LibAnswers

Selecting keywords and MeSH terms is one of the most important parts of the research process. By picking out the best terms, you are telling the database what you need it to search.  Reading journal articles on your topic and reading PubMed records are effective ways to find keywords and MeSH terms.

Keywords:

• Determine what YOU think are the most important words in your research questions.  What should the database care about? 

• The terms the author uses within the article and abstract. 

• The easiest way to determine keywords is to select the most important nouns.

• It is important to think of synonyms or alternative ways to refer to your keywords.  Authors may use different terms or spell concepts differently.

 MeSH:

• MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) is the NLM-controlled vocabulary thesaurus used for indexing PubMed citations.

• Use the MeSH database to search for proper terms

BOOLEAN:

Create your search by combining your keywords & index terms using Boolean Operators - AND, OR, NOT

• AND is used to narrow your search.  Results will contain both concepts.

• OR is used to expand your search.  Results will return either term.

• NOT will limit your search.  Results will exclude a keyword.

EXAMPLE: 

Use parenthesis to combine all your search terms with Boolean to create search strings.  These are what the database will use to search.

• OR should go between synonyms

• AND should combine groups of synonyms.

•  Search strings using PICO may look like: (P OR P OR P) AND (I OR I OR I) AND (C OR C OR C) AND (O OR O OR O)