Searching by Keyword

Keyword searching is a powerful search method, but it requires an understanding of some important principles and techniques to be used effectively.

Since keyword searches are free text (i.e., they find any term anywhere in a record), they must be used carefully. A keyword search in a database with records that have large free text fields (such as lengthy abstracts or the full text of an article) may result in your search terms being used in contexts other than what you might anticipate, resulting in irrelevant hits.

Even with this limitation, however, the flexibility of the keyword search can easily overcome this potential hazard. Using search operators (also called Boolean operators), you can limit your search results to only those records that match multiple criteria, such as several topics, a particular author, a year or range of years, a specific publisher or publication, and more.

Keyword searching and search operators are available in nearly all electronic databases, so learning how they operate is essential for taking full advantage of the capabilities of this search method.