Having identified the meaning-bearing words, or the keywords from your research question, we will now take a closer look at how to transform them to good search terms. Sometimes it works fine to use your keywords as you did in your research question. But sometimes, different authors use different words about the same thing. And sometimes there are related concepts that might also be of relevance to your question. In this part you will learn more about using subject headings, also called controlled vocabulary, which is a powerful tool found in many databases. The subject headings will help you make more structured searches

Finding keywords

Please start by watching the following video where Erika will tell you more about the advantages of using subject headings.

Viewing time: 2:17 minutes

Transcript to the video Finding keywords

Use MeSH in order to build better PubMed search queries

Please watch the following video about using MeSH in order to build better PubMed search queries.

Viewing time: 5:18 minutes

LibGuides Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. (22 February 2021). This MeSH tutorial will dramatically improve your literature search on PubMed [Video]. (CC BY NC)