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Contact info
For Library research help, please contact Moninder Lalli, Librarian for Sociology / Anthropology by email (moninder_lalli@sfu.ca) or Ask a librarian.
Essay
Start Your Research Here - This page gives you an overview of the research process, or in other words how to find materials for your essay.
Specialized Library guides
- Finding Ethnographies
- How to Write an Annotated Bibliography
- Library Research Tutorials Animated tutorials on search techniques for finding books and journal articles
- Academic Writing: What is a Literature Review?
- Examples of literature reviews may be found in the following two annual publications:
- Research methods for Anthropology and Sociology
Selected encyclopedias and handbooks
- Encyclopedia of anthropology [print or online]
- Handbook of ethnography
- Social and cultural anthropology: the key concepts [print and online]
- Routledge companion to digital ethnography
Find books
Library Catalogue search guide | Catalogue search tips
Search the SFU Library Catalogue: Advanced keyword
- ethnograph* AND (method* OR research OR analysis)
- (ethnogra* OR ethnolog*) AND (research method*)
- qualitative research
- reflexive* AND (research OR method*)
- (ethnograph* OR ethnolog*) AND (virtual OR hypermedia OR "second life" OR cyberspace OR "digital world")
Combine different concepts using AND
Combine same concepts using OR
Use quotation marks to search for a phrase
Use brackets for synonyms
Use asterisk (*) for different endings of words
Note: For Catalogue Search, when combining concepts, use CAPITAL letters ( "OR", "AND")
Look at the titles in the "results list" and for those books that look relevant, click on their subject headings.
Selected books
- 30 essential skills for the qualitative researcher [print]
- Analyzing qualitative data
- Designing qualitative research
- Developing a critical ethnographic method : positionality, ontology and analysis
- Decolonizing ethnography : undocumented immigrants and new directions in social science
- How to read ethnography
- Indigenous Autoethnography: Illuminating Māori Voices
- Qualitative data collection tools : design, development, and applications
- Reading ethnographic research : a critical guide
- Video ethnography
Browse by subject
To search for books by subject heading, use the Browse Search option in the SFU Library Catalogue, then select Subject browse from the drop-down menu
Change "Title" to "Subject" and enter:
- Anthropology -- History
- Culture -- Research -- Methodology
- Ethnology -- Fieldwork
- Ethnology -- Methodology
- Ethnology -- Philosophy
- Ethnology -- Research
- Focus Groups
- Qualitative research -- Methodology
- Social sciences -- Field work
- Social sciences -- Methodology
- Social sciences -- Research -- Methodology
For more ideas, try the Library guide: Research methods for Anthropology and Sociology
Find journal articles
Search within the databases below for scholarly articles.
How to find journal articles tutorial.
What is a scholarly (or peer-reviewed) journal?
If the full-text of the article is not available within the database then use the "Get@SFU" link to find it or to initiate an inter-library loan request.
- Anthropology Plus - material relating to anthropology and archaeology. Unites Harvard's Anthropological Literature and the Royal Anthropological Institute's Anthropological Index Online
- AnthroSource - Full-text access to journals produced by the American Anthropological Association
- ProQuest Sociology Collection - for issues related to class, gender, racism, sexuality and sexism and theoretical and applied sociology, social science, and policy science.
- Ageline for all aspects of "ageing" including eldercare, grandparents
- Sage Research Methods Online
- Access to research methods from books and numerous reference sources.