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MEDLINE Indexing Online Training Course

Category K - Humanities

Indexing Historical Articles

Index the appropriate MeSH heading with the subheading /history (IM). Indexing the subheading /history will automatically generate the publication type HISTORICAL ARTICLE

Select the appropriate historical time period check tag. Index the appropriate geographic term if given.

Developmental biology in nineteenth century Europe
DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY/*history
EUROPE
HISTORY 19th CENTURY (check tag)
HISTORICAL ARTICLE (PT) (generated automatically)

Biographical articles are of special interest to the users of MEDLINE/PubMed. The biography of a physician, scientist or a famous person published in a journal, is always historical in nature. It is indexed in the following way:

  • under the name of the physician or scientist entered in the PERSONAL NAMES SUBJECT field
  • under the specific field or specialty for which the person is known with subheading /history (if allowed)
  • with a geographic heading
  • with a chronological (historical time period) check tag
  • with Biography (PT)
  • with HISTORICAL ARTICLE (PT) (generated automatically)

Biographical articles will NOT be indexed with the check tags HUMAN, MALE or FEMALE to identify the sex of the biographee. The MeSH term PHYSICIANS is NOT added routinely to a biographical article about a physician.

Example: Michael E. DeBakey, MD: father of modern cardiovascular surgery.

DeBakey, Michael E (Personal Name as Subject)
CARDIOVASCULAR SURGICAL PROCEDURES/*history
UNITED STATES
History, 20th Century (check tag)
Biography (PT)
Historical Article (PT)

Last Reviewed: April 15, 2015