What's New in MeSH

• Dr. John Kilbourne left NLM in January to accept a position in the information industry.

• 2008 MeSH in XML format is available for download. It is also available in ASCII format. Vocabulary changes for 2008 are listed here. List of changes made since first release of 2008 MeSH (October 8, 2007) are available. See Mid-year Changes in MeSH Descriptors. Citation maintenance data in XML format for 2008 are available.

• The default year in the MeSH Browser is 2008 MeSH with the alternative link providing access to 2007 MeSH. The MeSH Section will continue to provide access via the MeSH Browser for two years of the vocabulary: the current year and an alternative year. There will be a default file with access to an alternative year through a link on the Browser entry page.

• Correction in 2007 SCR XML

  The 2007 SCR XML files between August 13 and August 23 have an extraneous circumflex accent character ("^") before the three XML entity characters: "&", "<", and ">". If this character is causing a problem with your system, you can delete the character or download a file after 11:45 AM, August 23.

• Printed MeSH discontinued

  The National Library of Medicine has decided to discontinue the printing of the Index Medicus Supplement, sometimes known as the Black and White MeSH. We have received a great number of comments on this proposal, and are grateful for the input. Overall, it appears that our impression that few would be inconvenienced by the discontinuation of the printed edition was correct. Given the high cost of printing even a few copies of the book, we do not see the benefit as justifying the expense. For those wishing a souvenir copy, the 2007 MeSH will continue to be available from the Government Printing Office for another 14 months.

  In response to concerns expressed by several individuals, we are making available a set of pdf files containing the various hierarchies. These are formatted in such a way as to make printing them on 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper feasible, enabling a user to print out and review an entire tree easily. See MeSH Tree Structures. 

  We encourage all to avail themselves of the resources available at www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh. There is a considerable amount of printable introductory material, information about how we update MEDLINE, as well as links to downloadable files and the MeSH browser. The pdf files of the trees will also be available there. The current MeSH files are available for download, in one of three different formats.

  Furthermore, the browser at the MeSH website, provides ready access to the current version of MeSH. The browser supports partial word searches of three letters or more, and provides many links between related terms. As is our practice, all of these services and files will remain free of charge.

  Once again, we wish to express our gratitude for the many comments received.

• Concept Views in the MeSH Browser

  Beginning June 18, the MeSH Browser  will be available with two Concept views. See About MeSH Browser.

• Soaring Bear has retired as of June 30, 2007.

• Weekly Update of Pharmacological Action data

  Beginning with 2008 MeSH the Pharmacologic Action (PA) file listing by substance (pa_substanceYYYY.xml) will no longer be available as a separate file, since the data may be extracted from the full Descriptor XML file.

  However, the XML file listing by PA (paYYYY.xml) will remain and, beginning in May 2007, will be updated weekly, primarily to include changes in the SCR PAs which may change during the year. For more information see the documentation for the Pharmacological Action in XML format as well as the full files of MeSH data  in XML format.

• Global Citation Maintenance data  for 2007 are now available for download. Data are also available for eight Descriptors in which the MEDLINE MH tag was replaced by the PT tag (Publication Type).

• XML DTD change

  Beginning with 2007 MeSH, the format of the Descriptor and SCR XML files is changed so that the <PharmacologicalAction> element is under the record element rather than the <Concept> element. See the updated DTD files at Files Available to Download and the description of the PharmacologicalAction element.

• ASCII MeSH format change for SCRs

  Beginning with 2007 MeSH, the format of the ASCII MeSH files for Supplementary Concept Records (SCRs) will be brought closer in line with Descriptors by including additional sub-element for the NM and SY term elements. See the updated Data Elements for Supplementary Concept Records.

Last reviewed: 26 March 2008
Last updated: 26 March 2008
First published: 01 September 1999
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