journal article biography

How to Write a Good Academic Biography (Part 1)

When your journal article gets accepted or you are preparing for a public presentation, you will often be asked for a short academic biography. For many people, these academic bios are more difficult to write than a dissertation. How do you sum up yourself and your work in 3-5 sentences? What do you need to include? What should you leave out?

What You Should Do

• Start with your full name followed by your current position, your general interests, and your current project, keeping them all very brief.
• If you are within a year of receiving a prestigious award, mention that as well.
• Finally, finish with a sentence that’s personal: add a hobby, a pet’s name, the city you live in—whatever you are comfortable with that is personal but not too private.

What You Should Avoid

• Avoid speaking in the first person, i.e., don’t use “I.”
• Don’t divulge details beyond your current position.
• In a longer bio of multiple paragraphs, you may add more awards and information about your master’s and bachelor’s degrees, but not in a short bio. Moreover, don’t add anything that happened before grad school—including your place of birth. For example:

Hi! My name is Scott. I was originally born in Vermont and now I’m a professor at North Yankee University in Fargone, New York (in upstate New York). I study antelopes’ migration patterns and their impact of native grain growth. My interest in antelopes began as a teenager when I first saw one in the wild. I did my undergrad degree in biology at SUNY and my masters and UCLA and my PhD in Forestry at Hunter College.

Related: Finished drafting your academic biography and heading for an international conference? Check out this post now!

The above example is far too casual and Scott’s work and current position are overshadowed by all the other random details. This can be written in a much better way:

Scott Sampson is a professor of Wildlife Biology at North Yankee University. His work focuses specifically on the migration patterns of antelope and their impact on the growth of native grain. His favorite place to do research in his backyard, which opens to the Akron National Forest.

This improvised version is concise, relevant, and makes Scott’s bio appear professional while giving a short description of his personal details.

Longer Bios

For longer bios, follow the same basic rules, but go into a bit more depth about your work, your education, and your future projects or interests. You may also consider adding a line about your immediate family. But as always, leave the personal details for a short and friendly mention at the end of the bio.

Mostly, your bio will be used by someone to introduce you at a conference or public event so if you write your bio using these tips, you will help them give a smooth and accurate introduction. Remember that the bio is the first thing that people know about you so pack it full of the most important things about yourself!

If you would like to know more about different formats of academic biography, read the next article in this series!

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How to Write a Good Academic Biography (Part 2)

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Examples of Biographical Statement and Abstract

Biographical statement.

Once articles have been selected and accepted for publication each year, authors will be asked to submit a biographical statement to be included in the Advocates’ Forum . The biographical statement should include the author(s) full name. In addition, it is also appropriate to discuss your personal history, academic program and/or field placement, and interest in the article’s subject. The biographical statement may not exceed 75 words. Below is an example taken from the 2009 volume of the Advocates’ Forum :

"Kathryn Saclarides is a second-year social administration student at the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. She received a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and Spanish from Vanderbilt University and a master’s degree in bioethics from La Universidad Pontificia de Comillas in Madrid, Spain. Her current field placement is with the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities (NALACC). She is interested in migration patterns, ethnic neighborhoods, and transnational communities."

The abstract should appear on the second page of your manuscript, immediately following the title page. The abstract should briefly summarize the argument advanced in your manuscript, and should be limited to no more than 100 words. For additional guidance on composing abstracts, refer to the  Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association . Below is an example taken from an issue of Advocates’ Forum (Charlotte L. Hamilton, “Anti-Drug Legislation and the Rising Incarceration of Women: Recommendations for Future Sentencing Reform,” Advocates’ Forum [2005]: 33-43).

The Anti-Drug Abuse Acts of 1986 and 1988 led to a rapid increase in the number of incarcerated Americans. The rate of female incarceration has risen at a particularly high rate over the past 20 years. This article discusses the evolution of drug sentencing policy since 1986. It looks at characteristics of incarcerated women in order to understand how drug policy has influenced this population. The way women participate in the drug trade interacts with minimum sentencing laws to contribute to the rise in female incarceration. The article concludes with policy recommendations for a more equitable drug sentencing system.

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Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly has been an important forum for well-considered biographical scholarship for more than forty years. It features stimulating articles that explore the theoretical, generic, historical, and cultural dimensions of life writing; and the integration of literature, history, the arts, and the social sciences as they relate to biography. Each issue also offers insightful reviews, concise excerpts of reviews published elsewhere, an annual bibliography of works about biography, and listings of upcoming events, calls for papers, and news from the field. This journal is a member of the Council of Editors of Learned Journals . Sign up for alerts at: MyMUSE Alerts

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Vygotsky’s Legacy: Understanding and Beyond

René van der veer.

Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

The article sketches the history of the study of Vygotsky’s legacy in the Soviet Union and the West and then switches to a brief discussion of the origin of the book Understanding Vygotsky published 30 years ago. Several features and shortcomings of the book are discussed and it is shown that recent publications partly fill the gaps in our knowledge. This is illustrated by a succinct discussion of the contributions to the special issue which show that Vygotsky’s legacy continues to inspire the modern researcher.

