When choosing the keywords and title for your article, remember that these portions highly determine the find-ability of your article. In other words, your work will appear higher in the search results when your keywords are found multiple times (keywords, title, abstract).
Keywords Tips
- If you know your article will be indexed in a specific database, then look to see if that database utilizes subject headings (controlled vocabulary) to categorize the indexed articles and consider for keywords.
- What are the most used keywords or concepts of your field? Use those if appropriate.
- Repeat your selected keywords in your abstract and/or title, if journal allows.
- What keywords were used in the articles you are referencing and consider relevant? Use those if appropriate.
- Run a search with you keywords. Will readers find your article searching these keywords?
- Librarians are REALLY good at identifying keywords so feel free to reach out to your subject librarian.
Title Tips
- Titles that are catchy tend to be cited more often than boring titles.
- Be concise (10-12 words) that contains your keywords.
- Avoid lesser known acronyms and jargon. Avoid abbreviations, if possible. Remember, your article may have a wider audience than you may think.