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Using MeSH Qualifiers to Weave Together a Concept When No Exact MeSH Term Exists
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), the National Library of Medicine’s controlled vocabulary thesaurus, makes comprehensive searching of the biomedical literature indexed in the MEDLINE/PubMed database immensely easier. Rather than require the searcher to guess how various authors from around the world may have referred to a particular concept, the indexers of the articles determine what each article is about and then apply the preferred MeSH terms accordingly to make each article more findable.
But what happens if a spot-on MeSH term for what you are looking for does not exist? That’s where MeSH qualifiers, otherwise known as MeSH subheadings, really show their value. Here’s an example to illustrate the need filled by MeSH subheadings:
Say you were interested in conducting a comprehensive search to identify studies looking at: “a particular primary cancer (that has been surgically resected) metastasizing to a secondary site” Continue reading
Lichens, Letters and Brain Mapping
- Lichens are even cooler than we thought! According to research published yesterday in Science, reported on by Ed Yong at the Atlantic, the NY Times here, and doubtless others, the symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae embodied by lichens is more complex than previously believed. I am really lichen this news and the reminder of how much more we have to learn about the natural world.
- Among the letters published in responds to an Upshot piece in the NY Times about the large number of research science graduates in relation to professorships was one from Joseph Deasy of MSK’s Medical Physics Department. He wrote to remind readers that there are still many challenges to humanity which could be explored by scientists provided policy changed to fund their work.