Keywords are the building blocks of research. However, finding ones that produce the kind of search results that you are looking for can be tricky. These questions can be helpful to think through these questions when developing keywords:
Like the research process, developing keywords is an iterative process, so don't panic if your first keywords don't produce the results that you were expecting.
Below are some resources from other libraries with further tips for developing keywords.
In addition to searching in Discovery and in different databases on your own, another search strategy for finding resources utilizes the information that you gather through that searching. Nearly all scholarly sources, and many other reputable sources of information, will include Works Cited, Reference, or Bibliography pages (some will also include footnotes or endnotes). These are treasure troves of likely relevant resources to your topic. This method of searching, referred to as Citation Chaining or Citation Mining, can also be useful for figuring out the prominent scholars in a particular field. Dissertations and theses can be excellent resources for Citation Mining because their bibliographies tend to be very through.
