (using your
own words).
State the general experimental strategy i.e., the methods by which the authors addressed
their question that leads to the conclusion. Resist the temptation to explain in too much detail just state the general approach. Observe how the experimental approach works for one or two

BIO230 Self-Guided Annotated Bibliography Assignment 2014

experiments as summarized by the figures in the article. Ultimately, you will want to be able to
discuss the data presented in each of the figures and tables.
To complete this task, you should ask the following questions:

What are the authors measuring?

How do the data contribute to the conclusions?
How does this article relate to information that you have learned elsewhere?
How does this article provide insight into the big picture for this field of study?
What new questions have arisen from the results and conclusions of this article?

BIO230 Self-Guided Annotated Bibliography Assignment 2014

Annotated Bibliography
An annotated bibliography can be part of a prewriting stage or can be a stand-alone project.
Briefly, an annotated bibliography is an expanded version of a bibliography. It includes an
alphabetical list of research sources, with a concise summary, an assessment of its value or
relevance, and an indication of how each paper contributes to the field of study for each source.
Please see the course website on Blackboard for a link describing annotated bibliographies in
general, and the instructions for the BIO230 annotated bibliography in particular. In BIO230, the
annotated bibliography will be a stand-alone three stage project.
Stage 1:

Self-guided annotated bibliography assignment outlined in the following section;

due at beginning of Lab 2.

Stage 2:

First draft of annotated bibliography based upon topic assigned by your TA in

labs 1 and 2; see file Annotated Bibliography Assignment Instructions posted on
Blackboard for details; due at the beginning of Lab 3.
Note: This assignment will be marked by your TA and returned in Lab 4.

Stage 3:

Revised annotated bibliography edited according to your TAs written comments

and numerical grades, and as a result of further research and reflection; see file
Revised Annotated Bibliography Assignment Instructions posted on Blackboard
for details; due at beginning of Lab 5.

Self-Guided Annotated Bibliography Assignment

You will begin this project by completing a self-guided annotated bibliography assignment on a
topic assigned by your TA in Lab 1. In order to better understand your topic and limit your
searches, your TA will provide you with one review article based upon your assigned topic.
You will need to download and carefully read the review article following the guidelines in the
preceding section. You will then complete your self-guided assignment by answering the
questions posed in the template on pages 9-10 of this file. As part of the in-class assignment,
you will be expected to discuss and provide rationale for your answers to these questions in
Laboratory 2.

BIO230 Self-Guided Annotated Bibliography Assignment 2014

BIO230 Self-Guided Annotated Bibliography Assignment

Full citation for your review article:

1. What was the motivation and/or purpose of the review article? What was the perspective
(thesis/central purpose) of the author(s)?

2. Why do the author(s) of the review article believe that readers should care about what is
being presented in the review article. Why is the topic important? What is the big picture?

3. What is the most significant article/result discussed in the review article and why?

4. How does the article/result from your answer to question 3 reinforce the perspective of the
author?

BIO230 Self-Guided Annotated Bibliography Assignment 2014

5. Identify one controversial issue within the field.

6. What theoretical issues and/or topics for further discussion does the review article raise?
What questions remain in the field of study addressed in the review article?

BIO230 Self-Guided Annotated Bibliography Assignment 2014

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Appendix 1 Review of Primary and Secondary Sources

Primary sources are reports of original findings and ideas usually found in peer-reviewed
research articles in scholarly journals directed at a specialized scientific audience. There are
many thousands of journals in existence. Some (e.g., Nature, Science, Proceedings of the
National Academy of Science (PNAS)) report findings across many disciplines, while others
focus on more specialized areas (e.g., Journal of Insect Physiology). One of your tasks as a
student is to become familiar with the key journals in the area you are studying; for this course
the area is molecular and cell biology.
In addition to research articles in peer-reviewed journals, other primary sources include
conference papers, dissertations and technical reports from government or private agencies.
However, refereed journals are the safest source for credible information as the articles have
been reviewed and scrutinized by peers prior to publication.
Secondary sources are more general works that are based on primary sources. They
synthesize, summarize or evaluate the primary literature. One specialized example of a
secondary source is the review article. Like primary articles, review articles are also written for
a specialized knowledgeable audience. Other types of secondary sources are intended for
readers with little specific knowledge of the area including magazines such as American
Scientist, Scientific American or The New Scientist. These secondary sources are a good place
to start if you want an overview of the area without a lot of unexplained jargon.
Primary research article
Ultimately you will need to read the original (primary) source, but this information assumes a
thorough understanding of the background information and is therefore a difficult place to start.
Primary articles are written by research scientists to inform the larger scientific community,
primarily their research peers, of their findings; therefore, the authors assume readers are
reasonably knowledgeable in the specific area. Research articles tend to have a very narrow
focus. An important objective of the primary research article is to permit others to duplicate that
work and either refute or build on that work. To appreciate the context and relevance of a
particular research paper, you may find it easier to read reviews and other secondary
sources first.
Secondary Sources: the Review Article
A review article summarizes and synthesizes and more importantly evaluates the concepts
and/or results from several research articles on a related topic; thus authors of review
articles compare, contrast, and interpret the work of others (usually including themselves),
thereby presenting the state of current knowledge of a specific topic. Although original or new
data are not introduced in a review, knowledge of the topic is assumed. It is important to
remember that the data are not original or new, but the interpretation and evaluation of the
reviewed works are usually new. Authors of review articles are themselves experts in the field
and bring to the topic an integrated perspective. These authors are often invited by journal
editors to review a topic; other authors write unsolicited reviews.

