University Library
University Library
The keywords you come up with up yourself may not necessarily be the terms used in science. Subject databases use keyword lists from the academic field: key concepts. Take for example the following phrase: " Religious groups like to comfort ill people." Religious academics would replace the common term 'help' with the more relevant 'sensegiving'. Developing yourself as a reseacher means, besides many other things, that you get acquainted with the jargon in your field of research.
Remember, different databases use different keywords and truncation rules!
Rule of thumb: subject databases don’t all use the same keywords. It is always a good idea to check the database’s keyword list or a thesaurus. On the other hand, many databases will automatically recognize what you type, and provide you with alternatives. Also, you can check if the search terms you chose in your strategy match the keyword list.
When you are searching for relevant keywords, don't be satisfied too quickly. Also think of alternative terms, possible synonyms, opposites, etc. For instance:
To cover both plural and singular or different spellings, you may need to use special symbols to truncate a term or put in a wild card. Examples: organi?ation$ could mean organization, organizational, organizations or organisation, organisations, organisational. Check further explanation here. You may find different symbols in different databases. Therefore, check search tips in the database you are going to use which symbols apply.