Keywords are the words used in an article title, abstract, or other text field in a database. Keyword searching, or natural language searching, is how most people search for information and is often sufficient. One drawback of searching with keywords is that the words that you use must match the terms used by an author.
To remedy this problem, a complete keyword search strategy will include multiple spellings and synonyms that represent the concept. Keyword searching is also useful when attempting to identify literature that may not have been indexed with controlled vocabulary terms, for any variety of reasons.
Start by keeping a list in a document.
It's important to give a lot of thought to this step. If an important article uses a word that you didn't use in your search, you won't find it. Think of how the topic is talked about in its field, by its practitioners and experts.
Open up a Word document, get a blank sheet of paper, or use the document you started in the previous exercise. Write down some thoughts on the following prompts: