Identify keywords to search
Why should you search using keywords? Well, let's say this is your topic:
How effective are Arizona's highway underpasses at helping elk cross highways safely?
Your goal is to find sources that will help you answer that question. So, what are the fewest, most essential keywords you could pull from that question to find relevant sources? Let's make it really hard and say you can ONLY pick three keywords. Which three would YOU pick? Take a moment to think about it. Then check your answer in the paragraph that follows.
Any source that contains the words Arizona underpasses elk is probably going to be about elk using underpasses in Arizona, right?
Think about it: you don't really need to add in other words from your topic like effective, helping, and safely. After all, why would anyone write about elk and underpasses unless they are discussing how effectively the underpasses are working, right?
If you don't get it, don't worry. There's more explanation below to help it sink in.
WHY search using the minimal number of essential keywords?
Answer: Because databases are stupid and need your help. If you enter your whole topic as a sentence (How effective are Arizona's highway underpasses at helping elk cross highways safely) you are telling the database that you ONLY want sources that have every single one of the following words:
how
effective
are
Arizona's
highway
underpasses
at
helping
elk
cross
highways
safely
But, most of those words aren't really important are they? For example, how, are, and at are especially irrelevant. Plus, any article about elk and underpasses is probably going to be about safety and/or effectiveness anyway – so, those two words are not relevant.
Ok, but what harm is done when you add a few more keywords in? Does it really matter? IT DOES.
Why? Because most databases will process your search by looking for sources that have every single word you entered in the search box. If you enter an entire sentence, the database will only retrieve results that contain every word in that sentence. The database might not be able to find ANY results that contain every word you entered, or very few results.
Take this article title, for example:
Protecting Arizona's elk from traffic collisions: The utility and value of underpasses
It looks great, doesn't it? Right on topic! But if you enter your topic into a database as a full sentence, then you are asking the database to search for articles that have all these words: How effective are Arizona's highway underpasses at helping elk cross highways safely. Notice that article doesn't have some of the words you entered into your search, such as: effective, highway, helping, cross, highways, or safely. So, the database is not going to retrieve that article and you'll never be aware of its existence. Sad.
Again, most databases retrieve exactly what you ask them to retrieve, word for word. Too bad you told the database to retrieve articles with all the words in your topic sentence. You've missed out on an article that looks reeealllllly good.
On the other hand, when you use the minimal number of essential keywords that represent your topic, like Arizona, elk, and underpasses, you are giving databases the freedom to retrieve a larger number of relevant results - and then, from those results, you can choose the best ones!
Ok, but let's say you didn't search an entire sentence but instead picked out fewer keywords to search like: how effective are underpasses elk in Arizona.
Now you've got the most important keywords plus just a few extraneous ones. Won't that work? Sure, it'll work better than using an entire sentence, but it still won't be as effective as trimming your topic down to the fewest, most essential keywords.
You might be thinking: "But I search Google and Google Scholar with sentences and phrases all the time and it works just fine."
Yes, it mostly does work okay, because these databases are different from most library databases, which will try to look for every word you entered into the search box.
When Google or Google Scholar processes your search, these databases will attempt to identify and remove non-essential words for you. But, they don't always do a great job of it. Since you are smarter than these databases, it's better if you tell them which keywords are essential, rather than letting Google/Google Scholar try to guess at it for you.
To see why, take a look at the search in Google Scholar shown to the left, in which this search was entered:
how effective are underpasses elk in Arizona
In the very first result you can see that Google Scholar decided that the word how was important to look for (indicated by the word being in bold). In the second result, it found How as an author's last name.
This is why you should search using the fewest, most essential keywords, and not include extraneous words like the word how.
QUESTION 1. You'll get more familiar with Google Scholar on the next page of this lesson, but try Google Scholar now to see whether minimal keywords retrieve better results. Open three tabs for Google Scholar and run the three different searches shown below, then compare the results. Which search retrieves the most relevant results that are directly related to elk and underpasses?
A. how effective are Arizona's highway underpasses at helping elk cross highways safely
B. how effective are underpasses elk in Arizona
C. Arizona elk underpasses
(Answer at bottom of page.)QUESTION 2. You'll get more familiar with Quick Search on the next page of this lesson, but try Quick Search now just to see how keyword searching works. Suppose you were researching this topic: What is the role of race in America's recent opioid epidemic? Open two tabs for Quick Search and run the two different searches shown below, then compare the results. Which search retrieves the best set of results?
A role of race in America's recent opioid epidemic
B. race opioid epidemic
(Answer at bottom of page.)It's pretty typical for students to enter a search that includes the most essential keywords that capture their topic, but then fail to trim down the search so it ONLY contains the most essential keywords. For example, in the question above, the research topic is: What is the role of race in America's recent opioid epidemic?
