MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) is the National Library of Medicine’s controlled vocabulary thesaurus used for indexing and searching articles in PubMed.
Here are a couple of ways that MeSH works in our favour.
Controlled vocabulary means that the group has decided that they will always refer to a topic in the same way. (Ex. We always use ‘Gastroesophageal Reflux’ instead of Acid Reflux or any combination of terms related to this topic). This makes indexing easier and more consistent as there are many ways to describe many topics.
MeSH terms are organized into a hierarchy or “tree structure” from broad to narrower terms. MeSH trees can be a very useful tool to explore a topic and gain perspective on related terms.
