Keywords are words or phrases which best describe the main ideas of your research topic/question. Before you start searching, it's helpful to brainstorm and make a list of keywords which you can use. You can combine these keywords and perform different searches on the library website, databases, and Google.
Authors and subject experts may use different words, terms, or phrases to describe your topic. You may not have the best keywords for your topic when you begin searching. As you continue to do different searches, you'll discover more keywords within the sources in your search results. These can include words which are related to your topic, synonyms for your topic, and words subject experts use to describe your topic. Take note of these new terms since you can use them to search your topic.
Step 1: Let's start by figuring out the main ideas or concepts of our research question:
| Concept 1 | Concept 2 | Concept 3 |
| lack of sleep | college students | academic performance |
Step 2: Since authors may use different words and phrases to describe our research topic, let's think of other keywords we can use. This can include synonyms and related terms for the research topic.
| Concept 1 | Concept 2 | Concept 3 |
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Step 3: Now that we have a list of keywords, we can create different searches that we can try on Library Search. For example:
| Keywords | |
| Search 1 |
"sleep deprivation" college students grades |
| Search 2 | "sleep deprivation" college students academic performance |
| Search 3 | sleeplessness "higher education" students grades |