Making use of MeSH and Suggested Subject Terms
Introduction
Medical Subject Headings usually referred to as ‘MeSH’ or ‘Suggested Subject Terms’ are found on many health science databases. However MeSH or Subject Headings do not look the same on all of the databases.
- Medical Subject Headings are available in the OVID platform. You will find the Map Term to Subject Heading tool under the search box of most Ovid databases.
Suggested Subject Terms are available in CINAHL Plus database. You will find the Suggest Subject Terms tool above the search boxes in CINAHL Plus;
These tools produce MeSH trees that can help you to find alternative words and phrases to the ones you initially searched.
MeSH trees show how your chosen word/phrase is indexed within that database and to highlight other potentially related terms.
Web of Science & ProQuest do not support MeSH Search Trees, however, you can still make use of the keywords found via Ovid or EBSCO MeSH Trees to expand your search in these platforms.
Maximising your search
As you search using MeSH and Suggested Subject Terms you will discover other keywords and terms that are relevant to your search. You should take note of these alternative search terms as you can use them in some of the platforms that have less functionality.
Tip: When searching MeSH and Subject Search Terms you must take care to group similar words together, using search operators. For example ‘deafness’ OR ‘hearing impaired’.
You do not have to use MeSH tools. However they are helpful when exploring alternative terms that could be relevant to your search.
Summary
Conducting a search in a logical and structured way will allow you to:
- Maximise your search results.
- Create searches that are quicker to construct.
- Retrieve results that are more relevant and useful for your research.
Tip: before you begin your search you should have a clear outline of what you want to achieve from your search results. For example, the choice of search terms will influence the direction you are heading in and what you would be likely to find.
Start by using platforms and databases that support ‘MeSH Trees’ or ‘Suggested Subject Terms’ such as OVID (platform) and CINAHL Plus (database) as their tools will help you to identify keywords and terms that you can use to broaden your searches in other databases.
