Imagine you’re gathering research on 'quantum computing' for a literature review. You would want the most comprehensive search to retrieve all the relevant information. But what if you missed critical content because your query overlooked an important subject or term?

Sometimes, the search terms we use don’t retrieve all the information for our topics of research. Content may use different subjects or terminology than what you referenced in your query. But if you don’t know these terms, how can you find the best research?

The answer is query expansion.

EBSCO uses query expansion to help users find more relevant results without having to know all the different subjects and equivalencies for their research topics.This is made possible by the EBSCO Unified Subject Index, or USI knowledge graph, which maps all equivalent subject terms from publishers, national libraries, linked data, and users’ natural language. 

When conducting a search in EBSCO Discovery Service or EBSCOhost, the USI query expansion searches hundreds of thousands of subject terms, and their equivalent natural language counterparts in over 280 languages and dialects, to surface content you might have missed. By casting a wider net to retrieve the most relevant and comprehensive results, USI query expansion gives you confidence that you didn’t miss anything in your search.

So the next time you're researching, take advantage of the EBSCO USI query expansion to help you get the best results, regardless of your background, language, or field of study.