Welcome
This research guide is intended to help students in a broad range of Anthropology courses. If you run into any obstacles, please do not hesitate to contact me. ~ Carolyn McCallum
Database Search Tips
Use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to narrow or broaden your search and to exclude terms in your search.
- AND – narrows a search (ex. media AND violence – both terms have to appear in articles for database to retrieve)
- OR – broadens a search (ex. college OR university – articles with either term will be retrieved by database)
- NOT – excludes terms in search (ex. bulimia NOT anorexia – articles with only the term bulimia will be retrieved by database)
Truncation - Use the * (asterisk symbol) to search for variations of the root of a word (e.g. wom* - will retrieve search results with woman, women, womanly, womanhood)
Exact phrase - Use quotation marks around a phrase to retrieve results that include the exact phrase (e.g. "Nazca lines" or "Kennewick Man".
Use the built-in database filters to limit your search results! - Most interfaces let you limit by publication date, subject, format and more. These features will help you hone your search strategy to find the most relevant sources!
Finding Background Information on One's Research Topic
Anthropology Encyclopedias & Reference Works
Subject specific encyclopedias are a good starting point for researching a topic. Articles in subject specific encyclopedias are typically written by scholars or experts in the field. Using them at the beginning of one's research can help in determining key terms to use in searching the library's catalog and databases. A bibliography containing citations for books and/or journal articles can often be found at the end of articles in subject specific encyclopedias, and these citations can be used to identify other sources on one's topic.
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new windowSearch across hundreds of subject encyclopedias and other reference works. A great place to find background information on almost any research topic. Includes subject trees, pro/con resources, links to scholarly articles and more.
- Gale eBooks This link opens in a new windowSearch across hundreds of subject encyclopedias and other reference works. A great place to find background information on almost any research topic. Includes a topic finder for help with narrowing or broadening your research topic. Coverage: varies
Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life by Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9781410338969Publication Date: 2016-12-22
- Oxford Bibliographies Online: Anthropology This link opens in a new windowOffers authoritative, scholar-developed research guides that combine features of an annotated bibliography and a high-level encyclopedia. Subjects from all four subfields of anthropology (i.e., social and cultural anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and biological anthropology) are covered in this online resource.
- Oxford Handbooks Online: Archaeology Foundation Collection This link opens in a new windowOnline access to the Oxford Handbooks series in Archaeology. Each handbook takes an aspect of its discipline, explains the key issues, the classic and contemporary debates on those issues, and describes how those debates might evolve. The handbooks offer authoritative and trustworthy guides to the scholarship that defines the field.
The Oxford Handbook of Archaeology by Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9780199271016Publication Date: 2009-06-22
- Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new windowSearchable full text of reference books in many subjects. Books can be searched together or individually. Coverage: varies
The Oxford Companion to Archaeology by Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9780199735785Publication Date: 2012-10-12
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the near East by Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9780195065121Publication Date: 1996-11-28
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures by Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9780195108156Publication Date: 2001-06-07
Databases -- General & Subject
- ZSR Library Catalog This link opens in a new windowData about the books, journals, films, manuscripts, and other materials owned by the ZSR Library. Coverage: 14th century-
- Anthropology PlusIndexes periodicals, journals, and edited works, with an emphasis on archaeology, anthropology, and linguistics.
- eHRAF World CulturesA cross-cultural database containing descriptive information on cultures and ethnic groups from around the world. Includes citations, abstracts, and full text of ethnographic and other materials, indexed by culture and subject. Information is drawn from books, dissertations, conference papers, and journal articles.
Journal Databases from Related Fields
- Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new windowProvides access to journals covering the social sciences, humanities, education, and more. Good general-purpose database for researching most topics. Coverage: 1985-
- Ethnic NewsWatchContains the complete text of more than 250,000 articles, editorials, and reviews published in approximately 150 ethnic and minority newspapers, magazines, and journals published in the U.S.
- JSTORA full-text database of archived issues of academic journals. Since JSTOR is a backfiles project, a typical coverage range is the beginning of a journal until three or five years ago. Includes many Anthropology journals.
- Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA)Covers theoretical and applied linguistics, psycholinguistics, speech therapy and other related topics.
- Proquest Social Science DatabaseDatabase offers indexing and full text for hundreds of academic journals, providing extensive coverage across a wide range of social science disciplines including anthropology, criminology, economics, education, political science, psychology, social work and sociology.
- Proquest Sociology DatabaseCovers the international literature of sociology and social work, including relevant titles from related fields such as social policy, social care, social services, social anthropology, gender studies, gerontology, social psychology and population studies.
- Sociological AbstractsProvides citations and abstracts to articles published in some 2300 journals in sociology, social welfare, and social policy, as well as other related topics in the social and behavioral sciences
- Web of ScienceContains three ISI Citation Databases (Science Citation Index, Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index), plus Biological Abstracts, MEDLINE (PubMed), and the SciELO Citation Index, which together index over 8,000 peer-reviewed journals. Provides bibliographic data, author abstracts, and cited references. Useful for searching databases for articles that cite a known author or work. Citation searching also allows a researcher to use a given work as a subject term in order to identify more recent articles about the same topic.
Journals
Locating Journals in the Library
To identify which journals the library receives and where they are located, check the Find a Journal (Print and Electronic) page. Current periodicals are arranged by title in the Reference area. Older issues are assigned a call number and are shelved in the stacks.
Note: If the library catalog states that an item is in Off-Site Shelving, ask for it at the Circulation Desk.
REMEMBER: If we do not have the particular book or journal article you're looking for, we may be able to get it from another library through our interlibrary loan network. Go to ILL to request an item. This service is available only to Wake Forest students, faculty, and staff.
Web Resources
- American Anthropological Association (AAA)World’s largest scholarly and professional organization of anthropologists, founded in 1902.
- Bureau of Indian AffairsOfficial site of the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI)
- Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britian and IrelandScholarly association dedicated to anthropology in all its many fields and applications
- Society for American ArchaeologyInternational organization dedicated to the research, interpretation, and protection of the archaeological heritage of the Americas
