Keywords are the most important words in a research topic, statement or question and the terms most effective for searching in databases. To develop keywords: 

Define Your Topic

Topic ideas can come from a range of places. The assignment itself (always the best place to start), issues within your prospective field/career, or books, articles, websites, podcasts you have read/ listened to lately. Try using a process called 'Mind Mapping' to help get you started, you can use a piece of paper or the attached fillable form to work through the following steps:

3. Define your topic in one or two sentences. EXAMPLE: You read an article about online health check-ups becoming increasingly popular, but the article raised some questions for you about the quality of online medical care. You want to investigate how effective these appointments are for patients; a topic sentence may be "Effectiveness of online health checkups". 

4. Write down terms associated with the topic. EXAMPLE: You review the article and note that the author describes the movement with the terms "tele-health" and "tele-medicine" etc. 

5. Write down the people and populations who are impacted by your topic. EXAMPLE: Telehealth effectiveness would impact a range of populations including medical staff, patients such as seniors, low-income rural populations 

6. Write down the field(s) that may be researching your own topic or question. EXAMPLE: Researchers in the health sciences as well as information technology and software designers creating platforms for tele-health appointments, both perspectives could help you gain insight into this topic. 

Search in a library databases from the A to Z list using the keywords you developed.