International access to the Chinese medical literature through MEDLINE

This article reviews, for authors publishing in the Chinese literature, the characteristics of MEDLINE users, the format of MEDLINE citations and the main retrieval strategies used with the system. References were retrieved and data collected through MEDLINE searches of the database 1988-June 1992. Thirty-six indexed journals from the People's Republic of China (PRC) were analyzed. The items of a MEDLINE citation are described. Titles of Chinese journals are listed in English as well as Chinese in the annual "List of Serials Indexed" of Index Medicus. Articles from journals in the PRC are indexed at the China MEDLARS Center, Beijing, PRC. For the 36 journals analyzed, 12,530 citations appeared in MEDLINE during the search period. Basic search strategies are described. Users doing author searches may have difficulties with common Chinese surnames, especially if only one given name initial is used. Journal searches of specialty journals, as well as address field searches for publications from a particular institution, may be helpful to scientists planning a visit to China. Effective use of MEDLINE has become an opportunity and responsibility for scientists and physicians over the world. Suggestions for preparation of English titles and abstracts to assure optimal information transfer and retrieval efficiency are: think about your audience; do not waste words; include key features in the title; be consistent with names and affiliations; use MeSH terms; include important non-MeSH terms in text; use structured abstracts; and obtain MEDLINE printouts of your own citations.