Medical Subject Headings

Submitted by drupalAdmin on Thu, 2009-10-15 08:23

 "The Medical Subject Headings (MeSH®) thesaurus is a controlled vocabulary produced by the National Library of Medicine and used for indexing, cataloging, and searching for biomedical and health-related information and documents.” 
 

General information
Vocabulary alternative name or acronym: 

MeSH

Vocabulary type: 
Subject Headings
Author or Editor: 
Medical Subject Headings Section staff of the National Library of Medicine: Stuart Nelson (Section Head); Chris Hui; Dan-Sung Cho; Douglas Johnston; John Kilbourne; Danielle Kelley; Barba Koroma; James Pash; Tammy Powell; Allan Savage; Jacque-Lynne Schulman; Nancy Sorden
Current version/edition : 
2010 edition
Current version date: 
Tue, 2009-09-01
Update frequency: 
“The Medical Subject Headings Section staff continually revise and update the MeSH vocabulary.” New versions are published on an annual basis."
Available formats: 
Downloads available in XML; ASCII; MeSH Trees in ASCII; MARC. PDF file available with vocabulary in ELHILL Unit Record Format (EURF)
Vocabulary URL: 

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/ Also 2007 edition in hierarchy display at http://thesview.accessinn.com/meshThes

Vocabulary Sample URL: 

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/presentations/EAHIL_krakow_2007_sep/mesh_ove...

Was vocabulary created as a course project: 
No
Scope and Usage
Languages: 

English

Major subjects covered: 

Anatomy; Organisms; Diseases; Chemicals and Drugs; Analytical, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Techniques and Equipment; Psychiatry and Psychology; Phenomena and Processes; Disciplines and Occupations; Anthropology, Education, Sociology and Social Phenomena; Technology, Industry, Agriculture; Humanities; Information Science; Health Care

Purpose: 

“The MeSH thesaurus is used by NLM for indexing articles
from 5,200 of the world's leading biomedical journals for the MEDLINE/PubMED®
database. It is also used for the NLM-produced database that includes
cataloging of books, documents, and audiovisuals acquired by the Library. Each
bibliographic reference is associated with a set of MeSH terms that describe
the content of the item. Similarly, search queries use MeSH vocabulary to find
items on a desired topic."

Used By: 

 “The MeSH thesaurus is used by NLM for indexing
articles from 5,200 of the world's leading biomedical journals for the
MEDLINE/PubMED® database. It is also used for the NLM-produced database that
includes cataloging of books, documents, and audiovisuals acquired by the
Library. Each bibliographic reference is associated with a set of MeSH terms
that describe the content of the item. Similarly, search queries use MeSH
vocabulary to find items on a desired topic.”

Related vocabularies: 

Incorporated into the UMLS Metathesaurus. Also translated (at least in part) into Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Romanian, Thai, Turkish, Slovenian, Slovakian, Spanish, and Swedish.

Overlap with related vocabularies: 

The UMLS Metathesaurus contains the entire MeSH thesaurus.

Mappinigs to other vocabularies: 

Within the UMLS Metathesaurus, MeSH is mapped to the other vocabularies that the Metathesaurus contains, including the Supplementary Concept Records (formerly Supplementary Chemical Records) with 180,000 records. . See http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/umls/knowledge_sources/metathesaurus/rel... for a full list.

Vocabulary characteristics
Type of display : 
Hierarchy
Alphabetical list
Web linked terms
Description of overall structure: 

“MeSH descriptors are arranged in both an alphabetic and a hierarchical structure. At the most general level of the hierarchical structure are very broad headings such as "Anatomy" or "Mental Disorders." More specific headings are found at more narrow levels of the eleven-level hierarchy, such as "Ankle" and "Conduct Disorder." There are 25,186 descriptors in 2009 MeSH. There are also over 160,000 entry terms that assist in finding the most appropriate MeSH Heading, for example, "Vitamin C" is an entry term to "Ascorbic Acid." In addition to these headings, there are more than 180,000 headings called Supplementary Concept Records (formerly Supplementary Chemical Records) within a separate thesaurus.” A significant departure from usual thesaurus practice is that a term can have a different set of narrower terms for each branch in which it occurs. Also see http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/intro_preface.html#pref_organizing

Type of terms: 

Concepts in the domain of medicine and related domains, exressed in professional medical and scientific terminology.

Relationship types: 
Equivalence (Primary/variant terms or Preferred/non-preferred)
Hierarchical (Broader/narrower terms)
Associative (Related terms)
Other (explain in the Comments field)
Number of classes: 

16 top terms in hierarchical display; 109 hierarchies of descriptors

Number of terms: 
Approximately 165,000
Number of preferred terms: 
The 2010 edition of MeSH contains 25,588 descriptors
Number of Non-Preferred terms: 
Approximately 139,000 Supplementary Concept Records
Depth of Hierarchy: 
11 levels
Characteristics Comments: 

Other term relationships: pharmacologic action; entry combination (for indicating
overlaps)

 

Terms and Conditions
Availability: 
free
Comments, Availability: 

 
MeSH, in machine-readable form, is provided at no charge via
electronic means. Download of any of the full data files requires the
completion of an online Memorandum of Understanding. Searchable online at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/2010/mesh_browser/MBrowser.html
. Browseable online from a button at the preceding URL. 
 

Licensing Options: 

Not applicable

Import/download instructions : 

At http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/filelist.html
 

Provider
Vocabulary provider name: 
United States National Library of Medicine
Provider URL: 

http://www.nlm.nih.gov

Provider contact details: 

For
questions concerning distribution, format, etc., contact: Jacque-Lynne Schulman,
Medical Subject Headings. Telephone: 301-496-1495; FAX: 301-402-2002; email:
schulman@nlm.nih.gov 
 
 

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