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UGS 302: ACEs and the Power of Connection / Hermosura

Finding journal articles using keywords

How to mine articles for keywords

It can be very difficult to brainstorm keywords about a topic. Why? Usually it's because you are not an expert. You don't know how experts are talking about a topic.

Use the record for an article, when available. You will see subject terms/keywords and you can use the abstract.

I pay attention to unfamiliar terms.

I pay attention to things that are measurable. Researchers base conclusions on things they measure.

Discovering search terms in this way gives us a good chance of finding like articles.

use the subject terms in the article record to mine keywords

Search Strategy

Main idea / ACE

 Group impacted How impact is measured Geography
adverse childhood experience sexual minority suicid* US
divorce (or some other specific ACE) queer depression United States
  lgbtq suicide ideation  
  gay mental health  

Take a moment to brainstorm keywords based on your developing ideas about your topic. The point is to open up your thinking and to be flexible.

Now try translating into a search. Below:

  • I am being broad and looking for perspectives pertaining to ACEs, but I could try a specific one
  • suicid* - the asterisk * allows me to search all possible endings (suicide, suicidal, suicidality)
  • my population is talked about in many ways that reflect how a term is used in different fields and at different times
  • I can keep adding lines or more words on each line separate by OR (suicid* or depression or mental health)

Open in new tab to view larger.

adverse childhood experience and gay or queer or lgbtq or sexual minority and suicid*

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