Background: Several studies have shown that the National Library of Medicine’s automated indexing system for MEDLINE suffers from consistent errors that lead to inaccurate indexing of articles and decreased discoverability in PubMed. In part, this is due to how it maps language from article titles and abstracts to MeSH terms. To help facilitate accurate indexing of new records, the project team developed a checklist to guide authors on title and abstract creation.
Description:
To determine the elements to include in the checklist, the project team consulted and assessed style manuals, reporting guidelines, and guidance from key journals representing several health sciences disciplines, such as nursing, ophthalmology, and internal medicine. The team also compiled documented patterns of inaccurate indexing and reviewed information about MTIX, the current automated indexing algorithm used for MEDLINE.
The team developed a checklist for authors to write abstracts that accurately represent their work in order to facilitate appropriate indexing. The checklist offers explicit “Do’s and Don’t’s” as well as more generalized guidance about written language.
After creating, revising, and presenting the checklist to other librarians, the team began to disseminate it to researchers and authors. These early stages have included publishing it on a LibGuide, presenting it at morning rounds, and incorporating it into individual and group consultations.
For evaluation, the team has monitored page views of the LibGuide, tracked the total number of referrals, and created a brief survey individuals can fill out to indicate if they have used the list or not. Additionally, project team members ask for informal feedback from authors known to have used the checklist.
Conclusions: This checklist is designed to give guidance in title and abstract creation, which will help address weaknesses in automated indexing. Although this project is still in an early stage with limited promotion, reception so far has been positive.
Immediate next steps include increasing dissemination and awareness of the checklist. Potential future steps would include evaluating the effectiveness of the checklist’s guidance and implementing revisions as necessary.