|
Book review sources in Anthropology
In order to search the most appropriate database you will need to ascertain the date of publication of the book you are reviewing. Allow about 2 years after that for the review process then choose a database which covers this period.
Academic OneFile (Thomson Gale)
[Coverage is from ca.1980 onwards. At the opening screen enter a word or words from the author/title of the book & add the phrase book reviews]
Academic Search Premier (EBSCO)
[Coverage is from ca.1985 onwards. A search by title should be sufficient, but adding the phrase book review to your search using the Boolean operator AND will limit the results to only book reviews]
Book Review Index
[Coverage is from 1965 onwards. A comprehensive online guide to book reviews]
Current Contents
[Coverage is for the latest five years. A Quick Search on the Title of the book should be sufficient. However, if this produces too many extraneous records, choose the General search option, input the book title in the topic/subject option then scroll down the page to restrict the search to Book Review]
JSTOR
[Date coverage varies depending on individual titles, but overall coverage ranges from the late 19th century onward. Note that JSTOR is primarily an archive of back issues and does not cover current journal literature.
At the JSTOR search screen select Advanced search, input the name of the book in quotations, use the drop-down menu to select Article Title, and the Search Type to Review]
Periodicals index online
[Coverage varies depending on individual titles. Note that PIO is primarily an index of back issues and does not cover current journal literature.
Select the Article Search option and input the title in the Article title keyword field. In the Search Options box limit the search to Book reviews]
Sociological Abstracts
[Coverage is from 1963 onwards, but book reviews are only indexed from ca.1975.
At the search screen enter the title of the book then add the phrase pt=review (example: anthropology and tourism and nash and pt=review). This will limit the search to finding book reviews]
Web of Science
[Coverage is from 1980 onwards. A Quick Search on the Title of the book should be sufficient. However, if this produces too many extraneous records, choose the General search option, input the book title in the topic/subject option then scroll down the page to restrict the search to Book Review]
Other possibilities
ARD: the Anthropology review database [free web access]
[Includes full-text reviews published by ARD. Site hosted by the Dept. of Anthropology, University of Buffalo]
Reviews in anthropology
[The only anthropological journal devoted to lengthy, in-depth review commentary on recently published books]
Ozlife : Australian biography and book review index [free web access]
[Indexes book reviews from major Australian newspapers and selected journals. Coverage is from 2000 onwards]
Tips for Anthropology Students
When you find a citation to a review, check the journal and the reviewer. Ideally, it should be by an anthropologist writing in an anthropological journal. If it's not, you should treat the review with caution.
If you are unable to find a review, at least find out how anthropologists write book reviews by consulting the book reviews section of the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
Last update: 8 November 2007
This page is maintained by Helen Attar
|
