It can be difficult to differentiate between text words and subject terms. Think about the following statements and whether they are correct or not. Afterwards, you can click on the boxes to see the correct answers.

1. Subject terms are a database’s own terms for various themes.

Solution

This is correct.

2. There are subject terms for all themes, and I should only use subject terms in my search.

Solution

This is wrong. Some themes are too narrow to have their own subject terms. New fields of research may not yet have subject terms. You should always combine text words and subject terms in your searches.

3. If I search for a subject term, I don’t need to search for the same thing as a text word.

Solution

Wrong. Subject terms are not flawless. A relevant article may be tagged with a more specific subject term than what you have searched for, or it may be too new to have subject terms yet. You should always combine text words with subject terms to find as much relevant research as possible.

4. When I search for a text word, I automatically also search amongst subject terms.

Solution

Often wrong. This varies between databases, but in most databases you do not search in the subject terms when searching for text words. As a general rule, text words elicit hits in the title, abstract, and author’s own keywords of a text, while searching for subject terms must be done explicitly and consciously.