Chemical documents and their titles: Human concept indexing vs. KWIC‐machine indexing
Mary Jane Ruhl · American Documentation · 1964
Abstract The machine‐produced, key‐word‐in‐context title index was introduced as a temporary bridge between current literature and its indexes. Due to the lower cost and more rapid production, some researchers might substitute these indexes for the conventional ones, but valuable research findings might be lost if titles omit important descriptive words. Comparing the indexing of the same documents in Chemical Titles and Chemical Abstracts Subject Index shows that more than half of the titles included all concepts, or their equivalents, as indexed by Chemical Abstracts. However, in many cases, more definitive titles might have been assigned to the documents. Authors and editors must continue to upgrade their titles by examining each title word. Does each word define some aspect of the report? Have words been included in the title to describe, as nearly as possible, each important new development reported?