Finding the right search terms

Unfortunately, you won’t always have a complete reading list provided to help you find exactly the publications you need quickly and efficiently; often you have only the topic of a seminar paper and you have to find suitable literature on your own.

When searching for literature on a particular topic, it’s not just a matter of knowing where to look. A key factor in a successful search by topic is finding the most relevant search terms.

Let’s say the topic of your seminar paper is "Online marketing strategies". Think of the three search terms can be derived from this topic and compare it with the result below.

Here are some ideas for identifying related or alternative search terms:

• Synonyms: tourism, travel industry, vacation industry, visitor industry, tourist trade, tourist traffic
• Acronyms: TQM, Total Quality Management
• Singular / plural: woman, women
• Different spellings: organization, organisation
• Technical terminology / colloquial language: CPI, rate of price increases, inflation
• Regional differences: soccer, football

Create a list for the topic used here. Then compare it to the exemplary solution.

When you have defined a few search terms, you can start working on your search query.

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