Keyword vs. Subject Searches – Differences and Advantages
Keyword Searches
- Broad – searches the entire document for a match
- Uses any terms you feel best describes your topic (Hint: to find keywords, write a sentence that describes what your topic is. Underline just the keywords in the sentence. Use those words in your search.)
- Can result in too many, too few or irrelevant articles.
- Can be used to identify subject headings.
Subject Searches
- Narrow – searches only the subject field in the document record.
- Subjects are assigned to a document from a list to provide consistency. This is referred to a controlled vocabulary. Each database has their own controlled vocabulary.
- Results are fewer and more relevant to your topic.
TIP: Use both keyword and subject searches for better results.
- Start with a keyword search.
- Review the results for a relevant document and check for subject headings that are suitable to your topic. (HINT: Subject headings can also be called “descriptors” or “terms”.)
- Now try another search using the subject heading.
