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United States National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health

FAQ
IndexCat -- Subject Term Searches and Retrieval

Question:  Why are some subject headings in IndexCat different for the same topic?
Answer:

Subject vocabulary in IndexCat is not necessarily consistent for headings or format. IndexCat reflects the assigned headings from the printed Index-Catalogue and at this time, there is no normalization between series. For this reason, IndexCat provides Keyword searches to Subject terms rather than controlled phrase searches.

Example 1:

Series 1: Small-pox
Search as two words. Enter the phrase in Quick search with double quotes: "small pox"
Series 2-5: Smallpox
Search as 1 word

Search both formats in Advanced search using Boolean OR and use the 'All of These' option for small pox format.

Example 2:

Series 1: Lists no citations with the term 'anthrax'. 'Anthrax' is a "see" reference to other terms used to index citations: Carbuncle, Charbon, and Pustule (Malignant)

Series 2-5: Lists citations directly under 'anthrax' and also gives you other related terms.

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http://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/icsubjectheadings.html

Last reviewed: 06 February 2009
Last updated: 28 January 2008
First published: 11 March 2005
Metadata| Permanence level: Permanence Not Guaranteed