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Environmental Sciences: Find Articles

Environmental Science Databases

Getting Started: Choosing Keywords

The process of choosing keywords is important no matter what database you will use. Begin by breaking your research question into its component parts, and then brainstorm synonyms for each of those concepts. You may need to do some background research to find out basic information about the topic to figure out appropriate terms.

For example: 

How is climate change affecting the health of deciduous trees in the Pacific Northwest? 

May expand to the following in a search: 

Climate change OR global warming 

deciduous trees

health OR phenology

"Pacific Northwest" OR Washington OR Oregon

Advanced search in library catalog shows keywords in different search boxes, connected by "AND."

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