Library Guides: Anthropology and Archaeology: Articles

Major Scholarly Databases

Search an index (database) to find citations to articles on your topic. Follow the links to the full article. See the "Finding Articles" tutorial for details.

This list includes the most important databases to search for Anthropology and Archaeology articles.

Anthropology Plus
A compilation of the Royal Anthropological Institute’s Anthropological Index and Harvard University's Anthropological Literature databases, covering the fields of anthropology, archaeology, and related interdisciplinary research. Offers worldwide indexing of journals from the early 19th century to today, providing extensive indexing of journal articles, reports, and commentaries.
Arts & Humanities Citation Index
From Web of Science/Knowledge. Arts & Humanities Citation Index is a multidisciplinary index covering the scholarly journal literature of the arts and humanities. It fully covers 1,144 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals, and it indexes individually selected, relevant items from over 6,800 major science and social science journals. Part of the Web of Knowledge.
Academic Search Elite
From EBSCOhost. This general database finds articles on almost any topic. Sources include scholarly journals, popular magazines, and some newspapers - use limits to restrict your search to a publication type.
AnthroSource
Indexing and full-text access to the 32 American Anthropological Association journals. It's a small database, but all the articles are scholarly and available online.

Other Useful Databases

Scholars Portal Journals
The majority of Trent's full-text e-journals are included in this database. Search them all or browse a specific journal. Many of the journals available from other sites are duplicated on this site.
Bibliography of Native North Americans
From Human Relations Area Files (HRAF), an electronic publication that contains citations from the cumulative eight volumes of the Ethnographic Bibliography of North America. Citations to literature about native peoples of North America published from the sixteenth century to the present. All citations are to published materials: books, journal articles, essays, conference papers, and US and Canadian government documents.
Canadian Periodical Index (CPI.Q)
Indexing of nearly 700 Canadian periodicals (English and French) with full-text articles from 240 Canadian periodicals. Covers journals, magazines, and newspapers. Not all are scholarly sources - select "peer-reviewed publications" to limit your results.
Google Scholar
For access to full-text add Find It @ Trent (Omni) - Find It@TrentU under Settings / Library Links.
Social Sciences Citation Index
The Social Sciences Citation Index is a multidisciplinary index to the scholarly journal literature of the social sciences. It fully indexes more than 1,725 journals across 50 social sciences disciplines, and it indexes individually selected, relevant items from over 3,300 of the world's leading scientific and technical journals. Part of the Web of Science / Web of Knowledge.
JSTOR
A searchable database of full-text research journals in a variety of academic disciplines. JSTOR includes the complete backruns of the journals, from the first volume to a moving wall of 2-10 years ago. Some titles include current volumes. Trent subscribes to JSTOR collections I to XI and the Life Sciences.
Academic OneFile
This database from GALE covers scholarly journals, popular magazines, and some newspapers (including the New York Times). Includes 1,400 law journals. Limit to "peer-reviewed publications" to eliminate articles which are not scholarly.
Bibliography of the History of Art
BHA includes articles from over 1,200 journals published between 1975 and 2007.
Art Project (by Google)
The Art Project is a collaboration between Google and 151 acclaimed art partners from across 40 countries. Users can explore a wide range of artworks at brushstroke level detail, take a virtual tour of a museum and even build their own collections to share.

Tutorials

Tutorial: Keyword Searching
A short tutorial providing background on how keyword searching works, with tips to improve your search results. Estimated reading time: 10 minutes.
Using Google, Google Scholar and Other Internet Search Engines
A guide on using internet search engines, with a section on using Google Scholar and setting it to recognize you as a Trent student.
Tutorial: Permanent Links to Online Documents
Need a link to an online document that still works later? Have a DOI and don't know what to do with it? This guide explains how to find and use them. Includes examples from databases. Estimated reading time: 10 minutes.
Tutorial: Scholarly Articles
Scholarly articles: what they are, how to find, recognize, read, and use them. Includes exercises. Estimated reading time: 20 minutes.
Cited Reference Searching - Web of Science / Web of Knowledge
Learn to make the most of this powerful database search functionality.

Troubleshooting Searches

Too few articles:

Check for typos and spelling. Consider using both American and British spellings (eg. behaviour or behavior).
Remove long phrases.
Make sure you're using a database that is likely to include information on your topic.
Try using other synonyms and alternate words joined by the Boolean Operator 'OR' (e.g. aboriginal or indigenous or First Nations).
Check your Boolean logic. Are you using 'AND' when you should be using 'OR'?
If you have found at least one good article, look at the references of this article to find other related articles OR use the 'Find citing' or 'Find related' buttons when available in the databases.

Too many articles:

Add another concept to your searching using the Boolean operator 'AND'.
Add Limits (e.g. Peer Reviewed, Date of Publication, Language, Publication Type, etc.).
Check your Boolean logic. Are you using 'OR' when you should be using 'AND'?
When Keyword searching, try searching just in the Title field. This is not recommended for all searches, as you will eliminate relevant articles that don't have those keywords in the title, but it will likely find a few articles to get you started.
If you're searching in a database that covers all subjects (e.g. Academic Search Elite, Web of Knowledge), look for a database that is subject specific.

What is Interlibrary Loan?

Interlibrary loan is a system that allows you to request material from other libraries to be sent to Trent for you to borrow. Normally, there are no costs to use the ILL service. Plan ahead because it can take a few days or even weeks for material to be sent, depending upon availability.

Visit the RACER (ILL) page for more information.

Recent Articles from American Anthropologist

This is an RSS feed for a journal. You can easily set one up for yourself, to always know the latest articles published in that journal.