Keywords are the search terms that you type into the library database; the words keywords and search terms are often used interchangeably.

Your first set of keywords will come from your research question. These are typically the nouns in your question that represent your main concepts.

As you are brainstorming for synonyms, also think of related terms. For example, “clean air” and “air pollution” are not synonyms but are related terms that can be used to locate resources on the same topic. If you don't have a research question, think about what terms represent or are associated with your topic or area of interest.  

Brainstorming additional keywords is not always easy, so identifying the terminology used by scholars and authors writing about your topic can be useful. You can do this by: 

• doing background reading on your topic inWikipedia or inCredo Reference, a library database that contains thousands of encyclopedias and dictionaries.
• conducting a few preliminary test searches in alibrary database orGoogle Scholar. Read through the search results and take note of the terminology used in article titles and summaries.