Search Terms
Subject headings, descriptors, thesauri and taxonomies are standardized sets of search terms. These provide a shortcut method for finding information beyond keywords. Many databases have their own set of subject headings, but a more influential set is that of the Library of Congress.
Here is the
scope note for indexing to the term "public administration".
Besides "public administration", consider the alternative or related terms suggested by the Library of Congress below.
- Administrative agencies
- Brokers in public contracts, etc
- Bureaucracy
- Civil service
- Colonies—Administration
- Communication in public administration
- Crisis management in government
- Expenditures, Public
- Foreign relations administration
- Government accountability, missions, productivity or property
- Governmental investigations
- Intelligence service
- Interagency coordination
- Intergovernmental cooperation
- Internet in public administration
- Mentoring in public administration
- Military government
- Office practice in government
- Personnel management
- Political planning
- Public records
- Security sector
- Sunset reviews of government programs
- Total quality management in government
- Transparency in government
- Volunteer workers in government
The appropriate subject heading can be difficult to find. Most online systems allow searching for book and articles by keyword or phrase.
Consider a subject keyword as follows: public administration and history
- The subject keyword allows some flexibility and will retrieve books under public administration and US history, as well as those indexed to public administration and history.
Here is a sample of the wide range of titles you may find with public administration and history as subject keywords:
Farmbry, K. (2009). Administration and the Other: Explorations of diversity and marginalization in the political administrative state. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Fry, B. R., & Raadschelders, J. C. N. (2014). Mastering Public Administration: From Max Weber to Dwight Waldo (Third edition ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: CQ Press.
Gragnolati, M., Lindelöw, M., author, Couttolenc, B., author, & World Bank. (2013). Twenty years of health system reform in Brazil: An assessment of the Sistema Unico de Saúde. Washington, D.C: The World Bank.
Newbold, S. P. (2010). All but forgotten: Thomas Jefferson and the development of public administration. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Shafritz, J. M., & Hyde, A. C. (2012). Classics of public administration (7th ed.). Australia: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.