Statistical analysis of MeSH descriptors. With special emphasis on the descriptor "Review" in the category of "Information sciences and communication".
Manabu AOKI · Igaku Toshokan · 1989
These were selected from 2, 945 terms in “New/Deleted descriptors” in the period between 1978 and 1987.The following results were obtained:1) The most frequent category including these descriptors was “Chemicals and Drugs”, which included 10, 534 terms (42.3%)in the MeSH 1988.2) During the ten years, 2, 185 new descriptors were added and 760 descriptors were deleted. The annual distribution of these descriptors was very variable, especially in the number of new descriptors.3) The number of references had gradually increased in the subcategories which had many new descriptors, especially in “Information sciences and communication” where the number of references was 24, 467 in 1987 compared to 12, 578 in 1986.4) It was found that the increase in these references was due to the following descriptors: Consensus development conference; Review, Academic; Review, Multicase; Review of reported cases; Review, Tutorial.