BIO230 Self-Guided Annotated Bibliography Assignment 2014

11

Much like primary research articles, many review articles are not easy to read at first, because
they are directed at a specialized, knowledgeable audience. Before reading the review you will
need to familiarize yourself with the general terms and concepts in other secondary sources
such as a textbook or course lecture notes.
Where do you find review articles?
Some journals publish review articles exclusively: the Annual Review series (e.g. Annual
Review of Cell and Developmental Biology), the Trends in series (e.g. Trends in Cell Biology) ,
or the Current Opinion in series (e.g. Current Opinion in Genetics and Development). In
addition, many journals have a mixture of primary research and review articles (e.g. Science
and Nature).
How do you recognize a review article and distinguish it from primary research?
The format of a review article is different from a primary research article as the review is not
presenting original experimental results. Abstracts may or may not be included, the Materials
and Methods section is omitted, and tables, figures and a written results section are rare,
except for summarizing comparative data. In addition, you will often find that review articles have
Review or Minireview near the title. A review paper typically has a Title, Author(s), Abstract
(or Summary), and then the Discussion is the main part of the paper with an extensive list of
references at the end. As a comparison, a primary research article typically has a Title,
Author(s), Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and References
or Literature Cited section at the end.

Modified from an earlier document originally created for BIO241 (Dr. Melody Neumann, Dr. David
Dansereau and Heather Cunningham).

BIO230 Self-Guided Annotated Bibliography Assignment 2014

12

Appendix 2 Some language that may be helpful in completing your

Annotated Bibliography assignments.

The use of active verbs will help you to write in an authoritative manner and clearly indicate your
attitude toward sources. Conversely, using impersonal passive verbs and a third person view
point results in a wishy-washy weak statement. After you have chosen a verb, consult a
dictionary to ensure that you have chosen a verb with the meaning/tone you intend.

Here is a list of some verbs for referring to articles and ideas that you might find useful:

account for
analyze
argue
assess
assert
assume
claim

clarify
compare
conclude
criticize
defend
define
demonstrate

describe
depict
determine
differentiate
distinguish
elaborate
establish

evaluate
exemplify
exhibit
expand
explain
identify
illustrate

improve
indicate
investigate
justify
optimize
persuade
propose

question
recognize
reflect
refer to
report
review
suggest

Here are a few examples of how you might use these verbs to describe an article:

The evidence indicates that

The author identifies three reasons for
Figure 4 demonstrates that

The article assesses the effect of

The article questions the view that
The authors expand upon

Adapted from Deborah Knott, New College Writing Centre, Writing an annotated bibliography.
http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/annotated-bibliography, August 16, 2013.

BIO230 Self-Guided Annotated Bibliography Assignment 2014

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Appendix 3 Avoiding Plagiarism

Whenever you quote, paraphrase, summarize, or otherwise refer to the work of another,
whether these are facts or opinions, you are required to cite the source. You must cite the
information in the body of your paper (in-text citations) and then at the end of your paper in a
References or Literature Cited section. In this course, we will use the International Committee
of Medical Journal Editors style of citing sources. This style is used by many researchers and
journals in the Biomedical Sciences (see page 17-19 of the course manual for further details
this information is also included below for your convenience).
Note that in your annotated bibliography assignments you are not required to include intext citations because we know that you are referring to a specific article; the assigned
review article in the self-guided assignment and one of your chosen primary articles in
the annotated bibliography assignment and revised annotated bibliography assignment.
However, this does not mean that you can plagiarize the authors written material (results
or opinions). Please see below for a short discussion on paraphrasing and how to avoid
plagiarism.

