Keywords are terms that come from the main ideas in a research statement or question. They can be used as powerful tools when searching in databases and on the internet.
Sometimes it's easy to look at your research question and see which words will become your keywords. For example, in the previous activity, one of the research statements was "Scientists should stop animal testing because there are alternatives they can use." Three of the main ideas in this statement are scientists, animal testing, and alternatives, and all of those would be good keywords to use.
On the other hand, a statement like "Banning books harms our country because a democracy depends on freethinking and well-informed citizens" is more complicated. You can search for harms our country or freethinking and well-informed citizens, but those may not be the exact terms that will help you find sources. Sometimes you need to brainstorm additional keywords that will lead you to the right sources.
We'll use the last research statement as our example for this lesson: "Cities need more funding for mass transportation systems to improve the quality of life of citizens." Fill out this form to brainstorm keywords and create a search strategy.
