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Keywords
- Think of keywords as the main words that describe your topic. These can be people, places, themes, characters, time periods. Use keywords best describe your topic specifically; avoid using abstract words like influence, impression, concept, impact.
- Unlike Subject Headings which use a precise, controlled vocabulary, keywords are your own search terms that best express the essence of your topic.
- Keyword searches will retrieve items that might not have been discoverable by using only Subject Headings.
- Using keywords allows you to combine different concepts. Each concept is separated by AND (migration AND climate change).
- You can add synonyms and like terms to increase your search results (migration OR displacement)
- You can use the asterisk* symbol to include alternate endings to your root word: environment* will retrieve all records with the word environment, environments, environmental, environmentalist, and so forth.
- NOTE: using keywords will likely also bring up results that are completely off topic, so you will have to evaluate your results carefully.
Keyword Examples
- climate fiction
- clifi or cli-fi
- ecofiction
- imagination
- extinction
- speculative fiction
- environmental fiction
- apocalypse
- solarpunk
- drought
- fire
- flood
- climate justice
- africanfuturism
- climate change literature
- ecocritical literature
- anthropocene
- environmental storytelling
- speculative fiction
- climate crisis novels
- climate change narratives
- dystopian climate fiction