Research Guides: BIO 315 Ethno, Forensic, and Medical Botany: Ethnobotany Research

Braiding Sweetgrass Ebook

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

A Couple of Ethnobotany Journals

Journal of Ethnobiology
2005-2020
Ethnobotany Research and Applications
2008-2015
Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
2005-

Finding More Good Sources

Always check the works cited/references of the helpful sources you have found already to see if they lead you to other a little bit older helpful sources. You can also search your best article's title in Google Scholar where you can see what more recent sources have cited your source.

Example Article

Ethnobotany Books at Hope

Primo Books and Media Search for Ethnobotan*

Primo

Advanced Search in Primo
Primo is a great place to search for a known article or journal -- it is also a helpful place to begin your research when you aren't sure which library databases you might want to search in.

Databases to Try Searching In

Start With These

Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Subject: Interdisciplinary
Content/Description:Includes a collection of databases with citations on the Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, Sciences and other topics.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Subject: Interdisciplinary
Content/Description: Search the open web for scholarly articles, books and book previews, theses, and abstracts. Access to some full-text articles may not be available from off-campus. Please contact a librarian for access issues.

More Focused Databases

AGRICOLA This link opens in a new window
Subject: Agriculture
Content/Description: Includes citations, in-depth articles, theses, patents, audiovisual content, and technical reports on agriculture, forestry, and animal science from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Library.
PubMed (.gov) This link opens in a new window
Subject: Nursing, Healthcare, Medicine
Content/Description: Provides abstracts, articles, books, reviews, and data from the U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health.
BioOne Complete This link opens in a new window
Subject: Biology
Content/Description:Full text articles from biology and bioscience research journals.
Please note: This resource has been cancelled and no new content will be added after 6/30/2020
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Subject: Interdisciplinary
Content/Description:Includes articles, books, reviews and other sources. "Data for Research" provides interactive content. "Workspace" saves and shares sources. "Text Analyzer" searches for sources with user documents. "Understanding Series" provides sources quoting selected text.
SciFinder-n This link opens in a new window
Subject: Chemistry, Engineering
Content/Description: Provides access to chemical literature and references by topic, reaction, or substance in CAS Registry and CASREACT.
Available only to Hope College students, faculty, and staff.
Please Note: Before initial use, users must create a personal account.

Be Curious & Make Your Question Smaller

Research starts with questions, not answers.
Be curious about your plant (how it has been used and by whom). For this paper, remember to focus on only one ethnolinguistic group.
Break down your paper into a series of very small questions (this is a less overwhelming way to do research).
Think about what kinds of sources you will need to answer your very small questions (rather than sources for your whole paper).

Little Questions From Your Assignment Guidelines

Where did this plant originate?
Who has used the plant?
What have they used it for and for how long?
How has information about this plant been passed down?
How has this plant been traded or monetized?
Who has benefited from the economics surrounding the plant?
To what extent is the plant cultivated or collected from natural populations? What is the status of the natural populations?
What is the ecology of the plant?
Whom is it taxonomically related to?
What is its ecology? Where does it grow and how?
What does it look like? How do we distinguish it from other similar species?
What research has been done previously on this species? How credible was it? What did they find?