Understanding Lev Vygotsky’s life and work has never been easy. Born in the Tsarist Empire under Nicholas II, he was destined to lead a quiet and comfortable life as a lawyer or journalist when the October Revolution destroyed the society as it was. The Vygodsky family lost its properties and Vygotsky spent the rest of his life in relative poverty like so many of his Soviet compatriots. However, each revolution creates opportunities for some part of the population and there is every reason to believe that Vygotsky came to share the novel ideal of educating the vast masses of illiterate people. He soon became engaged in the new Soviet system of evening courses, correspondence courses, and schools for people with little or no systematic training and knowledge.

The challenges for the educational system during and after the revolution and civil war were enormous: millions of homeless children roamed the streets, teachers were underpaid and/or opposed the new ideas, school facilities were poor, there was a shortage of paper, textbooks, and so on. Creating a new, Soviet, child required new organizations, skills, and knowledge, and the Soviet authorities under the guidance of Lenin’s wife, Krupskaya, soon adopted the discipline of child study or pedology as a major instrument in the reform of the educational system (Van der Veer, 2020 ). It was within the field of pedology that Vygotsky made his career and it was the ban on pedology in 1936 that temporarily thwarted the spread of his ideas. However, former colleagues and students carefully preserved his books, articles, and lecture notes, which is illustrated in a recent Russian novel that mentions an older woman, who was fired during the attack on pedology “but kept all Vygotsky’s publications as a treasure and only gave them to read to selected people” (Ulitskaya, 2013 , p. 84; cf. Grigorenko in this issue for the similar story about Serapion Korotaev).

After the death of Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili, better known under his nickname Stalin, in 1953, things gradually became somewhat better. Three years later, a first collection of Vygotsky’s writings was published in the Soviet Union (Vygotsky, 1956 ), followed by another publication in 1960 (Vygotsky, 1960 ). However, publishing Vygotsky’s writings was still considered a politically very delicate affair in the Soviet Union of that time and it would take another twenty years before the plans for the publication of Vygotsky’s collected works ((Vygotsky, 1982a , b , 1983a , b , 1984a , b ) finally materialized. Recently, it became known that for some reason Aleksey Leont’ev, Vygotsky’s erstwhile colleague, deliberately and endlessly delayed writing the general introduction to the first volume—and, hence, frustrated the publication of all six volumes—until one of the other editors, Vasiliy Davydov, finally asked Leonid Radzikhovskiy, by that time a PhD student, to write the introduction under Leont’ev’s name (Radzikhovsky, 2020 ). Although the collected works proved to be marred by all sorts of mistakes, omissions, intrusions, and political censorship, they nevertheless performed a major role in introducing a large body of Vygotsky’s writings to the newer generations of Russian psychologists.

Meanwhile in the West very few people had ever heard of the Soviet pedologist, let alone read one of his relatively scarce foreign publications (Vygotsky & Luria, 1930 ; Vygotsky, 1925 ; 1929a , b , c ; 1930 ; 1934a , 1935a , b ; 1936 ; 1939 ), when an abridged version of his last book (Vygotsky, 1934b ) was published in English under the title of Thought and Language (Vygotsky,  1962 ). This book triggered the interest in Vygotsky’s ideas and a curious compilation of several of Vygotsky’s writings, edited by Cole, John-Steiner, Scribner, and Souberman, and published under the title of Mind in society , became a major success in the English reading world (Vygotsky, 1978 ). The interest in Vygotsky’s writings now grew rapidly and interesting interpretations of several aspects of his work appeared (e.g., Kozulin, 1990 ; Wertsch, 1985 ) as well as other interpretations and translations of his works in many countries all over the world. However, a more or less comprehensive study of Vygotsky’s life and work that situated his ideas in the context of his time and showed the connections with other thinkers did not yet exist. This was the situation in the mid 1980s when Jaan Valsiner and the present author decided that it would be interesting to write just such a book.

Writing Understanding Vygotsky (Van der Veer & Valsiner, 1991 ) was not an easy task. The internet did not yet exist, books and articles had not yet been digitalized and most Western libraries had just a handful of the needed literature. The repeated visits to the Soviet Union were also somewhat frustrating. The biggest library of the country, the V.I. Lenin State Library of the USSR or Leninka in Moscow, limited xeroxes of articles or books to 10 pages per day and ordering xeroxes required at least 2–3 h of queuing. Books or journals could not be taken from the shelves for reading and had to be ordered as well, which involved an equally time-consuming procedure. In sum, one could easily spend a day in the library and achieve less than we can now in one hour. The Russian people with whom we talked (e.g., Vasiliy Davydov, Semyon Dobkin, Pyotr Gal’perin, Tamara Lifanova, Andrey Puzyrey, Leonid Radzikhovskiy, Gita Vygodskaya, Vladimir Zinchenko) were all very friendly and helpful, but the Soviet Union still existed and none of them was in a position to reveal embarrassing secrets to a foreigner. Moreover, one could sense that decades of brutal suppression and the more or less explicit anti-Semitism left their traces in the mind of people. Hence, it is not surprising that Leonid (Lyosha) Radzikhovskiy never revealed to me that he was the author of Leont’ev’s general introductory article nor did it ever cross my naïve mind that this was a possibility that I should ask him about. That Soviet psychology was divided into various rivalling schools did not help either: in the mind of Vygotsky followers, any criticism of his ideas could be exploited by a rival school, for instance the Rubinstein group led by Andrey Brushlinskiy. Against this background, it came as no surprise when Vasiliy Davydov suggested to us not to mention Studies on the history of behavior: Ape, primitive, and child (Vygotsky & Luria, 1930 , 1993 ), which he considered to be an outdated book that might do harm to Vygotsky’s reputation.

