Copyright © 2021 pubrica. All rights reserved 1

How to Finalize MeSH (Medical Subject

Headings) Terms – Guidelines for Searching

Articles

Dr. Nancy Agnes, Head, Technical Operations, Pubrica, sales@pubrica.com

In brief

The National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject

Headings (MeSH) thesaurus is a controlled and

hierarchically ordered vocabulary. It's a tool for

indexing, cataloguing, and searching biomedical

and health-related data. The topic headings in

MEDLINE/PubMed, the NLM Catalog, and other

NLM databases are included in MeSH. Each

citation in an article is linked to a collection of

MeSH words that define the citation's content. You

will target your search and find more important

citations using MeSH entry terms instead of

keywords (1)

.

I. INTRODUCTION

The MeSH database is a medical vocabulary resource

maintained by the National Library of Medicine. It

organises and defines the hierarchy of terms used in

MEDLINE to describe biomedical data. When you

type your definition words into MeSH, you'll get a

list of other medical synonyms as well as suggestion

on how to search PubMed for these terms. Since

simple search terms only refer to words in the paper's

database record, not the full text, it's critical to look

for index terms. Human indexers keep track of all

related words, even if they aren't in the title or

abstract of a paper.

Indexed terms can also include several entry terms.

MeSH, for example, indexes the definition of "heart

attack" as "myocardial infarction." You risk losing

articles that use the word myocardial infarction if you

only search for "heart attack." Using the index words

will help you find articles that use the terms "heart

attack" and "myocardial infarction."Find good MeSH

terms, look up a record for a paper you know you'll

use in your review and look through the assigned

MeSH terms to see if any are relevant(2)

.

II. GUIDELINES FOR MESH TERMS

The NLM Customer Support Center covers a wide

range of topics related to NLM products. You may

also submit a journal request for a modification or

addition to MeSH vocabulary by clicking the Write to

the Help Desk button. Please read the instructions

below to ensure that your request is processed

properly.

Follow the steps below to help us expedite your

request:

Please click: To open a new window or tab with

an online request form, write to the support desk.

Enter one of the following as the topic of your

request in the Subject box:

1. To propose a new MeSH term or heading,

write "New MeSH term" in the subject line.

2. "MeSH word update" for improvements to

MeSH terminology.

3. "MeSH factual mistake" is used to correct a

MeSH definition or context.

4. "MeSH tree update" for corrections or

improvements to the MeSH tree hierarchy.

5. None of the above options? You are free to

choose your subject.

In the Description box, describe the change or

addition to MeSH and any relevant additional

details (e.g., the reason for your suggested

change; citations to back it up).

Please keep in mind that providing your email

address will notify you of our actions (3)

.

II. ADVANCED PUBMED SEARCHING

WITH MESH

The regulated vocabulary or topic heading list of

the National Library of Medicine (NLM) is

MeSH. Indexers, who are subject analysts who

keep the PubMed database up to date, use it to

represent the subject content of journal articles

when they are published. Any indexed paper is

usually defined by 10–12 MeSH terms chosen by

indexers. You won't have to worry about word

variants, word endings, plural or singular forms,

or synonyms when using MeSH words. You may

use MeSH functionality to customise your

searches with subheadings and, if desired, to tag

Copyright © 2021 pubrica. All rights reserved 2

specific MeSH words as the primary focus of the

references retrieved.

Table: 1 Search strategy

III. MESH TERMS WITH SUBHEADINGS

Tap the drop-down menu beside the search box on

the main PubMed page to access MeSH words. When

you enter a phrase, the system will show you a list of

subject headings with meanings from which to

choose. To get started, select a MeSH term that

interests you. A new window will appear, with the

word you choose at the top and a list of subheadings

below. You may select separate subheadings to

explain a specific feature of a topic from this display

(diagnosis, prognosis, treatment etc.). To narrow

down your search results, use as many subheadings as

you want. Your search results will be more if you

select more subheadings.

