The University of Manitoba campuses are located on original lands of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Ojibwe-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and on the National Homeland of the Red River Métis. More
Subject headings are specific terms or phrases that describe the content of each item in a database. These headings are used to find relevant articles on the same topic. Searching by subject headings (a.k.a. MeSH or descriptors) is the most precise way to search article databases.
It is not easy to guess which subject headings are used in a given database. You might have to find what term is used for a subject first before using it, for example do you use "Stroke" or "Cerebrovascular Accident?"
Keyword searching is how you typically search web search engines. Think of important words or phrases and type them in to get results.
Here are some key points about each type of search:
| Subject Headings | vs | Keywords |
|---|---|---|
|
pre-defined specific words used to describe the content of each item (book or journal article) in a database, this is also know as a controlled vocabulary |
natural language words describing your topic good to start with |
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less flexible to search by - need to know the exact controlled vocabulary term |
more flexible to search by - can combine together in many ways |
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database looks for subjects only in the subject heading or descriptor field, this is the part of the record that only lists subject headings/descriptors |
database looks for keywords anywhere in the record - not necessarily connected together |
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| subheadings may be available to focus on one aspect of the broader subject headings |
may yield too many or too few results |
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|
results usually very relevant to the topic |
results usually very relevant to the topic |