How to choose effective keywords II
A student may ask us:
Should I use technical vocabulary in the keywords I choose?
We might reply:
If the academic research paper or thesis is about a technical subject, then it is appropriate to use technical vocabulary and terms as keywords. However, it is important to be sure that readers will be familiar with these terms.
The student might wonder:
How can I know if readers will be familiar with technical terms?
We might reply:
One way is to ask your ajarn’s opinion. Keep in mind that if any terms are Romanized from Thai language, it is especially important to use the standard or most common Romanizations, otherwise readers may have no idea of the meaning of words that are used. If a scientific term is so technical that almost no one knows what it means, then it may be too technical to use as a keyword.
The student’s next question might be:
Aren’t keywords chosen to help readers in my field of research, who are already familiar with all the vocabulary used in it?
We might add:
When a thesis or academic research paper is published, we can never know who might wish to read it in future. Since some of those readers might have general knowledge, but not experience in the exact field of research that the thesis or academic paper deals with, it is considered more polite to overexplain things, than to assume that everything is understood, when sometimes it is not.
The student may also ask:
In choosing my keywords, can I repeat terms that I used in the title of academic research paper or thesis?
Our reply:
Generally, this is fine, unless your faculty has issued guidelines that specifically discourage repeating any words from the title as keywords.
The student may next inquire:
At what stage of my research should I choose keywords? Should I wait until my thesis or academic research project is finished before I decide on them?
We may say:
It may be helpful to the research to identify keywords early in the writing process. It is always possible to add or delete keywords as the writing progresses. The point is that having keywords already highlighted, we may recall the main topics of the research and not get too far away from what is most important. Also, we may be reminded to include the subjects mentioned in the keywords throughout our thesis or research project.
The student may wonder:
Is there a list of keywords that I can look at to get some ideas?
Our answer:
Some examples of ProQuest subject categories include:
Aesthetics
Biblical studies
Canon law
Clergy
Comparative religion
Divinity
Epistemology
Ethics
Logic
Metaphysics
Pastoral counseling
Philosophy
Philosophy of religion
Philosophy of science
Religion
Religious history
Spirituality
Theology
If the question arises whether to use synonyms of certain words as keywords, we can reassure the student:
Using two or more words as keywords that mean the same thing may help readers locate our research after it is published. Since we cannot know in advance what keywords our potential readers may use to search for our work, we are being considerate by including one or more synonyms for the most important keywords we may choose.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)