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Biology Research Tutorial
The Difference Between Keyword and Subject Searching

The following table provides a brief comparison of keyword searching vs. subject searching:

Keyword Searching
Subject Searching
  • Searches in any number of fields and/or the full text of documents
  • Searches only in the subject/descriptor field
  • Any significant words/phrases can be considered keywords
  • Search terms must come from the database's thesaurus
  • Number of items retrieved potentially large
  • Number of items retrieved potentially smaller
  • May retrieve irrelevant items
  • High degree of relevancy

Used with permission from Duke Libraries. (http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/key_searching.htm)

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