After identifying the key concepts of your question, you can start to plan your keywords.
It is useful to brainstorm alternative terms for each of your key concepts.
Alternative terms
Researchers can use different terminology to refer to the same topic.
Using alternative terms will help you find relevant studies.
Synonyms and alternative terms
When thinking about keywords, you can consider different terms such as synonyms, broader and narrower terms, related terms and spelling variations.
Using our key concepts from earlier, here is an example of a brainstorming table with some related keywords:
"How do campus green spaces affect the mental health of university students?"
| Green spaces | Mental health | University students | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keyword ideas |
|
|
|
Look for clues
Conduct initial searches to get a feel for your topic.
Review the titles and abstracts of any relevant articles you find to get ideas for keywords.
Ways to find initial articles on your topic
- Conduct quick searches in Google Scholar or a key database in your field.
- Look at the references or citations of relevant articles.
- Use AI-powered research tools such as ResearchRabbit, Scopus AI or Scite Assistant (Note: always evaluate AI-generated outputs).
Adding subject headings to your search
Depending on your topic area, you may also add subject headings to your keywords table.
- Subject headings are like tags assigned to the article to indicate its main concepts.
- They are a powerful way to search as they can capture articles with alternative terms you may not have considered.
- Use the database thesaurus to locate relevant subject headings.
Next step
Now that you have some keywords, you can start your search in a database.