Nevertheless, in the end the repeated visits to Moscow and the sustained searches in many Western libraries paid off and after some years a sizable list of historical documents and writings enabled us to begin the reconstruction of Vygotsky’s life and work. The idea of the book was to show that in creating his novel theory about the development of the human mind Vygotsky heavily relied on the work of his predecessors and contemporaries. As I wrote recently (Van der Veer, 2021a ), Vygotsky was not ‘a visitor from the future’ (Jerome Bruner), nor ‘a researcher whose ideas were ‘ahead of our time’ (Norris Minnick) but a very bright scholar who operated within the constraints of his cultural, social, and political environment. Above all, Vygotsky achieved a novel synthesis of existing ideas adapted to the demands of the new communist society. In Understanding Vygotsky we tried to give various examples of the interconnectedness of Vygotsky’s ideas with those of his contemporaries.

The chapter on Gestalt psychology, for example, showed how Vygotsky used the non-reductionist ideas of Köhler, Lewin, Koffka, and Goldstein and at the same time resisted their non-dialectical approach to human development. Recently, about twenty-five years later, Anton Yasnitsky (e.g., Yasnitsky and Van der Veer, 2016 ) again drew attention to the link between Vygotsky’s theorizing and the ideas advanced by Gestalt psychologists, although his use of the term ‘cultural-historical Gestalt psychology’ to designate Vygotsky’s ideas is surely exaggerated.

Another chapter that introduced a new perspective to the then existing view of Vygotsky highlighted his role in the discipline of pedology, which, as said above, had been adopted by the Soviet authorities as the leading science within the educational system. With contemporaries such as Mikhail Basov, Pavel Blonskiy, Stepan Molozhavyy, and Nikolay Shchelovanov, Vygotsky carried out pedological investigations and tried to define the subject matter of the new discipline and its place amidst neighboring disciplines such as developmental psychology, educational psychology (pedagogics), and pediatrics. As we argued at the time, pedology allowed Vygotsky to combine the study of the development of novel complex functions with that of the educational needs of normal and retarded children. The focus on Vygotsky the pedologist was novel at the time and the Soviet history of pedology was still little known in Russia and elsewhere. It is only recently that Byford has deepened the study of the history of this discipline in several excellent publications (e.g., Byford, 2014 , 2016 , 2021 ; cf. Van der Veer, 2020 ).

Yet another chapter focused on Vygotsky and Luria’s involvement in psychoanalysis. Again, this was a story that was largely unknown to the followers of Vygotsky and one which Soviet historians preferred to ignore given that psychoanalysis had become one of the many forbidden disciplines around 1930. Luria’s active participation in the international psychoanalytic movement and Vygotsky’s more distant involvement were sketched against the tragicomic background of the development and demise of Freudo-Marxism. Several years later, Alexander Etkind ( 1997 ) would considerably enrich this story in his fascinating account of the history of psychoanalysis in Russia.

All in all, Understanding Vygotsky asked the reader to consider the links between Vygotsky’s ideas and the web of other ideas available to him in order to understand his intellectual creativity in its historical context. But, of course, the book had many lacunae. We did not know much about Vygotsky’s personality and his personal life, for example. Here the book by his daughter Gita Vygodskaya and Tamara Lifanova, published five years later, proved of great value (Vygodskaya & Lifanova, 1996 ). Neither did we know the finer details of the cross-cultural psychological expedition to Uzbekistan headed by Luria, how Vygotsky practiced clinical work with children, how much he had written about Jewish issues, and many, many other things.

It is here that almost twenty years later the publication and analysis of Vygotsky’s notebooks by Ekaterina Zavershneva proved of fundamental importance. In a series of publications (e.g., Zavershneva, 2010a , b , c ), she shed light on many of Vygotsky’s preoccupations and his habit to return time and again to the fundamental problems of psychology (e.g., the relationship between thinking and speech). These writings finally culminated in the publication of a major amount of Vygotsky’s notes in Vygotsky’s Notebooks: A selection (Zavershneva & Veer, 2017 , 2018 ). The potential of this volume remains yet to be explored (cf. Kölbl & Métraux, 2021 ; Maidansky, 2020 ), but it seems clear that the published notes substantially enrich our picture of Vygotsky the scientist and the man. The early notes are particularly interesting, because they show the young Vygotsky (i.e., around 1916–1917, when the nation was already falling apart) to be very much involved with the issue of Jewish identity (see Zavershneva and Veer, 2018 ; chapters 1 to 4). A later notebook gives a unique insight into Vygotsky’s mood swings and personality. Written in 1925, during his only trip abroad, the notebook shows a rather neurotic young man who is obsessively taking notes, describing his feelings of loneliness, depression, agitation, anxiety, etc., in a foreign country, and is longing for his wife and newborn child (see chapter 8). A much later notebook, written around 1933–1934, contains nine case histories of children seen by Vygotsky and his colleagues. Vygotsky’s accounts are quite moving, because they clearly show how these ‘difficult’ children were unable to cope with virtually impossible life circumstances and ended up as social misfits and mental patients in the hands of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists (see chapter 27). In sum, there is still much in the 29 chapters of this collection that remains to be analyzed and Zavershneva deserves full credit for the exploration of Vygotsky’s family archive. And yet, of course, even after the necessary analysis of the findings in Vygotsky’s Notebooks many issues of Vygotsky’s legacy will still be awaiting discussion and clarification, which is beautifully shown by the contributions to this special issue to which I now turn.

