LibGuides: Open Access Research: Search Tips

Choosing Keywords

When conducting research the words you choose are as important as the places where you search - this guide will help you choose effective terms.

Choosing Effective Keywords

How To Choose Effective Keywords

1. When searching in library databases it's not effective to enter the entire research topic or question like you would in Google. Instead, you want to break down your topic or question into keywords. Ask yourself what are the main points or ideas of your topic?

Please note screenshots depict EBSCO databases, but all database platforms work in similar ways.

Mind map, center: your topic. branches: main point, important idea, target age range, key concept

2. Let's say you were researching methods for encouraging student engagement in high school students in rural communities, your keywords would be: rural communities, student engagement and high school.

Academic Search Ultimate: rural communities AND student engagement AND highschool

3. It is also useful to brainstorm alternate keywords for your topic. These can be synonyms, sub topics you are interested in, related terms, etc.

Alternate keywords for high school are secondary education or upper classmen; alternate keywords for student engagement are community involvement and internships

There are also words that aren't useful as keywords. Such as "effect" or "benefit". Instead, try to brainstorm specific effects or benefits to use as keywords. If you find an article you like look at their "Abstract," and "Subjects" to find new keywords.

Article, arrows pointing to subject and abstract

What Are Boolean Operators?

Boolean Logic

Boolean operators are terms you can use to narrow or broaden your search in a database, library catalog or Google Scholar. The three basic operators are: AND, OR, and NOT.

Why Use Them?

To focus a search when you are using multiple terms
To include synonyms for your search terms in order to find all variations
To exclude terms not relevant to your search

How To Use AND

Use the operator "AND" in a search to:

Narrow your results
Tell the database that ALL the terms must be present in the search results

Example:

Search String: Anxiety AND "college students" AND alcohol

How to Use OR

Use the operator OR to:

Broaden your search by telling the database that ANY of the terms can be present in your results
To include synonyms or related concepts for your search terms

Example:

Search String: College students OR university students OR undergraduates OR graduate students