The first place to find search terms is in your research question. You want your search terms to be as concise as possible.

Question:  What is the current best thinking on granting homosexuals the legal right to adopt?

Search Terms: homosexuals, adoption, law

In order to use these terms effectively, you may need to use certain search techniques to get the results you want.

For example, a Boolean search using "and" looks like this:

Search:  homosexuals and adoption and law

Any database or search engine will bring up only sources that have all three of those words.

Revising Your Search Terms

You may often find that you only locate a few items with your initial search terms and feel that there must be more information available.  If you use a variety of search terms, all of which represent your topic, you will identify many more of these items

The Signpost section on Try Synonyms might also help you with this skill.

Example:
1st search: athletes and grades
2nd search: athletes and (grades or academic achievement)

The best search terms to use are the official subject headings that are assigned to each article in a database. Each database company creates its own set of subject headings, so you need to look at a few articles in a database to determine the phrases or terms the creators have chosen to represent each topic.

Examples:

Alternative subject terms for gun control:
Academic Search Elite:
1. firearms -- laws & legislislation -- United States
ProQuest:
1. firearm laws & regulations
LegalTrac:
1. firearms industry -- litigation

Alternative subject terms for cloning:
Academic Search Elite:
1. stem cells -- moral & ethical aspects -- United States
2. medical ethics -- United States
ProQuest:
1. medical research
2. stem cells
Medline:
1.cloning, organism

Alternative subject terms for energy resources:
Academic Search Elite:
1. energy policy -- United States
2. power resources -- government policy -- United States
ProQuest:
1. energy efficiency
2. renewable resources
ERIC:
1. natural resources
>2. energy conservation

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