Luciano Mecacci author points out that for Vygotsky man was a ‘political animal’, i.e., a being living in a concrete and dynamic social-cultural network, which immensely varies both within and between human cultures. If such social-cultural networks or practices offered insufficient opportunities to the person, psychologists should attempt to apply their knowledge to try to change these practices (‘to modify the social reality and consequently the psychological life of people’). In Vygotsky’s view, the success or failure of such attempts proves or refutes the validity of the scientific knowledge and thus forms its ultimate truth criterion. Many years later, this view appealed to various progressivist groups who advanced ‘critical’ psychologies (cf. Van IJzendoorn & Van der Veer, 1984 ). An example can be found in the field that studies children who are challenged in their development; these shouldn’t be judged by their difference from mainstream norms, which are essentially based on the behavior and mindset of a dominant group. The general child doesn’t exist and extrapolating norms that hold in one (sub)culture to others leads to misguided judgments and injustice. As Mecacci points out, comparing children and adults from different groups (e.g., rural versus urban subjects) was already a hot topic among pedologists in the Soviet Union of the 1920s and 1930s. In fact, after fierce debates, it was decided that mental tests that used norms established in certain dominant groups should no longer be applied in other groups given the inherent difficulties (Van der Veer, 2021b ).

That these difficulties are still among us is beautifully illustrated by Elena Grigorenko. In her research, inspired by Vygotsky’s pedological writings, she explicitly attempts to contextualize her concepts and instruments and seeks to uncover the subjects’ potential for further development. One means to create subjects’ zone of proximal development is dynamic testing that is specifically alert to cross-cultural differences, as Grigorenko demonstrates. In my view, such research also exemplifies Vygotsky’s dictum that we should not identify children with special needs with their handicap or challenge. Both normal and ‘abnormal’ children should not be characterized by their present state but by their potential for further development.

Pablo del Río and Amelia Álvarez point out that according to Vygotsky’s theory cultural changes bring about changes in people’s minds and that external cultural mediation allows human beings to transcend the here and now. Such changes necessarily correspond with modifications of the brain’s organization for which modern neurological research has found ample evidence. The authors also point out that Vygotsky’s more personal quest seems to have been that for freedom in a psychology of heights or acmeist psychology. Acmeist psychology they connect with Vygotsky’s older ideal to create a new human being, which anticipated modern fantasies about improving the human brain and body with various technologies. In the authors’ view, cultural-historical psychology should participate in the debate about the feasibility and goal of redesigning the human subject.

Acmeist psychology, a term he connects with Vygotsky’s affinity with poetry, is also the topic of Carlos Kölbl’s contribution. The author attempts to outline acmeist psychology by reflecting on three methodological principles that Vygotsky discussed. The objective-analytical method rests on the study of a single phenomenon that is claimed to be representative for a whole class of phenomena. The method of double stimulation involved the introduction of signs into the experimental situation that subjects could use to solve a task. In Understanding Vygotsky we argued that this method was based on Wolfgang Köhler’s famous chimpanzee experiments but Kölbl interestingly suggests that Vygotsky also may have thought of Velimir Khlebnikov’s radical poetry. Finally, the semic method involves the study of the fluctuating values of meaning and sense in development. The author argues that these methodological principles were all inspired by and applicable to phenomena of art but may also serve as inspiration for the creation of a future scientific psychology.

Nikolay Veresov argues that cultural-historical theory is still insufficiently understood and suggests that newer publications may serve to understand its dialectical nature. Veresov argues against the common misunderstanding that lower functions disappear or get transformed by higher functions. For example, adult human perception does not differ from neonatal or animal perception in that the primary visual system (located in the occipital lobe) is transformed or stops functioning. Rather, what happens is that language, knowledge, and motivation (located in the parietal, temporal, and frontal lobe) together with the visual system make another type of recognition and classification of the outside world possible. As was written in Understanding Vygotsky , adult human beings live in a world of meanings or a semantic universe . What Veresov seeks to do in his paper is to detail the exact dialectical relationships between lower and higher functions that create human adult functioning.

In Understanding Vygotsky we described how Vygotsky worked on a culturally and historically informed theory of emotional development. There is little doubt that adult emotions (e.g., the pleasure felt when composing a chess study or finding a mathematical proof) differ from those of a two-year-old but Vygotsky’s turn to Spinoza and the idea that emotions should be subjected to the control of the intellect did not go uncontested. In his contribution, Peter Smagorinsky contrasts Vygotsky’s view with Jonathan Haidt’s theory that much of human thinking is based on gut feelings rather than logical reason. The author argues that Vygotsky’s theory ultimately suffered from the exportation of an Enlightenment rationality based on Eurocentric ethnocentrism (cf. the papers by Mecacci and Grigorenko). In addition, Vygotsky overestimated the role of language acquisition in the socialization of the child which blinded him to nonverbal forms of communication. Smagorinsky is inclined to prefer Haidt’s view that logical argumentation only serves to justify or rationalize initial intuitions but realizes that arguing such a view would be paradoxical.

