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CA 500: Foundations of Graduate Study in Communication: How to Create Search Terms

This guide was designed to support CA 500 at USA.

How to Search a Database

A database is a collection of academic journals that can all be searched at one time. To see a list of suggested databases and examples of database search pages, please visit the Finding Articles page of this guide.

Databases are searched by submitting search queries. Search queries are singular search terms or combinations of search terms. Search terms are words or phrases that relate to your research question. They are often important nouns in your research question. You can also use synonyms or related terms.

Using Your Research Question to Make Search Terms

A database is searched by entering search terms. A database doesn't understand questions, so you will need to break your research question down into usable search terms (and synonyms for those search terms).

Example research question:

How does the type of content (video, image, text) shared by influencers affect consumer engagement?

  • We identify the keywords in our research question. Keywords are usually important nouns.
    • influencers
    • "consumer engagement"
    • video content
    • image content
    • text content
  • We write out our keywords and list synonyms or terms that generally mean the same thing.
    • influencers - "social media influencers" or "trendsetters" or "content creator"
    • "consumer engagement" - "customer engagement" "consumer behavior" or "marketing effectiveness"

Tricks for Choosing Search Terms

Using Your Research Question

Turn your research question into search terms.

  1. Write out your research question. How do short-term employment contracts affect hospital healthcare workers' mental well-being?
  2. Identify the important words or terms. Look at the nouns that specify the scope of your topic. 
    1. What people? Contract healthcare workers
    2. Where? Hospitals
    3. What kind of issue? Mental health
  3. Write out each important word/term. List synonyms or terms that have the same feel.

Using an Article You Like

Look at that article's keywords. Keywords are usually written underneath the article's listing in your search results. 

Different databases use different keywords. By reusing the keywords, you are learning to speak that database's "language".

Using Search Suggestions

Some databases will give you suggestions for search terms when you start typing in a search box. These are terms that the database absolutely recognizes. 

Sometimes, the suggestions will be several terms in the same text box, all separated by the Boolean Operator or. This means that the search engine will search for all those terms at once.

Always check before you select a string of terms. Some of the terms might not be equivalent for your specific research topic!