Keywords represent the main concept of the topic you are exploring.  Generally speaking, they are single words or short phrases that can be combined in various forms to generate different search results. Even if you’ve never done academic research before, you probably already have experience developing keywords.

For example, maybe you searched online for a new movie's release date. You probably used the title of the film and the word “release” as your keywords to bring up the results you needed.

Keywords in academic research are similar. For example, let’s say your research question is “what services are covered under Universal Healthcare?”

First, you’ll want to think about what the main concepts are. In this case, that would be universal healthcare, united states, and health services.

Next, consider what words or short phrases will help you find information for each main concept. Remember that there is usually more than one way to say the same thing, so try to think of relevant synonyms as well.

For example, for health services, you would probably want to list benefits and health system, but you might also consider using healthcare reform as a related term for students.

Once you have a starting list of keywords, try searching in different databases to see if you’re on the right track and can get relevant results.

Pay attention to the language used in the sources you find. You may see other words you can use that you hadn’t thought of yet that you can use as additional keywords.

In most cases, you will find keywords and subject terms linked at the bottom of an article or eBook's detail page. For specific instructions on finding and using keywords by database, see our Keyword Searching page in the Research Process Guide.