Tania Zittoun traces Vygotsky’s use of the cloud-rain metaphor and its use in thinking about different levels of psychological functioning in the notes he kept taking throughout his life. The full metaphor is first used in December 1932 when Vygotsky is exploring the relationship between motivation, thinking, and speech by referring to the image of wind, cloud, and rain. The image allows Vygotsky to think about the transitions between various levels of mental functioning such as speech, inner speech, and thought. For example, whereas ideas or mental images seem to be experienced as a whole (i.e., a cloud), formulating or articulating them in words necessarily involves fragmentation (i.e., drops of water). Zittoun’s chronological analysis of Vygotsky’s use of the metaphor is particularly interesting, because he seems to have been absolutely unable to grasp or feel things without first putting them into words (cf. Smagorinsky’s paper). For Vygotsky, the use of specific words and metaphors definitely served to shape his ideas.

Taken together, the papers in this special issue demonstrate that modern researchers still find inspiration in the work of the Russian pedologist. The idea of Understanding Vygotsky never was to glorify his work, which is necessarily constrained by the social and scientific context of his time, but to allow us to understand and extend his ideas and to see whether some variant of them can help us to develop our science further. That this is still possible—as the contributions in this issue amply demonstrate—seems to prove, despite repeated claims to the contrary by Anton Yasnitsky, that the rumors of Vygotsky’s scientific death are greatly exaggerated.

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• What Is an Annotated Bibliography? | Examples & Format

What Is an Annotated Bibliography? | Examples & Format

Published on March 9, 2021 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on August 23, 2022.

An annotated bibliography is a list of source references that includes a short descriptive text (an annotation) for each source. It may be assigned as part of the research process for a paper , or as an individual assignment to gather and read relevant sources on a topic.

Scribbr’s free Citation Generator allows you to easily create and manage your annotated bibliography in APA or MLA style. To generate a perfectly formatted annotated bibliography, select the source type, fill out the relevant fields, and add your annotation.

An example of an annotated source is shown below:

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Table of contents

Annotated bibliography format: apa, mla, chicago, how to write an annotated bibliography, descriptive annotation example, evaluative annotation example, reflective annotation example, finding sources for your annotated bibliography, frequently asked questions about annotated bibliographies.

Make sure your annotated bibliography is formatted according to the guidelines of the style guide you’re working with. Three common styles are covered below:

In APA Style , both the reference entry and the annotation should be double-spaced and left-aligned.

The reference entry itself should have a hanging indent . The annotation follows on the next line, and the whole annotation should be indented to match the hanging indent. The first line of any additional paragraphs should be indented an additional time.

In an MLA style annotated bibliography , the Works Cited entry and the annotation are both double-spaced and left-aligned.

The Works Cited entry has a hanging indent. The annotation itself is indented 1 inch (twice as far as the hanging indent). If there are two or more paragraphs in the annotation, the first line of each paragraph is indented an additional half-inch, but not if there is only one paragraph.

Chicago style

In a  Chicago style annotated bibliography , the bibliography entry itself should be single-spaced and feature a hanging indent.

The annotation should be indented, double-spaced, and left-aligned. The first line of any additional paragraphs should be indented an additional time.

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For each source, start by writing (or generating ) a full reference entry that gives the author, title, date, and other information. The annotated bibliography format varies based on the citation style you’re using.

The annotations themselves are usually between 50 and 200 words in length, typically formatted as a single paragraph. This can vary depending on the word count of the assignment, the relative length and importance of different sources, and the number of sources you include.

Consider the instructions you’ve been given or consult your instructor to determine what kind of annotations they’re looking for:

• Descriptive annotations : When the assignment is just about gathering and summarizing information, focus on the key arguments and methods of each source.
• Evaluative annotations : When the assignment is about evaluating the sources , you should also assess the validity and effectiveness of these arguments and methods.
• Reflective annotations : When the assignment is part of a larger research process, you need to consider the relevance and usefulness of the sources to your own research.

These specific terms won’t necessarily be used. The important thing is to understand the purpose of your assignment and pick the approach that matches it best. Interactive examples of the different styles of annotation are shown below.

A descriptive annotation summarizes the approach and arguments of a source in an objective way, without attempting to assess their validity.

In this way, it resembles an abstract , but you should never just copy text from a source’s abstract, as this would be considered plagiarism . You’ll naturally cover similar ground, but you should also consider whether the abstract omits any important points from the full text.

The interactive example shown below describes an article about the relationship between business regulations and CO 2 emissions.

Rieger, A. (2019). Doing business and increasing emissions? An exploratory analysis of the impact of business regulation on CO 2 emissions. Human Ecology Review , 25 (1), 69–86. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26964340

An evaluative annotation also describes the content of a source, but it goes on to evaluate elements like the validity of the source’s arguments and the appropriateness of its methods .

For example, the following annotation describes, and evaluates the effectiveness of, a book about the history of Western philosophy.

Kenny, A. (2010). A new history of Western philosophy: In four parts . Oxford University Press.

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A reflective annotation is similar to an evaluative one, but it focuses on the source’s usefulness or relevance to your own research.

