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UMass Amherst Libraries

Anthropology

Guide for Library Research in Anthropology

Writing & Research

Library Guide for Anthropology 364 (Junior Year Writing)

Good library research makes you a better writer.

Journals

Why journals?

Anthropology journals are great for browsing and keeping up to date.

They give you an idea of what anthropologists are writing about today (and what they wrote about in the past, if you go to the back issues).

They also give you an idea of how anthropologists write.

 

Click here to see many of our online anthropology journals.

Many of these journals are peer-reviewed. If you don't know what that means or why it matters, watch this video.

Peer-reviewed Journals

What's a peer-reviewed journal?
Many of our journals are peer-reviewed. If you don't know what that means or why it matters, watch this video.

Databases for scholarly journal articles

Why databases?

Databases help you efficiently find good scholarly journal articles on your chosen topic.

Tips for Databases:

  1. At a minimum, search Anthropology Plus, Academic Search Premier, AnthroSource and Web of Science.
  2. From off-campus locations, an IT Computer Account is required to access licensed databases.
  3. Use RefWorks or Zotero to save and manage your citations and create your bibliography.
  4. After you've run a search, use the button (if the database has it) to retrieve articles.
  • Anthropology Plus
    Provides citations, abstracts and full text of articles from several hundred sources, including scholarly journals in communication, interpersonal communication, mass media, and journalism journals, plus articles on communication published in the journals of other disciplines, and mass media trade journals. Some coverage back to  1920's-
  • AnthroSource
    Indexes and summarizes major articles, reports, and books concerned with communication theory, interpersonal communication, mass communication, organization communication, small group communication, speech, advertising and marketing, broadcasting, journalism, public opinion, public relations, radio and television. 1984-     
  • eHRAF World Cultures
    Includes the full-text of 19 journals published by Sage and participating societies, some journals going back 23 years, encompassing over 5,000 articles.

 Related Disciplines and Interdisciplinary

  • Academic Search Premier
    Citations, abstracts and full-text articles from scholarly and general-interest periodicals relating to social sciences, humanities, education,physical, and biological sciences. 1975-
  • Dissertations and Theses
    Most North American, and a few European and Asian dissertations and theses. Citations from 1861-; full text of first 24 pages 1997-; and UMass Amherst's in full text 1997-present.To borrow theses and dissertations from other institutions, place a request through Interlibrary Loan . 1861-
  • eHRAF Archaelogy
    Archaeology books, journal articles, and dissertations describing prehistoric life and archaeological sites across the world, 1983-present.
  • >Ethnic Newswatch
    Full-text articles from the newspapers, magazines and some scholarly journals of ethnic communities in the United States.
  • Europa World Yearbook
    A very useful encyclopedia and directory of the world's countries. Substantive coverage of government, demographics, history, and much more
  • Google Scholar
  • Hispanic American Periodicals Index (HAPI)
    Citations to articles from social science and humanities journals in English and Spanish. 1970-
  • PAIS International
    Citations and abstracts for articles, books and book chapters, government documents, statistical directories, research reports, conference reports and other materials relating to public and social policy published in Western European languages. 1970-
  • Sociological Abstracts
    References to scholarly journal articles, dissertations, and conference papers on sociology and related disciplines, 1960-present
  • Web of Science
    Covers almost all English-language scholarly journals. Provides a means of tracing where an article is cited, as well as topic and author searching. Social sciences journals are covered since 1956.

Citation Management

Use a citation manager, such as Zotero or RefWorks to keep track of your research.

Note: In Zotero, you can configure the equivalent of UMLinks by adding the UMass Open URL resolver in your Preferences. Go to Advanced and type http://sfxhosted.exlibrisgroup.com/umass for your resolver: 

More on using Zotero...

RefWorks

For help on RefWorks, check out the online guides and webinars or Ask a Librarian.

We order for you - for free!

Use your Interlibrary Loan account to:

  • Borrow books, videos, and other materials not available in the Five College system.
  • Request electronic copies of articles and book chapters not available at UMass.
  • In databases, use the button to  taken directly to Interlibrary Loan, so you can order articles if UMass does not have them. In Zotero, you can configure the equivalent by adding the UMass Open URL resolver in your Preferences.

Web of Science!

What articles are prominent in my field?
2-minute video on using "Web of Science" to find highly-cited articles.

Senior Honors Theses

Senior Honors theses  are available in Special Collections and Archives, 25th floor. Arranged by year, by department or alphabetically by name. These cannot be checked out, but they are great for browsing and seeing how other students have written successful theses.

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