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Retrieval performance in online search in thermal physiology
1Department of Psychology, University of Illinois, Champaign 61820.
Computers and Biomedical Research, an International Journal
|February 1, 1990
Summary
Natural language searches retrieved more relevant thermal physiology documents than standard index words across BIOSIS and MEDLINE databases. However, even the best search methods only found about 40% of existing thermal physiology literature.
Area of Science:
- Thermal physiology research.
- Biomedical literature searching.
Background:
- Effective retrieval of scientific literature is crucial for research.
- Evaluating different search strategies is important for optimizing information discovery.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare the effectiveness of natural language versus standard index word searches.
- To assess document retrieval rates in BIOSIS and MEDLINE databases for thermal physiology topics.
Main Methods:
- Conducted literature searches on four thermal physiology topics.
- Utilized both natural language and standard index word queries.
- Searched the BIOSIS and MEDLINE databases.
Main Results:
- Natural language searches yielded more relevant documents than standard index words in both databases.
- MEDLINE provided a higher number of relevant documents compared to BIOSIS.
- Approximately 40% of estimated existing documents were retrieved, even with optimal methods.
Conclusions:
- Natural language searching is a more effective strategy for retrieving thermal physiology literature.
- Current literature retrieval methods may miss a significant portion of relevant research.
- Further improvements in search strategies are needed to enhance comprehensive literature discovery.