Reflective annotations are often required when the point is to gather sources for a future research project, or to assess how they were used in a project you already completed.

The annotation below assesses the usefulness of a particular article for the author’s own research in the field of media studies.

Manovich, Lev. (2009). The practice of everyday (media) life: From mass consumption to mass cultural production? Critical Inquiry , 35 (2), 319–331. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/596645

Manovich’s article assesses the shift from a consumption-based media culture (in which media content is produced by a small number of professionals and consumed by a mass audience) to a production-based media culture (in which this mass audience is just as active in producing content as in consuming it). He is skeptical of some of the claims made about this cultural shift; specifically, he argues that the shift towards user-made content must be regarded as more reliant upon commercial media production than it is typically acknowledged to be. However, he regards web 2.0 as an exciting ongoing development for art and media production, citing its innovation and unpredictability.

The article is outdated in certain ways (it dates from 2009, before the launch of Instagram, to give just one example). Nevertheless, its critical engagement with the possibilities opened up for media production by the growth of social media is valuable in a general sense, and its conceptualization of these changes frequently applies just as well to more current social media platforms as it does to Myspace. Conceptually, I intend to draw on this article in my own analysis of the social dynamics of Twitter and Instagram.

Before you can write your annotations, you’ll need to find sources . If the annotated bibliography is part of the research process for a paper, your sources will be those you consult and cite as you prepare the paper. Otherwise, your assignment and your choice of topic will guide you in what kind of sources to look for.

Make sure that you’ve clearly defined your topic , and then consider what keywords are relevant to it, including variants of the terms. Use these keywords to search databases (e.g., Google Scholar ), using Boolean operators to refine your search.

Sources can include journal articles, books, and other source types , depending on the scope of the assignment. Read the abstracts or blurbs of the sources you find to see whether they’re relevant, and try exploring their bibliographies to discover more. If a particular source keeps showing up, it’s probably important.

Once you’ve selected an appropriate range of sources, read through them, taking notes that you can use to build up your annotations. You may even prefer to write your annotations as you go, while each source is fresh in your mind.

An annotated bibliography is an assignment where you collect sources on a specific topic and write an annotation for each source. An annotation is a short text that describes and sometimes evaluates the source.

Any credible sources on your topic can be included in an annotated bibliography . The exact sources you cover will vary depending on the assignment, but you should usually focus on collecting journal articles and scholarly books . When in doubt, utilize the CRAAP test !

Each annotation in an annotated bibliography is usually between 50 and 200 words long. Longer annotations may be divided into paragraphs .

The content of the annotation varies according to your assignment. An annotation can be descriptive, meaning it just describes the source objectively; evaluative, meaning it assesses its usefulness; or reflective, meaning it explains how the source will be used in your own research .

A source annotation in an annotated bibliography fulfills a similar purpose to an abstract : they’re both intended to summarize the approach and key points of a source.

However, an annotation may also evaluate the source , discussing the validity and effectiveness of its arguments. Even if your annotation is purely descriptive , you may have a different perspective on the source from the author and highlight different key points.

You should never just copy text from the abstract for your annotation, as doing so constitutes plagiarism .

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Caulfield, J. (2022, August 23). What Is an Annotated Bibliography? | Examples & Format. Scribbr. Retrieved April 15, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/citing-sources/annotated-bibliography/

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Introduction, summary figure, case summary, lead author biography, supplementary material.

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Reversible complete atrioventricular block caused by aortic bicuspid valve calcification with severe aortic stenosis: a case report

Conflict of interest: None declared.

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Shuichiro Yamauchi, Hidekazu Kondo, Tomoko Fukuda, Shinji Miyamoto, Naohiko Takahashi, Reversible complete atrioventricular block caused by aortic bicuspid valve calcification with severe aortic stenosis: a case report, European Heart Journal - Case Reports , Volume 8, Issue 4, April 2024, ytae173, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjcr/ytae173

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The aetiology of secondary complete atrioventricular blocks includes ischaemia, cardiac sarcoidosis, electrolyte imbalance, drug use, rheumatic fever, and infections such as Lyme disease and endocarditis. Diagnosis is important since some of these causes are reversible. Although several studies have reported on aortic valve calcification causing complete atrioventricular blocks, no study has described improvement of complete atrioventricular blocks by removal of the calcification.

A 42-year-old man with syncope had a Mobitz type II atrioventricular block, an alternating bundle branch block, and severe aortic stenosis. We identified a 10 s paroxysmal complete atrioventricular block with pre-syncope and performed pacemaker implantation. Electrocardiography-gated computed tomography confirmed that the calcification had reached the muscular septum. 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) revealed significant FDG uptake with high CT value of calcification in basal interventricular septum. The calcification in the septum was removed carefully, and aortic valve replacement was performed. The atrioventricular conduction capacity improved post-surgery. During the 1-year follow-up, the patient reported dramatic improvement in exercise capacity. We also noted an improvement of <0.1% in the right ventricular pacing burden.

Complete atrioventricular blocks occur in patients with aortic stenosis accompanied by severe calcification of the aortic valve, which are visualized comprehensively by echocardiography. Electrocardiography-gated computed tomography and FDG-PET enabled detailed evaluation of the extent of calcification and pre- and post-operative tissue inflammation. Hence, we suspected that the calcification in the septum was causing complete atrioventricular block. Moreover, clinicians should recognize that aortic valve calcification with aortic stenosis can cause complete atrioventricular blocks.

