First Year Students' Guide to UW Libraries

What is a keyword?

• A keyword is an informative word used to describe the content of a document. 
• For example, keywords are words/phrases you can put into a search bar that will pull up books, articles, and other library resources with content relevant to the entered word/phrase.

The hardest part about doing research can be identifying keywords for your keyword searches in the library catalog and in databases. Here are some tips for the following disciplines:

1. Political Science

• If you are looking for information about a specific court case, law, or other government document, try searching for the specific identifier for that government resource. For example, Roe v. Wade has a specific citation of 410 US 113 (1973). 

2. Sociology or Criminal Justice

• For sociology or criminal justice, it can be difficult to identify which keywords are being used in the field. Consider synonyms for each of your main search terms if you are struggling to find articles.
• For example, for "safety", consider also trying "violence", "fear", "security", and/or "crime".

3. Anthropology

• Depending on the time period you are researching, you will need to understand the language and terms of archaeological dig sites and search those names to find helpful articles.