ANTH 3341 Anthropology Research Methods

Search Tips for Enthnography:

• Use subject terms Ethnography, Ethnology, Social Life and Customs.  (Note: Most books in the library will not have a subject heading for Ethnography since it is not defined as a Library of Congress controlled term).

• Use keyword Ethnograph* to catch all variations of the word Ethnography, Ethnographic, Ethnographies.

• Combine keywords for subject you want to study with Cultur*, Participant Observation, Case Stud* 

• Not all books or articles label themselves as ethnographies.  Read the abstract and summaries to determine if it fits the definition of an ethnography.

Too Many Results?

• Filter out non-scholarly articles.  If you are required to find peer-reviewed articles, look for the "Peer-Reviewed" box located in most databases to quickly weed-out most non-scholarly works.  This will also remove newspapers, dissertations, blogs, and governmental or business reports.
• Select "Full-Text" whenever you can.  This will narrow results automatically to articles you can read right away, avoiding unnecessary delays for Interlibrary Loan.
• Limit your results by most recent articles only.  Most databases have either a limit or sort feature, enabling you to push more recent--and therefore more authoritative--results to the top.
• Narrow your topic by adding more  keywords for a particular time, place, demographic, or perspective.  If your topic is "Farmer's Markets", you may try to include other keywords like Rural, Southwest, Economic Aspects, Women.

Too Few Results?

• Cast a broader net with your search terms.  Choose more general terms, remove specific locations.
• Use a thesaurus to find synonyms for keywords.  
• Try different databases.  We have a variety of resources--be diverse in your searching.
• Contact your librarian.  We are happy to help you explore alternative search strategies and locations to help you find resources.