Searching for the Right Terms: The Keywords

Part III: Communicating with Journal Editors: Submission, Acceptance, Revision and Rejection – Chapter 6

6.2.3 Searching for the Right Terms: The Keywords

For such a small part of your paper, the keywords pack a very large punch and in today’s world of digital publication in which journal articles are available worldwide via the internet, some might argue that a paper’s keywords are even more important than a paper’s title. In one sense, perhaps they are: certainly, it is easier to include in the keywords the terms you think readers are likely to use when searching for information on the topics covered in your paper because that’s precisely why the keywords are included and there’s no need to join them syntactically into the logical sense one expects of a title. However, your title is also a tool for facilitating your readers’ successful discovery of your article once it’s published and available online, and so is your abstract: by embedding keywords in your title and abstract you increase your readers’ ability to find them via those keywords, and in your abstract in particular you have a lot of room to include essential terms through which your potential readers might search for information of the very kind that your paper presents. So choose the words you use in your abstract and title with the same care and eye to searchability as you do the keywords themselves.

The number of keywords recommended or allowed is almost always indicated in journal guidelines, with three usually being the minimum and five to eight the maximum. Some journals will want you to list your keywords alphabetically, separate them with commas or semi-colons, use an initial capital on each term or not, and otherwise format them in particular ways, so consult the instructions before finalising your list. Acronyms are usually acceptable as keywords, especially if the acronym is well known or is likely to be used as a search word by the readers you’re targeting, but connective words (e.g., ‘and,’ ‘or,’ ‘between,’ etc.) are often frowned upon because they serve little purpose and can vary considerably in the phrases used as search tools, which means that they can potentially hinder instead of helping potential readers when they are searching for papers just like yours. By choosing appropriate keywords and using them effectively in other parts of your paper, you increase the possibility of your paper being more widely read and cited and thus increase your chances of achieving the effect you would wish for your article. At the same time, you help increase the readers and ratings of the journal that has published your paper, which makes for a win-win situation (see also Section 2.1.2 above).