Anthropology 475: Ethnographic Research Methods

Watch the video below to help you refine your search in retrieving information.

Quotation marks can be used to search phrases. For example:

• "global studies"
• "international relations"
• "ancient Rome"

Putting these terms in quotes means that the words will be searched as a phrase rather than each word separately.

The asterisk symbol * serves as a wildcard and can be used to retrieve variant endings of a word. Words will be retrieved if they begin with the word preceding the * operator.

• spirit* will retrieve: spirit, spiritual, spirituality, spirited, spirits

Once you have located one or more useful sources on your topic, use the Bibliography or "Works Cited" list, or "References" list at the end of the source to find more sources. Locating cited references is useful for finding current articles on a topic and identifying the top researchers in a field.

Visit the University Library's Searching Cited References resources for locating resources found as references.

Keywords can be combined with other keywords using the AND operator to narrow your topic. For example:

• women AND media
• women AND farming
• women AND marriage

Keywords can be combined with synonyms using OR to broaden your search. For example:

• women OR females