Avoiding plagiarism when paraphrasing can be difficult. We recommend you follow these steps:
1. Read the relevant passage(s) carefully several times until you fully understand the
meaning.
2. Without looking at the passage(s), write your own version, using your own vocabulary and
method of phrasing*.
3. Refer back to the original and if necessary rework your version to make sure it is not
copying/plagiarizing the original source, but does say what you want it to say.
* the simple rearrangement of a sentence or the substitution of one word for another within a
sentence is unacceptable and is considered plagiarism.
In the examples below, the authors results and/or ideas have been paraphrased; the results or
ideas have been rewritten for the sake of clarity, succinctness or brevity. Rather than simply
restating the text, the author of the paraphrase changes the text to highlight a particular idea
while leaving out the details that are not relevant to the point being made. You must keep the
original meaning from the source material, but use different vocabulary and a different sentence
structure. Remember, the paraphrase should sound like your own writing, not the source you
are citing. However, you do not need to change every word when you paraphrase. If there are
key words or special subject related vocabulary, you can retain those in your paraphrase.
Here are three examples:
Zornik et al. (1999) used an in vivo heart rate assay in Drosophila melanogaster to
demonstrate that injection of serotonin (10-3 M 10-5 M) decreases heart rate at all life
stages.
The inhibition of Cdk8 activity in limiting nutrient conditions stabilizes multiple
transcription factors, including Phd1 and others required for differentiation,

BIO230 Self-Guided Annotated Bibliography Assignment 2014

14

demonstrating the central role of Cdk8 in initiation of differentiation in the yeast S.

cerevisiae (Raithatha et al. 2012).
Even in the presence of the activator molecules AraCa and cAMP-CAP, efficient
transcription of the ara operon can be inhibited by the inclusion of high concentrations
of glucose (Neumann, 2013).
Note: If there are two authors, both of their surnames should be included in the in-text
citation.
Full citations
A. For journal articles, list ALL* authors' names and initials in the general form of:
Author A, Author B. The title of the article. Name of the Journal [you may use
standard abbreviation] Publication year; Volume: page numbers.
* if your reference has more than six authors, list the first six in the format above
and insert et al.
Below are some examples. Note the order of every part of the citation, the use of
periods (.), what to capitalize, and the lack of italics for titles (species names are an
exception and are italicized). You may abbreviate the journal name. Leave a space
between citations.
Paabo S. Ancient DNA: extraction, characterization, molecular cloning, and
enzymatic amplification. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 1989; 86:1939-1943.
Paabo S, Wilson AC. Miocene DNA sequences-a dream come true? Current
Biology 1991; 1:45-46.
Poinar HN, Hoss M, Bada JL, Paabo S. Amino acid racemization and the
preservation of ancient DNA. Science 1996; 272:864-866.
The following types of references are not expected for your annotated bibliography,
but are included in case you find them necessary.
B. For books, including a textbook, refer to the examples below:
Lodish H, Berk A, Zipursky SL, Matsudaira P, Baltimore D, and Darnell J.
Molecular cell biology. 5th ed. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company;
2003. pp 24-30.
Sagan C. The demon-haunted world: science as a candle in the dark. New
York: Random House; 1996. p 457.
Saiki RK. The design and optimization of the PCR. In: Erlich HA, editor. PCR
technology. Principles and applications for DNA amplification. New York:
Stockton Press; 1989. pp 7-16.

BIO230 Self-Guided Annotated Bibliography Assignment 2014

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C. Electronic Resources:
E-journals Reference scholarly journals as described in examples (1), (2), or (3)
as above, regardless of whether you happened to obtain them electronically. Most
are available in both paper and electronic formats.
Web site:
NCBI [homepage on the Internet]. Bethesda: National Center for Biotechnology
Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine.;c1994-2007 [Revised: 2007, July 3;
cited 2007, July 13]. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.
D. Lecture Notes:
Lecture notes from the web
French M. Lecture 7: Intracellular vesicle trafficking.
http://www.cquest.utoronto.ca/botany/BIO230y/lectures/lect_notes/pdf/summ
er05/sect3lecture7,8summ05_1pp.pdf Accessed July 20, 2006.
Verbal Communication (for example a lecture held on July 11, 2006):
French M. Lecture 7: Intracellular vesicle trafficking. BIO230 Lecture Notes;
July 11, 2006.
E. Lab Manual
Cordon A, Neumann M. Review: DNA, RNA and protein structure. In: Neumann M,
Donaldson S, editors. BIO240H Cell and molecular biology course manual. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 2007. pp 2-1 - 2-11.

Literature Cited
Raithatha S, Su TC, Lourenco P, Goto S, Sadowski I. Cdk8 regulates stability of the
transcription factor Phd1 to control pseudohyphal differentiation of Saccharomyces
cerevisiae. Mol. Cell. Biol. 2012; 32:664-674.
Zornik E, Paisley K, Nicholls R. Neural transmitters and a peptide modulate Drosophila heart
rate. Peptides 1999; 201:45-51.
Neumann, M. Lab 1 Gene regulation Part I. In: Garside C, Maharaj Cabrera N, eds. BIO230H
Cell and molecular biology course manual. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013. pp 11 - 1-18.

BIO230 Self-Guided Annotated Bibliography Assignment 2014

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