Content
Subheadings (qualifiers)
Principles of Coordination
Coordination is a fundamental principle of MeSH indexing. By proper coordination of a limited number of MeSH headings and appropriate subheadings, the indexer can describe the entire content of any lengthy and complex article. In order to adequately index the content of an article, it is usually not enough to use a single MeSH term. In most cases, two or more MeSH terms are needed, and even more frequently, a MeSH heading/subheading combined with another MeSH heading with or without subheading are needed. Several MeSH heading / subheading combinations logically go together. The indexer should become familiar with these common pairings and use them appropriately.
Here are examples of common coordinations.
If an article discusses treatment of a disease with a drug, correct indexing would be
DISEASE /*drug ther
DRUG /*ther use
Wrong indexing would be
DISEASE /*drug ther
DRUG /*metab
If an article discusses metabolism of a substance in an organ in a disease, correct indexing would be:
DISEASE /*metab
ORGAN /*metab
SUBSTANCE /*metab
Wrong indexing would be
DISEASE /*physiopathol
ORGAN /*pathol
SUBSTANCE /*metab
A listing of common coordinations appears below. NLM staff see the Indexing Manual for more information on coordinations.
| DISEASE /chem ind DRUG /adv eff |
DISEASE /diag image ORGAN /diag image |
| ORGAN /surg DISEASE /surg |
DISEASE /anat ORGAN /anat |
| DISEASE /pathol ORGAN / pathol |
DISEASE /physiopathol ORGAN /physiopathol |
| DISEASE /etiol TECHNIQUE /adv eff |
PHYSIOLOGIC PROCESS /drug eff DRUG /pharmacol |
|
ORGAN /drug eff DRUG /pharmacol |
ORGANISM /metab DRUG /metab |
| ORGANISM /drug eff DRUG / pharmacol |
ORGAN /metab DISEASE /metab |
|
ORGAN /metab DRUG /metab or /pharmacokin |
RADIOISOTOPE /ther use DISEASE /radiother |
| ORGAN /chem CHEMICAL /anal |
DISEASE /drug ther DRUG /ther use |
Last Reviewed: January 18, 2017