Integrated Studies - INTS4970: Search for information

What are 'keywords' and 'key phrases'?

Keywords and key phrases are the words or phrases that represent the key concepts of your research topic and are the words you would use in everyday life to describe the topic.

• Keywords - individual words that represent a key concept.
• Key phrase - two or more words that represent a key concept.

How to select useful keywords and key phrases

1. Identify the key concepts of your research topic.

2. Choose the keywords or key phrases that describe these concepts.

3. If you can, brainstorm any:

• Synonyms or related concepts for your keywords / key phrases - It doesn't matter if you cannot identify any synonyms right away. You might get ideas later. Also, not every keyword / key phrase has an appropriate synonym for it. 
• Spell out any abbreviations that you identified - e.g. ADD = Attention Deficit Disorder

Take some time to think of the best keywords to enter and be ready to change them as you pursue your topic.  Get ideas for new keywords by carefully examining the title, abstract and subject fields in your first results.  If the database you're using has a thesaurus of terminlogy, use it!

Try these search features:

•         Use quotation marks to search for a phrase - "To Kill a Mockingbird"

•         Set search limits such as scholarly journals, full-text, or document type

•         Sort results by date or relevance

•         Look at suggested subjects to narrow your search

•         Use Boolean Logic - AND, OR, NOT in between key words or phrases

•         Use truncation (strateg* will find strategic, strategy, strategies, for example)

If you’ve found an article in full-text, you can:

•         Use the email feature to send the citation and the article, or

•         Save the article, or Print the article