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In a follow-up of earlier studies, Biological Abstracts (BA), Chemical Abstracts (CA), Excerpta Medico (EM), Psychological Abstracts (PA) and Current List of Medical Literature (CL) were searched for 240 published articles that resulted from oral research reports given at bio-medical meetings in 1957 and 1958. Seventy per cent of the 240 papers appeared in at least one of the four abstracting services, and almost 90% were indexed in CL; however, no single abstracting service covered more than about one-half of all the papers in any of the three research fields. The average time-lag between primary and secondary publication for cardiovascular and endocrine papers was about four months in CL, four in CA, six in BA, and eight to ten months in EM. For psy-chopharmacologic papers, all of the services were slower. This "tracer" technique makes possible and practical a continuous assessment of how a given research field is being served by abstracting and indexing services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights major papers selected from the medical literature in the U.S. Comparison of the three treatment methods for congenital clubfoot; Factors responsible for toilet tissue vaginitis; Treatment of a Salmonella newport outbreak in a premature nursery.

Two trends, the growth of interdisciplinary research and the proliferation of machine-readable data bases, require that new techniques and tools be applied to facilitate use of scientific and medical literature in support of research. In order to permit systematic searching of multiple data bases to satisfy requests in interdisciplinary areas, a mapping of a portion of Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) to three other controlled vocabularies has been constructed. A description of the development of the mapping is followed by details of a preliminary test of its effectiveness based on searches in the subject areas of applications of physics and engineering in medicine. The test shows: (1) Index Medicus provides an average of 81% of the citations retrieved in searches using more than one source; (2) in some subject areas use of the mapping does allow an increase in the number of items retrieved, but with a loss in precision. Limitations of the mapping revealed by the test suggest possible alternative applications of the mapping in controlled vocabulary development and in on-line searching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In summary, the CVLP cardiovascular pathology code represents a classification of malfunctions of the heart and peripheral blood vessels designed with a therapeutically oriented axis of approach. Data coded in accordance with this classification may be retrieved on three bases: (1) the functional type of malfunction, (2) the anatomical location and (3) structural lesions. The code has a dual purpose -- its immediate use is to make available by IBM techniques highly specific references to the information of biological response to chemical treatment contained in the medical literature. Its ultimate purpose is to provide data of a very fundamental nature, which may contribute to detailed studies of the possible relationships between biological activity and chemicals with their internal complexities of structure and physical attributes. It is hoped that this classification may find other applications in related fields of documentation. In its present form it is capable of expansion, and additional categories can easily be added to accommodate conditions such as congenital malfunction or inflammatory diseases, which are beyond the scope and definition of the CVLP interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses one of the basic facets involved in the mechanization of documentation--the utilization of machines to facilitate the compilation of conventional type indexes. It is shown how automatic IBM punched-card equipment was experimentally employed to advantage in the preparation of a specific scientific index. The production of any large index is a complicated task. In the particular case of the "Current List of Medical Literature" there were specific operations that were especially troublesome and were particularly susceptible to mechanization. In order to make the necessary parallels the methods and format of the "Current List" is briefly discussed.

Presents an abstract of the article "Tools for Medical Libraries, 1952-54. A Selected List of Reference Books in Medicine and Allied Fields," by Charlotte Kenton, published in the "Bulletin of the Medical Library Association."

The article presents an overview of several books about medicine including, "Orthopedic Diseases: Physiology Pathology, Radiology," 2nd ed., by Ernest Aegerter and John A. Kirkpatrick Jr., "The Control of Diseases (Social and Communicable)," by Hugh Paul, "Basic Infant Nutrition: Birth to 6 Months/A Syllabus," by Norman H. Willis, "A Primer of Medicine," 2nd ed., by M. H. Pappworth and "Current Diagnosis and Treatment," by H. Brainerd, S. Margen and M. J. Chatton.