Anthropology: Anthropology Research Quick Guide

• KEYWORD search to find relevant or interesting sources
• Look for SUBJECT terms in relevant books and articles; click on or search those
• READ or SKIM abstracts, ToC, introductions, and bibliographies
• Find relevant sources CITED within sources and read or skim them
• REPEAT for every topic
• Look for the scholarly conversation

• Sociological Abstracts
• Annual Review of Sociology
• APA Psychinfo (psychology)
• Annual Review of Psychology
• GenderWatch
• ATLA Religion Database

• Borrow Direct for books
• Article Express for articles

• American Anthropological Association Style Guide (AAA style is Chicago Manual of Style Author-Date system; sample CMOS Author-Date essay)
• Zotero (Download bibliographic management program & browser connector, create account)
• Google Drive (download it, store everything in the cloud)
• Textfixer (removes line-breaks in PDFs to copy text easily from PDFs to your essay) 

• Search for recent scholarly books or articles as focused on your topic as possible. Review or “handbook” articles and scholarly encyclopedia entries make good starting places if available.
• Stop searching and skim/read the books or articles for especially interesting or relevant parts that cite other scholars. Look for authors discussing other authors, not just publications listed in a bibliography.
• Find the cited books or articles and skim/read them for especially interesting or relevant parts that cite other scholars.
• Repeat until you start seeing connections among scholars, publications, themes, theories, etc.
• To go forward in the “conversation,” use the Google Scholar “Cited By” feature to see who has cited the most useful books or articles.
• Also try Web of Science: Cited Reference Search / Related Articles / Shared References

Strategies for an Anthropology Literature Review When There Isn't Much Anthropology Literature on Your Topic:

• Analyze fewer anthropology sources more deeply. Work with what you have.
• Review any tangentially related anthropology literature .
• Broaden your context until there’s enough anthropology literature to review.
• Bring in relevant non-anthropological literature as needed (e.g., public health in medical anthropology), but don’t make that the only focus of your review. Use the anthropology as a lens to view the other literature.
• Find theoretical sources through the practical sources.
• Find scholars in conversation with each other.
• Remember: there are no bad sources, only bad ways to use them.

From Shan-Estelle Brown. Writing in Anthropology: a Brief Guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.

REVIEWING THE LITERATURE

• First Look at the Title and Identify Its Key Words
• Review the Abstract
• Examine the Structure
• Identify the Purpose
• Ask the Essential Questions:

• What is the Question, Controversy, or Problem Driving the Study?
• Who or What Group was Being Studied
• How was the Study Executed? What Method was Used? What Kind of Study was Done?
• What Questions were Addressed or Asked in the Study to Generate Data?
• What was Found in the Study? What were the Results of the Study? Why did the Scientists They they Found what they Found?
• How does this study—in its Methods as well as in the Findings it Shares—Relate to other Relevant or Potential Studies?

DEVELOPING YOUR ARGUMENT
To move from a series of summaries to an argument, ask yourself the following:

• What is my specific problem or research question?
• How does each source relate to it?
• What type of literature review am I conducting?
• Am I seeing trends in theory, in methods, within the work of specific researchers, in findings across sources? What can I say about the trend?
• What unexpected findings or patterns emerged as I read across the literature?
• Are there contradictions or telling points of disagreement in the literature?
• Where do I stand on the specific debates under way among the authors of the sources?