| Abstract: | Online data bases might be more valuable to users if their structures more closely matched those of the disciplines represented by the data bases. To explore this concept, a structure for the field of tropical medicine was derived from the interrelationships of signs and symptoms of 37 tropical diseases. A similar structure was derived for the interrelationships of sign and symptom index terms applied to articles on these topical diseases in the MEDLINE data base. The poor correlation of the two structures led to the suggestion that rigorous indexing of articles with sign and symptom index terms or check tags would enhance the usefulness of the data base. Similar studies could be envisioned for other disciplines and data bases. |
