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NROD98: Thesis in Neuroscience

A guide for advanced research projects and supervised studies for neuroscience students.

Keywords Matter

Ask yourself three questions:

  1. What is my topic?
  2. What are the key aspects of this topic?
  3. What are alternate keywords for each aspect?

Brainstorm keywords to use in your search. Pick words that represent each key aspect of your topic. This can be challenging. The same idea can be expressed in many ways. To ensure the best results when searching, brainstorm several keywords whenever possible.

Sample Topic: Drug Therapy Efficacy for Parkinson's Disease

Let's say you were interested in finding research articles on the efficacy of dopaminergic agonists vs. carbidopa/levodopa for treating Parkinson's disease. What are some keywords you could use?

Key concepts:

  • Parkinson's disease AND dopaminergic agonists AND carbidopa/levodopa

Related keywords/synonyms for each concept:

Parkinson's disease:

  • Parkinson disease

Dopaminergic agonists:

  • Dopamine agonist(s)
  • Dopamine receptor agonist(s)

Carbidopa / levodopa:

  • Lodosyn
  • L-dopa
  • Levocarb
  • Co-careldopa
  • Sinemet