Identify Your Keywords and Phrases (#9)

As part of your search plan you need to identify keywords and phrases that are related to your question. These are the search terms that you’ll use to search in the resources you’ve identified.

Keyword button linked to more buttons to represent keyword alternatives

Start with your question and identify the key words and phrases it contains. Then for each of those keywords / phrases try to think of synonyms or alternatives that mean the same thing.

You may have groups of keywords based around the different concepts within your question. So for example if your question is about medications suitable for elderly patients with high blood pressure, you will have a group of search terms for blood pressure medications, elderly people and high blood pressure.

The more search terms you use the more likely you are to identify all the information related to it, as different authors (of articles, reviews etc) may use different terms.

Try our etutorial Develop Your Search Terms to practice identifying search terms.