The information content of titles in contraception literature

This paper attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of a keyword or descriptor in the title, from the viewpoint of document selection and information retrieval for scientists engaged in contraception research. A total of 2152 document titles recorded in the Index Medicus during 1973-75 was examined. Another set of 567 contraception titles published in the Index Medicus during 1963-65 was also studied to determine if there were any changes in the information content of the titles over a 10-year period. Employing the Montgomery-Swanson method, it was found that 92.2% of the documents from the later period and 88.0% of those from the earlier period had at least one "contraception term" in their titles. The data obtained in this study exceed those of published reports. A brief review of some of the previous studies dealing with the retrieval capabilities of titles in various branches of medical and life sciences is presented. It is concluded that the title search method is a very effective means of retrieving pertinent documents in the field of contraceptive technology. A trend of improvement in the information content of the scientific titles is also noted.