Semantic similarities between a keyword database and a controlled vocabulary database: An investigation in the antibiotic resistance literature

• Published in: Journal of the American Society for Information Science Vol. 51; no. 2; pp. 166 - 180
• Main Author: Qin, Jian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York John Wiley & Sons, Inc 2000; John Wiley & Sons; American Documentation Institute; Wiley Periodicals Inc
• Subjects: Algorithms; Analogies; Analytic Approach; Antibiotics; Bibliographic data bases; Citation analysis; Citation indexes; Coefficient of variation; Content analysis; Controlled vocabulary; Drug resistance; Exact sciences and technology; Indexing; Indexing. Classification. Abstracting. Syntheses; Individualized Instruction; Information and communication sciences; Information and document structure and analysis; Information processing and retrieval; Information Retrieval; Information science. Documentation; Keyword indexing; Keywords; Library science; Mathematical analysis; Medicine; MEDLINE; Online data bases; Pneumonia; Relevance (Information Retrieval); Scattergrams; Science; Science Citation Index; Sciences and techniques of general use; Search Strategies; Searches; Semantic analysis; Semantics; Semiotics; Similarities; Similarity; Statistical Distributions; Studies; Subject Index Terms; Subject indexing; Vocabularies & taxonomies; Resistance; Antibiotic; Pneumonia; Similarity; Controlled vocabulary; Semantic analysis; Automatic indexing; Database; Natural language; Comparative study; Indexing
• ISSN: 0002-8231; 2330-1635; 1097-4571; 2330-1643
• DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-4571(2000)51:2<166::AID-ASI8>3.0.CO;2-Z

The KeyWords Plus in the Science Citation Index database represents an approach to combining citation and semantic indexing in describing the document content. This paper explores the similarities or dissimilarities between citation‐semantic and analytic indexing. The dataset consisted of over 400 matching records in the SCI and MEDLINE databases on antibiotic resistance in pneumonia. The degree of similarity in indexing terms was found to vary on a scale from completely different to completely identical with various levels in between. The within‐document similarity in the two databases was measured by a variation on the Jaccard Coefficient—the Inclusion Index. The average inclusion coefficient was 0.4134 for SCI and 0.3371 for MEDLINE. The 20 terms occurring most frequently in each database were identified. The two groups of terms shared the same terms that consist of the “intellectual base” for the subject. Conceptual similarity was analyzed through scatterplots of matching and nonmatching terms vs. partially identical and broader/narrower terms. The study also found that both databases differed in assigning terms in various semantic categories. Implications of this research and further studies are suggested.