Best Practices

At the intersection of the sciences and the humanities, anthropological practitioners are found in occupations across multitudes of specializations. Is it possible, then, to derive a set of overarching and relevant “best practices?”

Any set of standards or perspectives will need to cover a diverse group of activities as well as stakeholders. As just one example, with work involving research and/or evaluation, stakeholders can include participants and collaborators in our research, various types of respondents, clients and funders, organizational staff, policymakers and decision-makers, colleagues, and the general public. 

NAPA has organized a generalized set of best practices that will cover a range of practice. After you have read through these practices, we invite you to contribute comments, suggestions, and additional resource links that will be useful to anyone wishing to gain a sense of how we can better do what it is that we do.

The links below connect you to not only the Best Practices document, but to a review of specialized anthropological approaches, links to associations’ ethics statements, and additional resources.