Consistency between indexers in the LILACS database (Latin American and Caribbean Health Science Literature)

ABSTRACT

Introduction. Consistency in indexing of Literatura Latinoamericana y del Caribe en Ciencias de la Salud is analysed and some features are compared with those of MEDLINE, ISA and PsycInfo. Method. The study was carried out with 194 duplicate entries chosen from 8,547 entries, which is analogous to the process followed in MEDLINE, ISA and PsycInfo. Analysis. Consistency was calculated using the Hooper and Rolling formulas. Analysis. Consistency was calculated using the Hooper and Rolling formulas. The Mann-Whitney U Test and the Student T were used to study the relationships between different variables. Results. Consistency increased on separating out the quailifiers for secondary terms. The quailifiers are used more consistently than secondary terms. Secondary terms are used with very low frequency in the description of documents. In general, the more terms used to describe the documents, the lower the level of consistency. Conclusions. Indexing consistency in LILAC is shown to be substantially less than that offered by MEDLINE, ISA and PsycINFO.