To remember that complete atrioventricular block (CAVBs) may be caused by aortic valve calcification associated with aortic stenosis.

To confirm the utility of electrocardiography-gated CT and 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography in elucidating the pathology of CAVBs associated with aortic valve calcification.

To consider whether pacemaker implantation or aortic valve replacement should be prioritized based on the patient’s current situation and background.

The aetiology of secondary complete atrioventricular block (CAVB) includes ischaemia, cardiac sarcoidosis, electrolyte imbalance, drug use, rheumatic fever, and infections such as Lyme disease and endocarditis. 1 , 2 Diagnosis is important, especially in younger patients, since some of these causes are reversible. Although several studies have reported on CAVB caused by aortic stenosis (AS) with calcification, 3 , 4 no study has described the improvement in CAVB after removal of the calcification. In this study, we report a case where AS calcification was confirmed to extend into the septum by imaging modalities, the removal of which improved atrioventricular conduction.

Schematic of the manner in which aortic valve calcification impairs atrioventricular conduction

The bundle of His and left bundle branch run close to the base of the commissure between the NCC and RCC. Calcification between the NCC and RCC can damage the bundle of His to left bundle branch due to compression and inflammation.

LCC, left coronary cusp; NCC, non-coronary cusp; RCC, right coronary cusp

A 42-year-old Asian man who experienced syncope for a few seconds was admitted to our hospital. He had a habit of strength training, during which he had recently begun to faint frequently. No other symptoms were noted. He had no previous syncope and relevant medical history. The patient’s mother had cardiac sarcoidosis that was treated with corticosteroids and cardiac resynchronization therapy with a defibrillator. His father died suddenly at the age of 30 years due to unknown causes. Physical examination showed a systolic ejection murmur and an irregular pulse. No other relevant findings were found in the physical examination. Laboratory tests showed no abnormal findings, and the value of NT-proBNP was 26.2 pg/mL. Electrocardiography revealed sinus rhythm with a Mobitz type II atrioventricular block pattern and an alternating bundle branch block ( Figure 1A ). Transthoracic and transoesophageal echocardiography revealed severe AS caused by a bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) ( Figure 1B and C ), albeit left ventricular ejection fraction 63% with normal wall motion and normal diastolic function, without morphological abnormalities or other valvular disease. On the second day of admission, the patient experienced pre-syncope, and monitoring documented a paroxysmal atrioventricular block with 10 s of ventricular arrest, followed by a transient complete atrioventricular block ( Figure 2 ). Permanent pacemaker implantation was performed on Day 4 of admission. Subsequently, electrocardiography showed atrial and ventricular pacing rhythms ( Figure 3A ), and the right ventricular pacing burden exceeded 99.9%. Electrocardiography-gated computed tomography (CT) confirmed that the calcification extended to the muscular septum ( Figure 4A ). The aortic valve area measured from CT was 0.53 cm 2 , indicating severe AS ( Figure 1D ). 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography ( 18 F-FDG-PET) revealed significant FDG uptake with high CT value due to calcification in the aortic valve and basal interventricular septum, which showed maximum standardized uptake value was 3.53 ( Figure 4B and C ). The patient had a family history of cardiac sarcoidosis and was therefore examined in detail for sarcoidosis. No lesions in other organs, such as the eyes or lungs, were suspicious of sarcoidosis. Serum angiotensin converting enzyme, lysozyme, and soluble interleukin 2 receptor were all within normal limits. A cardiac MRI was also performed before pacemaker implantation, but there were no myocardial oedema or late gadolinium enhancement. These findings (only two positive findings: positive FDG-PET and advanced atrioventricular block) did not meet the diagnostic criteria for JCS 2016 Guideline on Diagnosis and Treatment of Cardiac Sarcoidosis. 5 Exercise echocardiography showed an increase in aortic valve blood flow velocity from 4.4 m/s to 5.4 m/s and an increase in mean systolic pressure gradient from 38.4 mmHg to 67.0 mmHg (see Supplementary material-online , Table S1 ). Although findings corresponding to severe AS were observed, the patient had no hypotension or symptoms, indicating severe asymptomatic AS. Despite the patient presenting with asymptomatic AS, we considered aortic valve surgery for several reasons. First, there was a possibility of CAVB, possibly due to calcification and inflammation of that calcification, and removal of the calcification could have improved the CAVB; second, the patient was physically very active; and third, exercise stress echocardiography showed an increase in mean aortic valve pressure gradient of more than 20 mmHg, an indicator of poor prognosis. 6 Finally, we explained the risks, complications, and benefits of the surgery, and the patient was willing to undergo aortic valve surgery. Two months later, we performed surgical replacement of the aortic valve. The type 1 BAV showed fusion of the left coronary and non-coronary cusps, and calcification between the right and non-coronary cusps reaching the muscular septum. The calcification in the septum was carefully removed and aortic valve replacement (AVR) was performed. We implanted ATS bi-leaflet mechanical valve with a size of 20 mm because the patient was young. Notably, the atrioventricular conduction capacity improved remarkably (i.e. normal sinus rhythm with complete right bundle branch block, Figure 3B ) by the 14th post-operative day. Three months after surgery, 18 F-FDG-PET revealed a remarkable reduction in the basal intraventricular uptake ( Figure 4D ). The patient was discharged on the 16th post-operative day without complications. During the 1-year follow-up period, the patient reported a dramatic improvement in exercise capacity. We also noted an improvement of <0.1% in the right ventricular pacing burden.