Many novice searchers would enter a search like role of race in opioid epidemic to find sources on this topic, even though that search includes unnecessary words. A much better search would be race opioid epidemic – and this is how experts would search this topic.
Now that you know that, how do YOUR keyword searching habits compare to how an expert would search? Do you make a habit of trimming your topic down to the fewest, most essential keywords?
QUESTION 3. Get some practice identifying the fewest, most essential keywords. Here is your topic: How is forest fragmentation affecting bird populations in the Amazon? Of the choices provided below, which has the fewest, most essential keywords you'd need to search in order to retrieve articles on that topic?
A. birds
B. populations Amazon
C. birds affecting Amazon
D. bird populations Amazon
E. forest fragmentation birds Amazon
F. forest fragmentation affecting birds Amazon
G. how is forest fragmentation affecting bird populations in the Amazon
(Answer at bottom of page.)Is there always one right answer for which keywords best represent your topic?
No, there can be ambiguity and you may need to experiment with different searches to see what works best. Take, for example, our elk topic:
How effective are Arizona's highway underpasses at helping elk cross highways safely?
It turns out that both of the pared-down keyword searches below will retrieve good results:
Arizona underpasses elk
Arizona highways elk
So, just note that sometimes there's more than one good set of essential keywords. The best thing to do is experiment and get practice!
And another thing – experiment with synonyms.
You've just learned you should search using the minimal number of essential keywords that represent your topic. But, if any of your essential keywords have synonyms, you should try searching those too.
Ok. Wait. First you were told to use the FEWEST number of essential keywords, and now you are being told to use MORE?
Yes. After you've captured the gist of your topic with the fewest number of essential keywords, you'll need to think about whether some of those keywords might have synonyms. That's because authors of sources don't always use the same words when they are talking about the same thing.
Here is a quick example: Suppose you were looking for articles about elementary school students' attitudes toward climate change. Good keywords might be elementary school students climate change.
But, consider that elementary school students might also be referred to as primary school students or grade-school students. And, climate change is sometimes referred to as global warming. Get it? See why trying synonyms in your searches is important?
Don't databases know that you want to find synonyms and variations of the words you put into your search? Don't they use some sort of fuzzy-logic or what-have-you? No. Most databases only retrieve exactly what you ask them to retrieve, word for word. So, that's why you should experiment with synonyms.
Ok, but how do you find and use synonyms in your searches?
After you conduct a search, scan your results and keep your eyes peeled for synonyms. For example, if you were searching Google Scholar for Arizona elk underpasses, you might happen upon articles that use slightly different words or phrases that are similar to the concept of an underpass such as:
highway permeability
highway undercrossing
wildlife undercrossings
wildlife tunnels
highway crossings
So, in addition to your initial search on Arizona elk underpasses, you might want to experiment with some other searches like:
Arizona elk highway permeability
Arizona elk highway crossings
Arizona elk wildlife tunnels
Who knows? You might find better results than you did with the search you started with.
Another way to find synonyms is to use an online thesaurus or ask ChatGPT for ideas for synonyms!
Let's quickly look at one more example. Remember in Question 2 (above) you looked at this topic: What is the role of race in America's recent opioid epidemic? Well, here are some synonyms or related words and phrases for race, opioid, and epidemic that would be worth experimenting with:
race - racial, minority, minorities
opioid - prescription painkillers
epidemic - crisis, misuse, overdose, abuse
FYI - The whole point of using synonyms is not only that you might get BETTER results, but also that you might find MORE results. Why would you want to find MORE results? Isn't that just more work because then you'll have more results to look through? Yes, but sometimes it's REALLY important to be thorough.
Even though you may not need to do thorough searches in college to make good grades on your assignments, it's likely you'll need know how to conduct thorough searches once you are employed in your chosen career.
QUESTION 4. It's pretty important to find and search synonyms when the research you are conducting needs to be thorough. Which of the TWO employment scenarios below would require a thorough search?
A. You work for a small company, and your boss has asked you to find out how other small to medium-sized companies are implementing policies to support work-life balance, and which policies are the most common.
B. You write for travel magazine and your next piece will feature national parks in Arizona. You need a list of Arizona's national parks.
C. You work with the Forest Service and you've been asked to find the most effective ways to monitor and measure the impacts of wildfire on biodiversity in ponderosa pine forests.
D. You are writing a grant to get funding for a mental health clinic. To make your case, you need to find the population of your city to show how many people might benefit from the clinic.
(Answer at bottom of page.)One last thing to consider....
If you are looking for scholarly sources, then you'll have better luck if you use scholarly keywords. Here are a couple of examples:
If your topic involves teens, first try searching words like adolescent or juvenile as a keywords, then maybe try teenager or young adult.
If your topic involves looking at what foods skunks eat, you'll probably have better luck searching scholarly-sounding words like diet or forage instead of eat or food.