CINF 15 Text search anomalies and how to cope with the "tough" searches in Pubmed for your just-in-time knowledge needs
Soaring Bear, MeSH, NLM/NIH, 8600 Rockville Pike B2E17, Bethesda, MD 20894, Fax: 301-402-2002, soaringbear@nih.gov

As much as one fifth of Medline subject header (MeSH) indexing vocabulary (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html) is modified each year to keep up with additions and changes in science. Recent changes in MeSH will be presented along with three easy steps you can follow to help you keep up with and use the changes for better and faster search results.

Changes in MeSH usually improves search results but can sometimes confuse searchers and automated informatics tools. For instance, why does a search on the word ‘sweetening' fail to deliver 100 thousand citations on ‘sweetening agents'? Why does a search on benzo[a]pyrene give a syntax error? Why does a search on ‘plants' fail to find 20 thousand citations about ‘plant extracts'. Why does a search on ‘anti-inflammatory' fail to get 60 thousand citations about ‘antiinflammatories'? MeSH is doing the best we can to help provide good search results, but the multiplicity of word meaning and the budget limits what any categorization scheme can do. You've got to do the rest. Here's how.