Book Reviews in Anthropology and Archaeology

New Zealand, Pacific and Australia

• Index New Zealand (INNZ)
  • Includes book reviews from 1987-. Use Advanced Search. In the first ‘Find’ box enter keyword(s) from the book title or author's name [search in the Keyword anywhere field]. In the second 'Find' box enter book reviews [As a phrase in the Keyword anywhere field] 
  • Earlier reviews 1941-1986 are in the print volumes of Index to New Zealand periodicals (look under 'B' for the heading "Book reviews")
• Newztext Plus 
  Full-text of NZ newspapers, Radio NZ wires and industry and magazines (from 1995-). Includes brief newspaper reviews in its Daily Newspapers section. Search for review* and keywords from the author's name and/or book title in the 'All' zone e.g. sissons and waimana and review*
• Journal of the Polynesian Society centennial index, 1892-1991
  Print index, includes special section for book reviews
• Informit Database Collection
  Includes more than 80 Australian databases. AIATSIS, APA-FT, APAIS, MAIS and DELTAA inlcude book reviews (or click on 'Select all' to search across all databases). Search for review* and keywords from the author's name and/or book title
• Australian book review
  Print index from 1961- to present

International

Fulltext

• JSTOR
  • Use Advanced Search. Scroll down and check the box for 'Type = Review'
  • You may limit the search to Anthropology and Sociology journals
  • Enter names in the Author field to search for author of a reviewed work
  • Enter keywords from book titles (use quotation marks to search for a phrase e.g. "interpretations of culture")
  • Searching in the Article Title field searches titles of articles or reviewed works
  • Searching in the Full Text field searches across the author, title and full text fields of all types of journal content (articles and book reviews)
• AnthroSource
  Use Advanced Search to search for 'book reviews' in 'the exact phrase' search box. Search for author's name or keywords from title in the 'Find articles with all of these words' search box. Links to JSTOR for older issues. AnthroSource is also searched by Google Scholar
• ARD - the Anthropology review database
  Free on the Internet
• Anthropology and Education Quarterly
  Includes book reviews. AEQ website
• Google Scholar
  Search for 'book review' and author's name or book title
• H-Net Reviews
  Reviews in the humanities and social sciences. Free on the Internet
• Expanded Academic
  • Use Advanced Search. Search for the phrase book reviews in the 'Subject' field. Enter the author's name, book title or topic in the second search box.  
  • Search for names of anthropologists as subject headings to find works about those anthropologists
• Academic Research Library (ProQuest)
  Use the Advanced Search, click on 'More Search Options' and select 'Book review' in the drop-down menu for 'Article Type'. Search for the author of the reviewed book in the 'Person' field and/or the title of the reviewed book in the 'Abstract' field. About one third of the articles indexed are fulltext.
• Academic Source Premier (EBSCO)
  Limit your results on the search page to 'Book review' to find book reviews. Search for the author of the reviewed book in the 'PE People' field and/or the title of the reviewed book in the 'AB Abstract' field. 
• GenderWatch
  Use the Advanced Search and enter 'Book Review' in the Type of Article field
• TLS Centenary Archive
  An online index to the Times Literary Supplement 1902-1990 with facsimile images of the reviews, articles, poems and letters
• Project Muse
  Full-text journals in the humanities and social sciences. For book reviews go to 'Search' and look for author and title words in the 'Author Reviewed' and 'Title Reviewed' fields. Not as good as JSTOR for Anthropology. Project Muse is also searched by Google Scholar
• Periodicals Archive Online
  To search for book reviews click on 'Article Search', ensure Book Reviews is ticked under 'Search Options'
• ARD: the Anthropology review database
  Searchable database of reviews of anthropological books, audiovisual materials, software & multimedia, exhibits, tourist sites, conferences, and on-line resources

Indexing

• Anthropology Plus
  Use Advanced search. A keyword search for review will retreive review articles
• Sociological Abstracts
  • Use the Advanced Search
  • Search for the phrase book review in the 'Publication type (PT=)' field
  • Search for an author name or keywords from the book title in the 'Anywhere' field (searching 'Keyword' will only find the phrase where it occurs in an article title)
  • Search for names of anthropologists in the 'Descriptors (DE=)' field to find works about those anthropologists
• Web of Science
  • Use Advanced Search
  • Scroll down to 'Current Limits'
  • Highlight 'Book Review' beneath 'Restrict results by any or all of the options below' (also available is Review, or Film Review).
  • Search using field tags e.g.
    • to search for the title of a book: TI="people of the sierra"
    • to search for author's family name and/or keywords from the title: TS=Anwar AND between AND culture
• International Bibliography of  the Social Sciences
  • Use Advanced Search.
  • Click on 'More' under 'Limit Search To:'
  • Click on 'Publication Type', scroll down and highlight 'Review'
  • Click OK (at the top of the page)
  • Search for the title of the reviewed book (or part of the title) in the 'Terms anywhere' field  
• Humanities and Social Sciences Index Retrospective
  For book reviews limit to 'Document Type = Book Review'
• C19 Nineteenth Century Index
• Nineteenth Century Masterfile Series I

Print Indexes

The following sources cover particular topics, others cover scholarly and general interest material produced in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Good for older reviews.

• Reviews in anthropology
• An index to book reviews in the humanities
• Book review digest
  1905-1982
• Book review index
  1965- to the present 
• Combined retrospective index to book reviews in scholarly journals 1886-1974
  Easy to use. The best single source for the years it covers.
• Readers' guide to periodical literature
  Covers a selection of general interest magazines. Books reviews listed by author in a special section at the end of each volume. 
• The Wellesley index to Victorian periodicals
  
• Index to New Zealand periodicals
  1941-1986 (Look under "B" for "Book reviews")
• Australian book review
  1961- to present

Review Essays

Review essays briefly discuss a large number of books and journal articles

• Annual review of Anthropology
  • Includes review essays on various topics (full-text from 1959-).
  • Earlier issues 1959-1971 and 1972-1998 are also on JSTOR. Both platforms are keyword searchable by title of book and journal article. 
• Annual review of sex research 
• Annual review of public health
• Search Anthropology Plus  for "review article" 

Citation Indexes

Citation indexes allow you to count the number of times a particular book or journal article has been cited (listed as a reference) in later journal articles and so provide an assessment of the relative impact. This type of searching often locates relevant articles that cannot be retrieved through traditional subject/author searching. An important tool for tracing the published responses of scientists & scholars to the work of their peers.

• Web of Science
• SCOPUS
  Search the reference field for authors' names, book and journal article titles etc. Scopus focuses on science journals.