Anthropology Library Resources: Home

A few key databases focused on Anthropology and Sociology may be helpful starting points -- but there are also many more resources that can be found on the E-Research by Discipline tab or by exploring other Research Guides on the library website. 

1. Aggregators

Commercial aggregators (Library pays for these)

Most databases the Library pays for are either ProQuest or EBSCO products. They index articles from a variety of journals and provide full text for some of the content. It is possible to search across all ProQuest or EBSCO databases, which is useful when your topic is interdisciplinary, but can sometimes make for a longer and messier list of results.

• ProQuest

  • Go into any ProQuest database, e.g. ProQuest Central --> Change databases (top menu) --> Select all --> Do your search

    • can limit results to peer-reviewed articles

  • Articles+

    • ProQuest product called Summon, which attempts to search across many of the databases UNC pays for.

• EBSCO

  • Go into any EBSCO database, e.g. Academic Search Premier --> Choose Databases (top menu) --> Select all --> Do your search
    • can limit results to peer-reviewed articles

• JSTOR

  • Repository of academic journal content.

• Scopus

  • Elsevier product focusing on hard sciences and health sciences, but with continually increasing social sciences and humanities content.

Open aggregators (Library pays for some of this content)

You will need to check whether the Library has access to the content you find here. Request anything you can't access through document delivery/interlibrary loan.

• GoogleScholar

  • Self explanatory, but link it to the Library when off campus for full-text access.

• OpenAlex

  • A "a free and open catalog of the world's scholarly research system". May be the largest open aggregator after GoogleScholar.

• Dimensions

  • Linked data-based aggregator. Digital Science product.

• Semantic Scholar

  • Open and free aggregator. Allen Institute for AI product.

• CORE

  • Aggregator of open access research papers from institutional repositories around the world.

2. Library Databases

• E-Research by Discipline

  • This is where all library databases live.

• Anthropology Databases

• Newspaper and news media archives

3. The "Big 5" (Library pays for most of this content)

Five publishers have bought up a large portion of academic journals. One benefit is that you can search across journals on their websites.

• Elsevier

• Taylor & Francis

• Sage

• Wiley

• Springer

• Library Catalog

  Discover books, journals, films, primary source collections, government documents, and other materials held at UNC and in the Triangle (you can request materials from Duke, NC State and NC Central) as well as a variety of open access publications.

• WorldCat

  Joint catalog of materials held at North American and some European National Libraries.

WorldCat has a subscription version FirstSearch, with more robust advanced search options, but a less modern interface. You can request most titles that UNC does not have through Interlibrary Loan.

Books will also show up in some of the databases and aggregators above.

Library Data Services cater to researchers interested in working with data, mapping, texts, visualization, and technology. Many of these services are available online. Davis Library Data Services, located on the second floor of Davis Library, offers:

• A computing lab with specialized software for GIS and data visualization & analysis.
• Walk-in assistance provided by knowledgeable student consultants during set hours. 
• Consultations with specialists for more in-depth inquiries (by appointment).
• Spaces for collaboration and presentation, complete with white boards and external displays.
• Technology workshops focused on working with data (manipulation, visualization, mapping).

 is a free citation manager. This page offers information that will help you create and build a Zotero library, create and use groups to collaborate, and use Zotero to add properly formatted citations to your papers.