Journal of Education and Health Promotion

A comparative study of the origin, structure, and indexing language of the Persian and English keywords of articles indexed in the IranMedex database and their compliance with the Persian medical thesaurus and Medical Subject Headings

Authors

. Parastoo Parsaei-Mohammadi
. Ali Hossein Ghasemi
. Raziyeh Hassanzadeh-Beheshtabad
Abstract
Introduction: In the present era, thesauri as tools in indexing play an effective role in integrating
retrieval preventing fragmentation as well as a multiplicity of terminologies and also in providing
information content of documents. Goals: This study aimed to investigate the keywords of
articles indexed in IranMedex in terms of origin, structure and indexing situation and their
Compliance with the Persian Medical Thesaurus and Medical Subject Headings (MeSH).
Materials and Methods: This study is an applied research, and a survey has been conducted.
Statistical population includes 32,850 Persian articles which are indexed in the IranMedex during
the years 1385–1391. 379 cases were selected as sample of the study. Data collection was done
using a checklist. In analyzing the findings, the SPSS Software were used. Findings: Although
there was no significant difference in terms of indexing origin between the proportion of different
types of the Persian and English keywords of articles indexed in the IranMedex, the compliance
rates of the Persian and English keywords with the Persian medical thesaurus and MeSH were
different in different years. In the meantime, the structure of keywords is leaning more towards
phrase structure, and a single word structure and the majority of keywords are selected from
the titles and abstracts. Conclusion: The authors’ familiarity with the thesauri and controlled
tools causes homogeneity in assigning keywords and also provides more precise, faster, and
easier retrieval of the keywords. It’s suggested that a mixture of natural and control languages
to be used in this database in order to reach more comprehensive results.

Keywords

Indexing terms
IranMedex database
medical subject headings
thesauri
1. Vetr M. Thesaurus Important tool for indexing archival sources. Doc
Treasure Q 2008;18:63-84.
2. Fugmann R. Subject Analysis and Indexing: Theoretical and Practical
Advice. Translated by Mazinani A. Tehran: National Library of Iran;
1995.
3. Kazempour Z, Ashrafirizi H. Aproaches to the process of indexing
and organizing information. Book Q 2009;20:227-38.
4. Memartoloi M. Way dissertations indexing Iranian Scientific
information and Documantation Center. Book Q 2002;13:51-7.
5. Sohrabi MC. Effects of thesaurus in bibliograghic databases on the
recall, precision and time searching for information retrieved. Book
Q 2000;11:59-76.6. Chakoli AN. The effect of using thesaurus to enhance of relevance
in information systems. Informology 2004;2:127-50.
7. Iranshahi M, Davarpanah MR. Survey matching title keywords and
descriptor indexer in Iran theses abstracts database. LIS 2004;27:70-92.
8. Baniegbal N, Khosravi F, Pirhadi S. Compare the words thesis title
and abstract descriptors defined in the profile of the National Library
and Archives of Iran. Book Q 2010;22:135-46.
9. Nowkarizi M, Dehghani K. Matching keywords extracted from
abstract with descriptors indexers in dissertation abstracts database
Iran. Res Inf Sci Public Libr 2011;17:477-94.
10. Fattahi R, Nikzaman A. An analysis of the match between the
forms and vocabulary of users subject queries with the Persian
Subject Headings in a University OPAC. J of Inf Pro and Man
2012;28:251-71.
11. Naghneh-Esfehani M, Sohrabi MC, Banieghbal N. A Comparative
Study of the Persian and English Keywords of Theses from the
Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Iran, and the Thesauruses
and Persian Medical Subject Headings. Health Inf Manage
2012;9:1-12.
12. Bartol T. Non-agricultural databases and thesauri: Retrieval of
subject headings and non-controlled terms in relation to agriculture.
Electron Libr Inf Syst 2012;46:258-76.
13. Shultz M. Mapping of medical acronyms and initialisms to Medical
Subject Headings (MeSH) across selected systems. J Med Libr
Assoc 2006;94:410-4.
14. Kabirzadeh A, Siamian H, Abadi EB, Saravi BM. Survey of keyword
adjustment of published articles medical subject headings in journal
of mazandaran university of medical sciences (2009-2010). Acta
Inform Med 2013;21:98-102.
15. Rahadoost F, Kazerani M, Ebrahimpour MM. Persian Medical
Thesaurus 2nd: Tree Index, Alphabetic Index, Permuted Index and
English – Persian Index. 2nd. Tehran: The National Library and
Archives of Iran; 2005.
16. National Library of Medicine. MeSH Browser (2013 MeSH); 2013.
Available from: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/2013/mesh_browser/
MBrowser.html. [Last accessed on 2013 Jul 06]
Journal of Education and Health Promotion
Volume 7, Issue 1
March and April 2017
Pages 1-7

Home

Guide for Authors

Submit Manuscript

Reviewers

Contact Us