Added Value of Medical Subject Headings Terms in Search Strategies of Systematic Reviews: Comparative Study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The massive increase in the number of published scientific articles enhances knowledge but makes it more complicated to summarize results. The Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) thesaurus was created in the mid-20th century with the aim of systematizing article indexing and facilitating their retrieval. Despite the advent of search engines, few studies have questioned the relevance of the MeSH thesaurus, and none have done so systematically.

Objective

The objective of this study was to estimate the added value of using MeSH terms in PubMed queries for systematic reviews (SRs).

Methods

SRs published in 4 high-impact medical journals in general medicine over the past 10 years were selected. Only SRs for which a PubMed query was provided were included. Each query

SUBMITTER: Leblanc V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11615561 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature