Getting Started with Research: Keywords

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When you search in academic databases including MCC Library OneSearch, keywords give you the best search results. Next time you search, instead of typing in a long phrase such as "all the research that shows evidence to prove there's no life on the moon,"  try keywords.

A better search about lunar life would use keywords and look like this:

"life on the moon" and research

• Change your research question into keywords or search words, like this:
  Question: Is there any connection between legal drinking age and crime rates?
   
• Choose a few important words as your initial search words: drinking age, crime 
   
• To find many forms of a search word, for example to find crime or crimes or criminal, use an * after the beginning of the word (this is called truncation): crim* (will find crime, crimes, criminal but also Crimea, so think about the possibilities when you use truncation)
   
• Use  "   "  to keep words together as a phrase: "drinking age" 
   
• Link your terms with AND to find articles that mention all of your search words, Link them with OR to find any of a list of similar words, putting those words inside parentheses (  ):
  
  "drinking age" and (crim* or violen* or felon* or misdemeanor*)