When you have defined your search topic, you then list key concepts and words describing your topic. You can do, for example, a mind map which helps you better understand the relationships between concepts/words and thus your topic as a whole. Good search terms are crucial for successful information searching, so take your time when planning your terms.
You can search for information with any term describing your topic that you can think of and thus utilize the latest terminology within the field. Use also reference books, theoretical literature, specialized dictionaries and articles to get ideas for search terms. You can search in different databases with these terms but sometimes the number of search results might be very high and many of them irrelevant.
It is good to use also subject terms when searching for information. Materials in databases are described with subject terms that are taken from controlled vocabularies. In these controlled vocabularies, a certain term with a certain wording is used to describe a singular phenomenon. When you search with the same subject terms that have been used to describe the material, you get less search results and they are more relevant.
Controlled vocabularies are often database-specific. You should check if the database has its own controlled vocabulary and use the subject terms in that vocabulary to search in that database. If you cannot find your search term in the vocabulary at all, it usually leads to the preferred term, i.e., the subject term. In databases, controlled vocabularies are called Thesaurus, Subject Headings, Subject Terms or Subjects.
Controlled vocabularies list broader, narrower and related concepts for the subject term. These concepts are other subject terms connected to the same subject matter and illustrate the relationships between different terms. Controlled vocabularies can thus help you understand your search topic better and come up with new search terms.
You can translate search terms to different languages with, for example, MOT or other dictionaries. Take also into consideration abbreviations, and utilize a thesaurus to look for synonyms. Different AI language models, like ChatGPT and Copilot, can be used to brainstorm new search terms as well.