( A ) Electrocardiography showing a Mobitz type II atrioventricular block and alternating bundle branch block. ( B ) Transthoracic echocardiography showing a maximum aortic valve flow velocity of 5.0 m/s at long RR intervals. ( C ) Three-dimensional transoesophageal echocardiography showing a bicuspid aortic valve with an area of 0.86 cm 2 . ( D ) Electrocardiography-gated CT at mid-systole showing a bicuspid aortic valve with area of 0.53 cm 2 . CT, computed tomography.

Electrocardiography showing a paroxysmal atrioventricular block with pre-syncope.

Electrocardiography acquired before ( A ) and after ( B ) surgery.

( A ) Electrocardiography-gated computed tomography (CT) image revealing calcification reaching the muscular septum (arrow). ( B ) FDG-PET image showing accumulation of FDG in the aortic valve and calcified lesions connected to the interventricular septum (arrow). ( C ) FDG-PET only images of panel B . The maximum standardized uptake value at the arrow is 3.53. ( D ) FDG-PET imaging after surgery showing an obvious reduction of FDG uptake in the aortic valve and basal interventricular septum (arrow). Ao, aorta; LCC, left coronary cusp; LV, left ventricle; NCC, non-coronary cusp; RCC, right coronary cusp; RV, right ventricle; FDG-PET, fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report that 18 F-FDG-PET and CT revealed that aortic valve calcification with severe AS reached the cardiac conduction system near the bundle of His, causing inflammation, and leading to CAVB ( Summary figure ). Furthermore, in this case, AVR with removal of the calcification improved atrioventricular conduction, and post-operative 18 F-FDG-PET showed amelioration of inflammation in the cardiac conduction system.

Studies have been reported that CAVB occurs in patients with AS accompanied by severe calcification of the aortic valve. 3 , 4 Reza et al . reported a case in which calcification invaded the interventricular septum, which was visualized in detail by echocardiography. 4 Electrocardiography-gated cardiac CT has high spatial resolution in the assessment of calcification compared to all other imaging modalities. 7 , 8 3D multiplanar reconstruction techniques allow accurate evaluation of cardiac structures, including the severity, location, and extent of calcification. Aortic stenosis generally results from an active disease process similar to atherosclerosis with lipoprotein deposition, chronic inflammation, and active leaflet calcification, 9 and FDG-PET visualizes that inflammation. Marincheva et al . 10 reported that AS with higher aortic valve FDG-PET signals was more likely to have progressive stenosis, which might help to determine shorter follow-up intervals and the timing of surgery. Furthermore, FDG-PET is required to assess the cardiac sarcoidosis as a cause of reversible CAVB. 5 In this case, electrocardiography-gated CT or FDG-PET imaging enabled more detailed evaluation of the extent of calcification and the pre- and post-operative tissue inflammation ( Figure 4 ). These findings led us to suspect that the calcification on the septum was causing CAVB. In addition, an increase in aortic valve mean pressure gradient of more than 20 mmHg with exercise and a severe aortic valve calcification were indicators of poor prognosis, which provided a strong indication to perform AVR. 6 Ruling out cardiac sarcoidosis was one of the most important aspects of this case. There were only two findings suggestive of cardiac sarcoidosis in this patient. Furthermore, it is unlikely that the patient had cardiac sarcoidosis, given the loss of FDG uptake on post-operative FDG-PET images. However, the patient should be followed up for future development of familial sarcoidosis.

Most importantly, it was necessary to verify whether the order of treatment (pacemaker implantation preceding AVR) was appropriate. In retrospect, we believe that permanent pacemaker implantation could have been avoided if calcification removal and AVR had been performed first. Although pacemaker implantation for CAVB due to transient causes is not recommended in the 2021 ESC Guidelines on cardiac pacing and cardiac resynchronization therapy, 2 there was no way to prove that atrioventricular conduction was reversible in the pre-operative setting. Moreover, as mentioned earlier, the syncope symptoms that troubled the patient most were caused by severe bradycardia. Aortic stenosis was also severe but asymptomatic and did not require urgent AVR. In addition, some patients presented with severe atrioventricular block in the subacute to chronic phase after aortic valve replacement, and permanent pacemaker implantation was performed first. Based on the findings of this case, AVR and septal calcification removal first may be an option if prompt surgery is possible. We hope that more evidence will be established through the accumulation of similar cases in the future.

Herein, we report a case of reversible CAVB associated with aortic valve calcification. Clinicians should recognize that aortic valve calcification with AS can cause CAVB. Further studies are needed to determine whether pacemaker implantation or aortic valve replacement should be prioritized.

Supplementary material is available at European Heart Journal – Case Reports online.

Consent: The authors confirmed that written consent for submission and publication of this case report including images and associated text has been obtained from the patient in line with COPE guidance.

Data availability: The data underlying this article are available in the article and in its online Supplementary material .

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