Keywords, also commonly called search terms, are the words that you enter into the database search boxes. They represent the main concepts of your research topic and are the words used in everyday life to describe the topic. Without the right keywords, you may have difficulty finding the articles that you need.
Selecting keywords is a multi-step process that involves:
It is very rare that your first search will bring back perfect results. It takes trial and error to determine which keywords work best for your topic. Be prepared to run multiple searches in your quest for the keywords that will help you find the materials you need.
When doing an internet search in Google or Bing, you can enter your complete research question in the search box and get a bunch of results. However, if you enter your entire research question in the Library databases, you probably won't get any results. This is because the library databases look for the exact words that you enter in the search box(es). If the database can't find all of the words that you entered in the search boxes in the information about an article, it won't bring back any results. That's why it's important to search only for the main parts of your topic.
Here is an example of a research question:
What does gender discrimination look like in physical education? In athletics?
The keywords for this topic are listed below:
Best practices for searching are relatively consistent across interfaces. No matter which database you choose, remember these important tips...
1) Don't search for your topic as a single phrase! Determine the key concepts of your topic. Then place each concept in its own search bar.
For example...
2) Use ORs to string together synonyms or related terms for those concepts...
3) Use truncation, when appropriate. Adding an * to the end of a word will catch all forms of that word. For example, teach* will return teach, teachers, teaching, etc.
4) Use proximity searches to force a relationship between two terms. For example, if you are getting too many broad results with a particular term, try putting the term into quotes. This will ensure that the the top results are those in which the two words are found next to each other.
5) Look for the "peer reviewed" limit in each database, and set date limits as appropriate for your topic. Don't choose the "Full Text" limit as this will exclude articles that we have online via other sources. Just follow the "Find Full Text @ NMSU" button to be taken to the journal sites.
Don't forget to check articles for subject terms that may be useful to you.
Because the databases search for the exact words that you enter, certain types of words can be unhelpful to include in your search. These include:
relationship words: words that get at the relationship between two topics
examples: compare, contrast, correlation, causation, relationship
judgment words: words that judge something to be better or worse than something else
examples: best, worst, pro, con, advantages, disadvantages
There are many ways these ideas can be expressed or even implied. Using these words in your searches may exclude relevant articles on your topic simply because they don't include the exact word that you entered. By leaving out these words, you allow the database to find all of the articles on your main topics, which you can then evaluate to see if they fit your needs.
Synonyms are words that have the same or similar meaning. Antonyms are words that have the opposite meaning. Both can be helpful when trying to determine relevant keywords for your research topic.
Some topics have many different terms that can be used to describe them. For example, here are some additional keywords that could be used for discrimination:
Sometimes when you are researching a specific topic, it can also be helpful to search for the opposite of your topic. For example, if you are interested in student retention, you'll also want to look at student dropouts. Here are some possible synonyms and antonyms for student retention:
Used with permission from the Walden University Library and The University of Texas at Austin.