Copy of Template: Course Guides: BIO 111

How Can I Use This?

Learning to brainstorm keywords leads to better searches, which allows you to find what you need more quickly and more efficiently. 

To start your research paper, you need to begin looking for sources. For an effective search, you need to use keywords, which are the building blocks of academic searching. There are two steps to good keyword formation:

• Pinpoint the main concepts that compose your question
• Expand each of those terms by brainstorming synonyms, related words and/or variant spellings 

Example: Adding 3 hours of red light a day to a radish seed will increase the germination rate by 3%.

What are the main concepts?

• Radish 
• Germination
• Light

What are similar/related concepts/words?

• Radish
  • Vegetable
  • Raphanus sativus
• Light
  • Light Spectrum
  • Red Light
  • Darkness (lack of light)

For AI-embracing courses (always check your syllabi statements on academic integrity and ask your professor directly) you can use ChatGPT or similar AIs to help you brainstorm. Here is an example prompt to get you started:

Act like an expert biologist in the field researching radish germination as the independent variable and light as the dependent variable. You are conducting your own experiments with varying degrees of light to see how they affect radish seed germination rates. You need to find the best keywords to use in a database to support your research, so that you are finding relevant articles about each of your variables (radish, germination, light). Skim relevant open access articles for their author-supplied keywords and compile a list of 20 possible keywords and search strategies to use in a library database. Ask me for clarification before you begin.

BOOLEANS

The way you combine your keywords in the databases will determine how the database searches for your terms. We recommend:

• One idea per search box
  • E.g., radish in the first box
  • E.g., germination in the second box
  • E.g., your independent variable in the second box, light or soil or water...etc.
• Use the Subjects List to assess the words biology researchers are using when studying your variables to improve your search results
  • E..g, Raphanus sativus is the scientific name for radish
    • E.g., go back to the first search box and type radish or raphanus sativus 
  • Repeat this process with each variable in separate search boxes
• Use quotations for phrases
  • E.g., "Red Light" 
• Use * for words that have multiple endings
  • E.g., germinat* will search for the following ways to capture the idea of germination
    • germination
    • germinating
    • germinated