IV. MAJOR MESH TERMS & EXPLOSION OF

MESH TERMS

You'll see a box below the subheading list where you

can "Restrict Search To Major Topic Headings

Only." This will limit the search results so that the

MeSH word you're looking for is the primary focus of

the references found.

A hierarchical arrangement of terms relevant to the

MeSH term you chose can also be found on this page.

This graph depicts the relationship between your

word and other MeSH terms. MeSH terms in PubMed

are immediately expanded to include all narrower

terms in the hierarchical list. If you don't want the

more precise subject headings indexed below your

term in the list, check the box next to "Do Not

Explode this term."

Using the "History" tab and combining search sets,

you can combine MeSH terms with connector words

"AND," "OR," and "NOT," just as you can with

simple searching.

V. VIEWING MESH HEADINGS IN A

RELEVANT REFERENCE

If you've found the perfect reference in PubMed, you

may want to reconsider your search strategy by

looking at how this paper was indexed with MeSH

terms to find other related (and relevant) references.

You may also use the "Related Papers, Links"feature

(4). When viewing a reference in PubMed, press the

drop-down menu beside Show to see the MeSH

words for that reference. Choose the "citation"

format, and a list of MeSH words selected by

indexers will appear. Revise your search strategy by

searching the MeSH database for additional MeSH

keywords.

VI. PUBMED'S CLINICAL QUERIES FOR QUICK

SEARCHES FOR CLINICAL PROBLEMS

Clinical research Queries in PubMed are pre-

programmed search methods for searching PubMed

for clinical issues. From the main PubMed tab,

choose Clinical Queries from the blue left sidebar.

Choose one of the three possibilities. You can restrict

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your search by aetiology, diagnosis, treatment, or

prognosis by searching by Clinical Study Category.

Look for Systematic Reviews is a search engine that

will help you locate systematic reviews, meta-

analyses, clinical trial reviews, evidence-based

medicine, consensus growth conferences, and

recommendations.

Table: 2 Viewing MeSH Headings in a relevant reference

VII. AUTOMATIC EMAIL UPDATES OF

SEARCHES/SAVING SEARCH STRATEGIES

You can save your search strategy (to run at a later

time) and set up automatic updates of your search

strategy using PubMed's NCBI feature. This is an

excellent service, particularly if you're conducting a

literature search as part of a larger project. You can

save the search strategy for each PubMed search so

that you can run it again at your leisure, or you can

have the search run for you on a regular, weekly, or

monthly basis and have the results emailed to you(5)

.

VIII. CONCLUSION

If you've finished your search, you'll need to report

your findings in your article's Methods portion.

Keywords explain the medical principles in papers in

the medical literature, much as in a typical study

report. The purpose is reproducibility so that someone

else might replicate the concepts and get the same

results. They offer numerous advantages to database

creators, indexers who cross-index scientific papers,

and users by facilitating access to sources. As a

result, writers must choose correct keywords and

conform to Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). Many

keywords conclude that medical authors should be

taught how to use MeSH terminology correctly in

their study and subsequent publications (6)

.

REFERENCES

1. Salehinejad, Simin, Parya Jangipour Afshar, and

Vahidreza Borhaninejad. "Rumor surveillance

methods in outbreaks: A systematic literature

review." Health Promotion Perspectives 11.1

(2021): 12.

2. Richter, Peggy, and Hannes Schlieter. "Paving

the Way for Patient Pathways: Synthesising a

User-Centered Method Design with Results from

a Systematic Literature Review." Proc 15th Int

Conf on Wirtschaftsinformatik. 2020.

3. Brody, Stacy. "The Unifed Medical Language

System: A Scoping Review of its Use in

Research." (2020).

4. Jacobsen, Kathryn H. Introduction to health

research methods: A practical guide. Jones &

Bartlett Publishers, 2020.

5. Brown, Roy E. "Evidence-Based Practice

Question Development & Search Checklist."

(2020).

6. Canu, Romain, et al. "Curvature-based interface

resolution quality (IRQ) indicator to assess

simulation accuracy." Atomisation and

Sprays 30.1 (2020).