Q: How to choose keywords for my manuscript

Most academic journals, search engines, and indexing & abstracting services classify papers using keywords. Choosing the right keywords will help make you paper searchable, thus helping  other researchers find your paper when they are conducting a search on the same topic.

Some journals specify that the keywords should not overlap with the title. However, if your journal has no such specifications, there is no harm in using relevant words or phrases from the title as keywords. In fact, sometimes, using relevant descriptive phrases from the title can help increase your paper's visibility in article searches due to the algorithm used by many search engines. 

Here are some tips to help you choose effective keywords:

Here are a few tips that will help you create relevant and effective keywords for your paper:

1. Think from the point of view of the reader. What keywords would the reader search for that would help retrieve your article?

2. Keywords should ideally be phrases of 2-4 words; single word keywords are acceptable, but they may lead to many false matches.

3. Keywords should contain words and phrases that suggest what the topic is about. Also include words and phrases that are closely related to your topic. (For example, if the paper is about heart diseases, use words like stroke, circulatory system, blood, etc.

4. Also use variant terms or phrases that readers are likely to use (For example, if the paper is about spine disorders, use words like spinal cord, vertebral column, backbone, etc.)

5. The full forms of shortened words or acronyms and abbreviations should be included as well.

Recommended reading:

• Why do journals ask for keywords