How to Develop Keywords
Generating Keywords
Optimize your research by brainstorming and developing keywords from your topic guidelines and background research. Generate synonyms, related terms, and narrow terms to enhance the scope of your search. Utilize Boolean Operators, Truncation & Wildcard symbols to refine and maximize your search results.
1. Identify the Major Concepts of Your Topic
For example, if the research question is: “Do laws banning hate speech violate a person’s civil rights?"
The keywords are initially: "Laws", "Hate speech", "Civil rights".
- You will usually have 2-4 keywords which will most often be nouns
- Sometimes keywords will have only 1 word ("Laws")
- Sometimes keywords will have 2 or more words ("Hate speech") which is a phrase
2. Develop Synonyms and Words Similar to Your Keywords
- People use different words to describe the same thing
- That’s why you need to identify synonyms and similar words to your keywords
- You will need to use Broader Terms if your results are too narrow
- You will need to use Narrow Terms if your results are too broad (you will need details or examples)
- You will need to use Related Terms (synonyms) if your results are not returning useful information
Laws:
| Laws | Keyword (broad) |
| Statute | Narrow term (example) |
| Legislation, rule | Related term (synonym) |
| Laws | |
| Keyword (broad) | |
| Statute | |
| Narrow term (example) | |
| Legislation, rule | |
| Related term (synonym) |
Civil rights:
| Civil rights | Keyword (broad) |
| Civil liberties | Related term (synonym) |
| Freedom of speech | Narrow term (example) |
| Civil rights | |
| Keyword (broad) | |
| Civil liberties | |
| Related term (synonym) | |
| Freedom of speech | |
| Narrow term (example) |
Sometimes keywords don’t have synonyms or related terms EG: “Hate Speech”
3. Develop a Search String
How to develop a search string:
- Combine all your terms in different ways to create a string
- Different strings will give you different results
- Use Boolean Operators to combine your terms Add parentheses (brackets) around your words
Search string examples:
- Laws AND hate speech AND civil rights
- Laws AND hate speech AND freedom of speech
- Legislation AND hate speech AND civil rights
- (Laws OR Legislation) AND hate speech AND (civil liberties OR civil rights)
Phrase Searching
Using phrase searching and the benefits of doing so:
- Phrase searching narrows your search results by allowing you to define precisely the order in which you want the words to appear
- You should phrase search when you need to find a keyword that has multiple words
- “Global warming” is an example of a phrase
- You need to place quotation marks around your phrase to indicate to a search engine or database
Tips for when you phrase search:
- If you put too many words in quotations, the database will most likely not find any results
- Case does not matter ("new york times" will yield the same results as "New York Times")
Truncation & Wildcards
You can optimize your keyword searching by using truncation and wildcard symbols:
- The options you have to use truncation and wildcard symbols will vary depending on the database
- The most common are: *, !, ?, or #
Truncation
Sometime you need to cast a wide net, and search for words that have different endings, but contain the same root.
Example: sun = suns, sunshine, sunny, sunlight
To do this, you need to use truncation symbols. Generally, you can use a "*" at the end of a root word to indicate you want any word with the same root.
Examples:
- child* = child, childs, children, childhood
- genetic* = genetic, genetics, genetically
Wildcards
Similar to truncation, wildcards substitute a symbol for one letter of a word. Wildcards are useful when there are different ways to spell a word that has the same meaning.
Examples:
- wom!n = woman, women
- colo?r = color, colour
Boolean Operators
Boolean Operators are recognized by databases and search engines. They connect your keywords together and can help you optimize searching.
Here are the most common Boolean Operators:
- AND
- OR
- NOT
Tips for Using Boolean Operators
- Most database search engines prefer Boolean operators to be typed in ALL CAPS
- Most databases ignore stop words ("a", "the", "is", "at", "on", etc) — but those that don't will include them! You will end up with too many results, so avoid using them
Boolean AND
Using the Boolean Operator OR will broaden your search results. In this case, using OR will retrieve search results containing either the keywords globalization or human rights.
Boolean OR
Using the Boolean Operator OR will broaden your search results. In this case, using OR will retrieve search results containing either the keywords globalization or human rights.
Boolean NOT
Using the Boolean Operator NOT will exclude certain words. In this case, using NOT will retrieve search results containing the keyword globalization but will NOT retrieve search results containing the keyword human rights.
