Annotated Bibliography in APA Format: Sample Entries and Rules

The sample

The document starts with a title page (title, your name, department and school, course, instructor, date, all centered, page number top right; the full setup is in How to Format a Research Paper in APA Style, Step by Step). On the next page, the heading Annotated Bibliography is centered and bold, and the entries begin below it in alphabetical order by the first author’s surname.

Annotated Bibliography

Beaumont, L. R., & Okonkwo, T. (2022). Late-evening screen exposure and sleep onset in adolescents: A two-week diary study. Journal of Adolescent Sleep Research, 18(3), 201–215. https://doi.org/10.0000/jasr.2022.18.3.201

Beaumont and Okonkwo tracked 214 students aged 14 to 17 who kept nightly diaries of device use and bedtime for two weeks. Students who used a phone or tablet in the 30 minutes before bed reported falling asleep an average of 24 minutes later than those who did not, and the effect was larger on school nights. The authors control for caffeine and homework load but not for the content viewed, which they acknowledge as a limitation. The sample is drawn from three suburban schools in one state, so the findings may not travel to other settings. The diary method is a strength because it avoids the recall problems of one-time surveys. This study will supply the core evidence for the paper’s first claim, that timing of use matters more than total daily minutes.

Center for Youth Wellbeing Studies. (2023). Teen sleep and device use: National survey findings 2023 (Report No. 23-04). https://www.example.org/reports/teen-sleep-2023

This report presents results from a national survey of 4,800 U.S. teenagers on sleep duration, bedtime routines, and device ownership. Its main contribution is scale: it gives averages by age, region, and household income that smaller studies cannot. It reports correlation only and is careful to say so, which makes it less useful for arguments about cause. The organization that produced it advocates for youth health policy, so its framing of the data leans toward intervention; the underlying tables, however, are published in full and can be read independently of the commentary. I will use the demographic breakdowns to show that the pattern in Beaumont and Okonkwo’s suburban sample also appears across income groups.

Farrukh, N. (2020). Wired at bedtime: Technology, teenagers, and the science of rest. Meridian Academic Press.

Farrukh, a sleep researcher, writes for a general academic audience and synthesizes two decades of laboratory and field studies on light exposure, circadian timing, and adolescent development. Chapters 4 and 5 explain why teenagers’ sleep cycles shift later during puberty and how evening light from screens delays melatonin release. The book is well documented, with a 40-page reference list, but it was completed before several large 2021 and 2022 studies appeared, so its empirical claims are slightly dated. Its value for this paper is the mechanism: it explains why the diary and survey results might occur, which the empirical studies do not attempt.

Ivarsson, K., Delgado-Ruiz, M., & Chen, P. (2021). Does a school-wide phone curfew improve sleep? A quasi-experimental study. Educational Health Quarterly, 9(1), 44–61. https://doi.org/10.0000/ehq.2021.9.1.44

The authors compare sleep outcomes at two boarding schools, one of which collected students’ phones at 9:30 p.m. for a semester while the other did not. Students at the curfew school gained an average of 31 minutes of sleep per night and reported fewer daytime naps. Because schools were not randomly assigned, other differences between them could explain part of the gap, and the authors test for several but cannot rule out all. The study is the only one in this list that examines an intervention rather than a correlation, which makes it central to the paper’s final section on what schools and families can do. Its main weakness is generalizability: boarding schools control the evening environment in a way most households cannot.

What each annotation is doing

Annotations come in three flavors, and most assignments ask for some mix.

• Summary (descriptive): what the source says, what its method was, what it found.
• Evaluation (critical): how reliable, current, and well argued it is; who the author is; what it leaves out.
• Reflection: how you plan to use it, or how it changed your thinking.

Read the four entries again with that split in mind:

Beaumont & Okonkwo does all three in order. The first three sentences summarize (sample, method, finding). The next three evaluate (control variables, sample scope, strength of the diary method). The final sentence reflects. This is the standard shape for a 100- to 150-word annotation, and if your assignment sheet just says “annotate,” it is the one to copy.

Center for Youth Wellbeing Studies is evaluation-heavy. A report from an advocacy organization needs more scrutiny than a peer-reviewed article, so the annotation spends most of its length on what the source can and cannot support and on the author’s possible bias. The reflection sentence at the end ties it to another entry, which is something instructors like to see: it shows you are reading the sources as a set.

Farrukh is mostly summary with one evaluative sentence about currency. Books get this treatment because you rarely use all of one; the annotation points to the specific chapters that matter. The last sentence explains the source’s role (mechanism rather than evidence), which is a form of reflection.

Ivarsson et al. balances summary and evaluation and is the longest because it is the most important source. Annotation length can vary with the source’s weight in your paper; a minor background source might get 80 words while a central study gets 180.

If the annotated bibliography is a step toward a literature review, the evaluation sentences are the ones you will reuse. How to Write a Literature Review That Maps the Conversation shows how annotations turn into synthesis.

The formatting rules

APA 7 covers annotated bibliographies in a short section, and the rules are few.

Order. Alphabetical by the first author’s surname, exactly as in a reference list. Organization authors (the survey report above) are alphabetized by the first significant word of the name. Do not number entries and do not group them by type unless the assignment says to.

Reference entry. Standard APA 7 format with a 0.5-inch hanging indent: the first line sits at the margin, every following line is indented. Double-space it.

