Indexing principles for Category D - Chemicals and Drugs

MeSH contains thousands of chemicals, so it is likely that the specific chemical in a given article can be found by searching the MeSH Browser.

Simple Chemicals
In DCMS, the indexer simply starts to type the name of the chemical, and then picks it from the automatic scroll-down list. The indexer can also go to the MeSH Browser, type the name of the chemical, and search for the exact term. For example, the drug Propranolol can be readily found using either method.

Complex Chemicals
For more complex chemical names, especially those containing combinations of letters, numbers, and punctuation, the use of the scroll-down list in the DCMS Browser is not very efficient. It is better to look for such chemicals by searching fragments using the MeSH browser.

Example:
4,5-Dihydro-1-(3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)-1H-pyrazol-3-amine

Steps to find this term

1. Search the most distinctive fragments: Dihydro pyrazol amine
2. Click on Find Terms with All Fragments
3. Search returns two terms - the first one is correct