Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

MeSH logo

Medical Subject Headings

ASCII MeSH Conversion to XML MeSH

This page includes a table of data elements in ASCII MeSH, with the corresponding elements and attributes in XML MeSH. See table 2, below. Note, however,  that in some of the corresponding data elements the XML structure is more fine-grained, and a number of data elements in XML have no corresponding data in ASCII MeSH at all. See table 1.

1. Data in XML MeSH for which there is no corresponding data element in ASCII MeSH

See also the list of all XML MeSH Data elements which has descriptions and examples.

Record types:

D = Descriptor
Q = Qualifier
SCR = Supplemental Concept (formerly Chemical) Record

XML MeSH Element or Attribute

Record
Type

<ActiveMeSHYearList>

D, Q, SCR

<Concept>

D, Q, SCR

ConceptPreferredTermYN [attribute of <Term>]

D, Q, SCR

<ConceptRelation>

D, Q, SCR

<Concept1UI>

D, Q, SCR

<Concept2UI>

D, Q, SCR

<ConceptUI>

D, Q, SCR

PreferredConceptYN [attribute of <Concept>]

D, Q, SCR

<RecordOriginator>

D, Q, SCR

<RecordAuthorizer>

D, Q, SCR

<RecordMaintainer>

D, Q, SCR

<RelationAttribute>

D ,Q, SCR

<SemanticTypeName>

D, Q, SCR

<TermUI>

D, Q, SCR

2. Data elements in ASCII MeSH, with the corresponding elements in XML MeSH

The table below lists data elements in ASCII MeSH with the corresponding element in XML MeSH. Note that in some cases the correspondence is not simply one-to-one. For example, in the case of terms, the conversion also involves setting XML attribute values. These are indicated in the table with the word "And". In other cases, the conversion holds only under certain data conditions, indicated in the table by the word "Where". See also the list of all XML MeSH Data elements and the lists of ASCII MeSH data elements via links listed under "Data Elements in MeSH records" on the Introduction to MeSH page.

ASCII MeSH element

Element Name

Record
Type

XML element Tag
or attribute

AN

Annotation

D, Q

<Annotation>

AQ

Allowable
Qualifier

D

<AllowableQualifier>

See also <Abbreviation>.

CATSH

Cataloging
Subheadings

D

not in XML

CX

Consider Also XREF

D

<ConsiderAlso>

DA

Date of Entry

D, Q, SCR

<DateCreated>, <Year>, <Month>, <Day>

DC

Descriptor Class

D

DescriptorClass [attribute of <DescriptorRecord>]

DE

Descriptor Entry Version

D

<EntryVersion>

DQ

Date Qualifier Established

Q

<DateEstablished>, (<Year>, <Month>, <Day>)

DS

Descriptor Sort Version

D

<SortVersion>

DX

Date Descriptor Established

D

<DateEstablished> (<Year>, <Month>, <Day>)

EC

Entry Combination

D

<EntryCombination>

   subelement [1]

[Qualifier input]

D <ECIn>
   subelement [2]
   subelement [3; opt]

MH output
[Qualifier output; optional]

D <ECOut>

ENTRY [term]

Entry Term,
Non-Print

D

<Term>

PRINT ENTRY [term]

Entry Term,
Print

D

<Term>

 [term subelements]      

   b. subelement

Semantic Type

D, SCR

<SemanticType>

   c. subelement

Lexical Type

D, SCR

LexicalTag [attribute of <Term>]

   d. subelement

Semantic Relation

D, SCR

<ConceptRelation>, RelationName

   e. subelement

Thesaurus ID

D, SCR

<ThesaurusID>

   f. subelement

Date

D, SCR

<DateCreated>, <Year>, <Month>, <Day>

   s. subelement

Sort Version

D, SCR

<SortVersion>

   v. subelement

Entry Version

D, SCR

<EntryVersion>

FR

Frequency

SCR

<Frequency>

FX

Forward Cross Reference

D

<SeeRelatedDescriptor>

HM

Heading Mapped-To

SCR

<HeadingMappedTo>

HN

History Note

D, Q

<HistoryNote>

II

Indexing Information

SCR

<IndexingInformation>

MH

MeSH Heading

D

<Term>

[And <Term> attributes:]
IsPermutedTermYN="N" [AND] RecordPreferredTermYN="Y" [AND]
PrintFlagYN="Y" [AND]
ConceptPreferredTermYN="Y"

