ANTH 325: Library sources & tips

This web page is designed to be used in conjunction with the ANTH 325 course outline instructions for your Research Paper assignment, described as a literature review and research analysis paper.
According to the instructions, your paper requires:

• an initial bibliography and paper topic description by March 5
• sufficient references covering the literature
• examination of your topic in light of course issues... and anthropological literature
• effective research and excellent references to meet the criteria for an A.

Though your professor's instructions on your paper and literature review should always come first, you may find it useful to consult our library help guide:

• How to write a literature review

for general writing guidelines relating to the lit review, including an example from a sociology journal.

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In order to find the sources you need for your lit review and bibliography you may want to use tools which specialize in literature reviews and bibliographies:

SCHOLARLY ENCYCLOPEDIAS

Scholarly Encyclopedias, though basic in nature, can provide useful background, context and historical outlines, as well as help you explore approaches to topics. They also often include bibliographies listing some of the "major" sources in a subject area.

• Gale Virtual Reference Library includes encyclopedias in multiple disciplines.
  
  
• Oxford Reference Online includes a varied selection of dictionaries and encyclopedias
  
  
• Select from larger lists or search for more on our online encyclopedias page.
  
  
• *WARNING:
  Though encyclopedia articles are very useful starting points and lead to other sources, they themselves should NOT be considered as part of the sufficient references covering the literature.
  

REVIEW & SURVEY JOURNALS

One the main tasks of articles in these journals is, like yours, is to review or survey the literature related to a research topic. Try these:

• Compass Journals. Though there is no Anthropology Compass, Compass titles that could be particularly relevant include:
  • Religion
  • Sociology
  • History
    
    
• Annual Reviews
  • Though the Annual Review of Anthropology should probably be your first choice other possibly useful Annual Reviews include: example: Sociology, Environment and more.
    
    
• Oxford Bibliographies. These provide brief introductions, and extensive lists of important sources. Subject areas include anthropology and sociology.
  

DISSERTATIONS/THESES

Dissertations or theses can be dense, but they are often useful for their long bibliographies & literature reviews:

• Try Proquest Dissertations and Theses and see the guide How to find theses
  • TIP: search for your foodstuff in the Title or Subject field of the ProQuest database, and add keywords like cultur* OR symbol* OR anthropolog* OR sociolog* OR history
    
    
• Google Scholar also includes theses.
  
  

You could also try this GOOGLE SCHOLAR trick:

• In Google Scholar, type in, using quotes ("") if necessary, the title of a very relevant article or book that you already found.
• At the search results page, click on the Cited by link under the citation to that article or book. You will then see a list of additional more recent sources that might also be relevant.

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• Use CLUES to find books at Concordia Library.
  
  **TIPS:
  • use Google Books to search inside the pages of books, then use a CLUES Title Search to find out if we own the book you want. If we don't own the book use Interlibrary Loans or library services
    
    

• To find books at McGill and elsewhere see our Other Library Catalogues page or search for books worldwide with Worldcat

• For online books only, you can also explore our e-book collections
  
  
• Try Worldcat to search libraries worldwide, and Other Library Catalogues to locate books at McGill or other Montreal libraries.
  
  
• See Related Library Services below to find out how to obtain material from other libraries.

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SEARCH DATABASES

To find journal articles (and sometimes book chapters) use any or all of these databases:

• Anthropology Plus
• ATLA Religion Database
• SocINDEX
• Academic Search Complete
  *TIPS:
  • All of the above databases are hosted on EBSCO you can search in all of them at once, or in a selection of them, and of additional EBSCO databases, by selecting the "Choose Databases" link at the top of the search boxes.
    
    
• JSTOR (tip: narrow your search select checkboxes for disciplines such as Anthropology, Folklore Religion, etc)
  
  
• Google Scholar -- TIP: focus your search by using keywords such as cultural OR symbolic OR anthropological OR sociological.
  
  
• Depending on the topic you have chosen, additional databases in Anthropology, and even other subject areas may also be useful for you.

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• For help with references according tobibliography styles such as APA or MLA see our Citation & Style Guides
  
  
• RefWorks can help you keep track of your references, share them with your colleagues, and automate the creation of your bibliography.
  • To learn how to send references from your favourite databases to RefWorks see Export-Import Instructions

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