Sample Focused Topic: How can stem cells be used in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease?
Concept one
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stem cells
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Concept two
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treatment
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Concept three
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Alzheimer’s disease
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II. Brainstorm synonyms for each concept.
When brainstorming synonyms, think about how other people might describe these concepts. What words would a reporter use? How about a scientist or doctor? Often using more scholarly terms will retrieve more scholarly resources. Think of exact synonyms, as well as slightly narrower (more specific) or broader (more general) terms.
III. Perform some keyword searches on your favorite databases to identify that database's vocabulary
This strategy allows you to work backwards: find relevant articles by performing a search using the terms you already know. Once you find some articles that are on topic, examine them to identify the subject terms/descriptors connected to these articles. This is an efficient way to figure out the "lingo" of any given database.