Searching for topics requires using words or phrases to identify a specific topic. Any specific topic can be represented by more than one word or phrase. To find all (or as many) references for a specific topic requires using all (or as many) or the terms that are used to denote that topic.
After your topic has been analyzed and specified, it is time to describe the topic with search terms. Usually search terms are
When looking into the concepts and terminology of your research area, you can use articles, reference books, handbooks, dictionaries, controlled vocabularies etc. They may also include the terms' foreign counterparts. Handbooks and reference books include broad articles that give you a good basic idea of the topic. Not only can you find terminology in articles, but also different expressions and ways of writing the terms.
The following tools will help in most disciplines:
Many search engines ignore prepositions, conjunctions and other common "stop words" written in the search phrase, which usually have no relevance to the search results. A list of these words can be found in the database instructions as well as instructions on how to proceed if a stop word has to be included in the search, e.g. in a phrase.
With the "Keyword"-tool in Scopus you can view the subject terms given to documents in your list of references. In the example above, new search terms have been discovered about the environmental effects of plastic waste. Source: Scopus <www.scopus.com> 18.6.2018