Annotation. Begins on the next line after the reference. The whole annotation is indented 0.5 inch from the left margin, so its left edge lines up with the second line of the reference above it. Do not add an extra first-line indent to a single-paragraph annotation. If the annotation has two or more paragraphs, indent the first line of the second and later paragraphs an additional 0.5 inch. Double-space throughout, with no extra blank lines between an annotation and the next reference.

In a word processor, the practical way to get this: set the reference with a hanging indent of 0.5 inch, press Enter, then set the annotation paragraph with a left indent of 0.5 inch and no hanging indent.

Page header. Page number in the top right of every page. Student papers do not need a running head.

Title. Annotated Bibliography centered and bold on the first page of the list. Some instructors want the paper title instead, with the annotated bibliography as the body; follow the assignment sheet.

Font and margins. The same as any APA paper: 1-inch margins and an accessible font such as 12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Calibri, or 11-point Arial. The page setup is the same as for any APA paper.

Reference patterns for the sources you will meet most

The annotation only works if the reference above it is correct. These are the APA 7 skeletons for the four most common source types, with the fictional examples from the sample.

Journal article
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article in sentence case. Journal Name in Title Case, Volume(Issue), first–last page. https://doi.org/xxxxx

Book
Author, A. A. (Year). Title of book in sentence case. Publisher Name.

Report by an organization
Organization Name. (Year). Title of report in sentence case (Report No. xx). https://www.url

Web page with an author
Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of page in sentence case. Site Name. https://www.url

Details that trip people up:

• Article and book titles are in sentence case: only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns are capitalized. Journal names are in title case and italic.
• The volume number is italic; the issue number is in parentheses and not italic, with no space between them: 18(3).
• The DOI is written as a full link starting with https://doi.org/ and has no period after it.
• Up to 20 authors are listed by surname and initials, with an ampersand before the last. For 21 or more, list the first 19, an ellipsis, and the final author.
• No “Retrieved from” before a URL unless the page is designed to change and you need to give a retrieval date.
• The publisher’s location is not included in APA 7.

How this differs from MLA

Students who write in both styles mix the two, so the differences are worth stating plainly. In an MLA annotated bibliography, the list is titled Annotated Bibliography or Annotated List of Works Cited, the references follow MLA’s container format (full first names, title case for titles, “vol.” and “no.” spelled out), and the annotation is indented one inch from the margin rather than half an inch. Annotations in MLA also tend to be shorter and can be phrases rather than full sentences if the instructor allows. The full MLA version, with its own sample, is in MLA Annotated Bibliography: Format Rules and Sample Entries.

Common mistakes

1. Annotation written as a book-report retelling. Six sentences of “then the author says” with no evaluation. Graders want to know whether you can judge a source, not just repeat it.
2. Evaluation without evidence. “This is a reliable source” is an assertion. “The study controls for caffeine and homework load but not content” is an evaluation.
3. Copying the abstract. The source’s abstract is the author’s summary; the annotation must be yours. Instructors run these through the same similarity checkers they use for essays.
4. Wrong indent. The annotation flush left, or the reference without a hanging indent. Both are visible from across the room.
5. Title case in article titles. Late-Evening Screen Exposure and Sleep Onset in Adolescents is MLA; APA wants Late-evening screen exposure and sleep onset in adolescents.
6. Entries out of alphabetical order because they were added in the order you found them.
7. Missing the reflection when the assignment asks how each source fits your project. Reread the prompt; “annotate” means different things in different courses.

Checklist

• Title page in student format; page number top right on every page; no running head unless required.
• Heading Annotated Bibliography centered and bold.
• Entries in alphabetical order by first author’s surname; organization authors alphabetized by name.
• Each reference in correct APA 7 form: sentence-case titles, italic journal name and volume, DOI as a link, hanging indent.
• Each annotation starts on a new line, indented 0.5 inch as a block, double-spaced.
• Each annotation summarizes the content, evaluates the source’s reliability and limits, and (if required) says how you will use it.
• Length per annotation matches the assignment, typically 100 to 200 words.
• No copied sentences from the source’s abstract or introduction.
• Sources cross-referenced where they relate, so the list reads as a set rather than a pile.

Frequently asked questions

How long should each annotation be in an APA annotated bibliography?

APA does not set a length. Most instructors ask for 100 to 200 words per source, which is enough for a summary, an evaluation, and a sentence on how you will use it. A purely descriptive annotation can be shorter. If the assignment gives a word count, treat it as a per-entry figure unless it says otherwise, and keep the entries roughly even.

Do I need a running head on an annotated bibliography?

For a student paper in APA 7, no. Student papers carry only a page number in the top right corner of every page. The running head (a shortened title in capitals in the header) is a professional-paper feature. If your instructor’s template shows one, follow the template, but the default for coursework is page number only.

Can the annotation include a quotation from the source?

Yes, sparingly. A short quotation that captures the author’s thesis can be useful, and it takes a page number in parentheses just as it would in an essay: (p. 207). Long quotations defeat the purpose, which is to show that you understood the source well enough to restate it. One quotation per annotation is a sensible ceiling.

Should annotations be written in first person?

The summary and evaluation parts are usually written in third person: “The authors argue,” “the sample is small.” The reflection part, where you explain how the source fits your project, is normally first person: “I will use this study to…” Check the assignment sheet; some instructors want the whole annotation impersonal, and a few want it entirely in first person.