ECON401: Senior Seminar: Keywords

Keep it simple.

Before you start your search, come up wtih a few terms that describe your topic. Unlike searching in Google, searching in the library databases requires more precise planning for your search terms. This is because Google searches through millions and millions of webpages, whereas the library databases only search through thousands of articles, and most of the time just a record of the article, not the full-text article. Because of this, you'll want to distill your topic to only the words that really captures the meaning of your topic, so you don't have extraneous words clogging your search results. Translate the concepts in your research question into individual words.

Main point:

• keep it simple, try to use only 1-2 word phrases

How is the rise of social media linked to the visibility of eating disorders?

• eating disorders
• social media

How was JFK's foreign policy influenced by his religious faith?

• John F. Kennedy
• foreign policy
• religious beliefs

Are sex education programs effective in reducing teen pregnancy rates?

• teen pregnancy
• sex education

Think Broad and Narrow:

When thinking of search terms for your research topic, its best to think of a combination of broad and narrow search terms. That way, when you perform a search and don't get enough results, you can go back and search with the broader terms, or vise versa if your search brings back to many results. In general, you should use your broader search terms when searching for books, and more narrow search terms when searching for articles.

Gather related words and synonyms:

The books and articles you're researching for may use different words to describe your research topic. Therefore, you'll want to think of as many different related terms and synonyms as you can for the concepts in your research topic.  If you vary your search terms, you'll also be casting a wider net for sources than just using the same terms over and over again. You may discover search terms that you didn't know about before.

Tips for coming up with keywords:

• Use a Thesaurus
• Go back to your concept map and background research to gather ideas
• Do a preliminary search, and see what vocabulary the relevant articles on your topic use.

Try these search queries in the Grafton Library Discovery Service (GLDYS). What kind of results do you get for each?

1. head start effectiveness in increasting success of children from low-income families

2. head start and children and success

3. head start and families

4. head start

Which search query brings back the best results?