Keyword searching is the use of keywords to find information. Keywords are the main concepts of your research question or topic -- essentially, what is key to answering your question?
We most often use keyword searching in search engines and as the starting point of our research in databases.
Firstly, identify your major concepts. A good way to do this is to write out the question you want to answer and choose 2 - 5 words from it that best encompass what you need to get to that answer, or imagine you are trying to explain your query to someone else in 5 words or less (without using 'a', 'the', 'I', etc.) -- what words would make it clear to them what your research aims to do?
Once you have done that, start finding synonymous terms for the 2 - 5 keywords you have selected. You can use a thesaurus to help you do this, or start some preliminary research to see what terms are associated with your question.
Here is an example:
What impact have international student policies had on the availability of affordable housing in Canada?
|
"international students" |
availability accessibility attainability obtainability |
affordable |
housing |
Canada |
Now that you have come up with some keywords, it's time to test them. Choose one keyword from each part of the list to come up with a search statement using the Boolean operator AND to make sure that all your keywords are mentioned.
Here are some examples:
"international students" AND availability AND low-cost AND residence AND Canad*
"foreign students" AND accessibility AND affordable AND accommodation AND Canad*
"overseas students" AND obtainability AND cheap AND residence AND Canad*
Depending on the quality of the results you get, you can continue to mix and match keywords, adding more if you are getting too many results and removing some if you are not getting enough.
If you are searching in a database, check what subject headings your most relevant results are filed under and try incorporating those in your searches. Once you've done that, you can continue to try new search string combinations.
Why use quotation marks?
This is known as phrase searching. By putting your words in quotations, it means that it will search those words together. For example, let's say you want to find information about influencer marketing. If you simply search influencer marketing as is, it will show you results that have those words anywhere in the text. If you search "influencer marketing", it will only show you results where that exact phrase appears.
Searching without quotation marks.
Searching with quotation marks.
Why use 'AND' and 'OR' between words?
These are Boolean operators. You can learn more about their functions on our Boolean operators and wildcards page.
Why use an asterisk (*) at the end of a word?
This is known as truncation. You can learn more about its function on our Boolean operators and wildcards page.