See also <String>, <ConceptName>, <DescriptorName>

MH_TH

MeSH Heading Thesaurus ID

D

<ThesaurusID>

[where <Term> attributes are:]
IsPermutedTermYN="N" [AND] RecordPreferredTermYN="Y" [AND]
PrintFlagYN="Y" [AND]
ConceptPreferredTermYN="Y"

MN

MeSH Tree Number

D,Q

<TreeNumber>

MR

Major Revision Date

D, Q, SCR

<DateRevised> (<Year>, <Month>, <Day>)

MS

MeSH Scope Note

D,Q

<ScopeNote>

N1

CAS TYPE 1 NAME

D, SCR

<CASN1Name>

NM

Name of Substance

SCR

<Term>

[And <Term> attributes:]
IsPermutedTermYN="N" [AND] RecordPreferredTermYN="Y" [AND]
PrintFlagYN="Y" [AND]
ConceptPreferredTermYN="Y"

See also <String>, <ConceptName> ,<SupplementalRecordName>

NM_TH

NM Thesaurus ID

SCR

<ThesaurusID>

[where <Term> attributes are:]
IsPermutedTermYN="N" [AND] RecordPreferredTermYN="Y" [AND]
PrintFlagYN="Y" [AND]
ConceptPreferredTermYN="Y"

NO

Note

Q, SCR

<Note>

OL

Online Note

D, Q

<OnlineNote>

PA

Pharmacological Action

D, SCR

<PharmacologicalAction>

PI

Previous Indexing

D, SCR

<PreviousIndexing>

PM

Public MeSH Note

D

<PublicMeSHNote>

QA

Topical Qualifier Abbreviation

Q

<Abbreviation>

QE

Qualifier Entry Version

Q

<EntryVersion>

QS

Qualifier Sort Version

Q

<SortVersion>

QT

Qualifier Type

Q

QualifierType [Attribute of <QualifierRecord>]

QX

Qualifier Cross Reference

Q

<Term>

[And <Term> attributes:]
RecordPreferredTermYN="N" [AND]
PrintFlagYN="Y" [AND]
IsPermutedTermYN="N"

See also <String>, <ConceptName>

RECTYPE

Record Type

D, Q, SCR

See
<DescriptorRecord>,
<SupplementalRecord>,
<QualifierRecord>

RH

Running Head

D

<RunningHead>

RN

CAS REGISTRY/
EC NUMBER/
UNII CODE

D, SCR

<RegistryNumber>

RR

Related Registry Number

D, SCR

<RelatedRegistryNumber>

SH

Subheading

Q

<Term>

[And <Term> attributes:]
IsPermutedTermYN="N" [AND] RecordPreferredTermYN="Y" [AND]
PrintFlagYN="Y" [AND]
ConceptPreferredTermYN="Y"

See also <String>, <ConceptName>, <QualifierName>

SO

Source

SCR

<Source>

ST

Semantic Type

D, SCR

<SemanticType>

[where <Concept> attribute:]
PreferredConceptYN="Y"

SY

Synonym

SCR

<Term>

[And <Term> attributes:]
RecordPreferredTermYN="N" [AND]
PrintFlagYN="N" [AND]
IsPermutedTermYN="N"

See also <String>, <ConceptName>

TN

Tree Node Allowed

Q

<TreeNodeAllowed>

UI

Unique Identifier

D, Q, SCR

<DescriptorUI>, <QualifierUI>, <SupplementalRecordUI>

 

Last Reviewed: June 6, 2016