Identifying Key Concepts
How do we find great search terms? The first step is to identify the key concepts in your research question. Knowing the key concepts will help you come up with other words to choose from, like synonyms and narrower and broader terms. Key concepts are usually 2-4 words or phrases and mostly include nouns and verbs.
Look at these examples of key concepts found in research questions:
| What are the motivations for doping in professional baseball? |
| motivations |
doping |
professional baseball |
| Why is college so expensive in the United States? |
| college |
expensive |
United States |
If you're using Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo or another internet search engine, it's okay to type in your whole question, like this:
But when you use library databases, you will get MUCH better results if you only enter the key concepts, like this:
Watch the video below for tips on identifying key concepts.