Case studies of the indexing and retrieval of pharmacology papers

Barber, John; Moffat, Sheena; Wood, Frances; Bawden, David

Abstract

This article reports a detailed analysis of the coverage and indexing of 30 papers on pharmacological topics by BIOSIS, CAsearch, EMbase, and MEDLINE online, and Biological Abstracts, Chemical Abstracts, Excerpta Medica, and Index Medicus printed versions. Only MEDLINE, Index Medicus, and EMbase had adequate coverage of letters. There was considerable variation in the indexing applied with drug formulations, drug syntheses, clinical trials, pharmacokinetics, drug synergy, and other pharmacological aspects of the papers often inadequately indexed. The value of natural language words in online searching was demonstrated.

Citation

Barber, J., Moffat, S., Wood, F., & Bawden, D. (1988). Case studies of the indexing and retrieval of pharmacology papers. Information Processing and Management, 24(2), 141-150. https://doi.org/10.1016/0306-4573%2888%2990106-9

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: 1988-01
• Deposit Date: May 3, 2012
• Journal: Information Processing & Management
• Print ISSN: 0306-4573
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 24
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 141-150
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0306-4573%2888%2990106-9
• Keywords: information retrieval, pharmacology, journal article, journal database, natural language processing,
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/id/eprint/5248
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0306-4573(88)90106-9