Comp 101 Fall 2025: Building a Research Strategy

1. Break your topic into concepts (subjects). These concepts will form the building blocks of your search strategy.

Why just the keywords?

• When you search the database, you are often searching the words in the Title and Abstract, not the full-text article.
• The database will word-match your keywords against the author's words in the title & abstract and deliver only results that match what you enter.
• The Title and Abstract are written by the author of the article. 
• Long phrases or sentences will confuse the database and lead to disappointing or NO results. 
• Pick out the words (KEYWORDS) that indicate the main points of your topic. 

Tips:

• Good research topics usually contain 2-4 concepts. 
• Topics with one concept will usually retrieve way too many results.
• Topics with too many concepts may limit your results too much.

2. Identify alternative words or phrases (synonyms) for each keyword and make a list. Databases look for the exact words and phrases you type in, so if the author uses a different word (synonym) to describe a concept, you will not see that article in your results.

In addition to synonyms, be creative and think of: 

• Related Words
• Spelling Variations (especially American vs British, for example anesthesia or anaesthesia)
• Acronyms (also spell out the phrase)
• Brand and generic drug names
• Plural and Singular variations
• Narrower Terms
• Broader Terms

Things to consider:

• Ask yourself, "What other words could the author use to describe this concept?
• Be careful with phrases. If you search with a phrase, think of alternative ways to describe the phrase and search with that as well.
• Not familiar with a topic? Having trouble thinking of synonyms?  Browse Credo Reference for background information and alternative search terms.

Here is the beginning of a list for our research question

Increased rates of mental health concerns in higher education