BIOETHICSLINE

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Technical Notes

The BIOETHICSLINE file was regenerated in March, introducing:

• Twenty-two new 1997 Bioethics Thesaurus Keywords
  
  
• A new "empirical" Subject Caption:
  EM (SC)
  
  
• Twenty new MeSH-like Publication Types
  
  
• 1997 MeSH (as generated by automatic "maps" from existing Bioethics Thesaurus Keywords)

New Keyword Descriptors (KW or KWD)

Following is the list of 21 new, and one changed, Keywords in the 1997 Bioethics Thesaurus (Keyword Descriptors):

AGE FACTORS (retrospectively changed from Age)

DNA SEQUENCES

EMBRYO DISPOSITION

EMOTIONS

FACULTY

GENES

GENETIC INFORMATION

GENETIC MATERIALS

GENETIC SERVICES

LONG-TERM CARE

METAPHOR

NARRATIVE ETHICS

NURSING RESEARCH

PALLIATIVE CARE

PROFESSIONAL FAMILY RELATIONSHIP

RETREATMENT

RETROSPECTIVE MORAL JUDGMENT

SECULARISM

TIME FACTORS

TRANSGENIC ORGANISMS

TRENDS

VULNERABLE POPULATIONS

Annotations for these Keywords, including explanatory scope notes and cross references to other terms, will appear in the 1997 edition of the Bioethics Thesaurus. (Order information is available at the end of this article.)

Note: Many Keywords introduced in each annual edition of the Thesaurus have previously been used as Keyword Proposed Descriptors (KWP), and thus will retrieve some records indexed in earlier years.

New Subject Caption (SC)

For the second time in the history of the BIOETHICS file, a Subject Caption representing a particular type of approach to the study of bioethical issues has been added retroactively to existing online records by means of a search strategy algorithm. In 1994, AN (SC) was introduced to permit convenient retrieval of analytical discussions of the literature.

The new Subject Caption, EM (SC), is designed to retrieve empirical literature retrospective to 73 (YR). Its explanatory note follows:

Empirical Approach: EM (SC)

Indicates that the document cited discusses, or is an example of, the study of actual practices or the impact of practices based on direct observation, use of statistical records, interviews, or experimental methods. This Subject Caption was generated retrospectively for existing BIOETHICSLINE records using the search strategy: (KW) *EMPIRICAL RESEARCH OR ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDIES OR EVALUATION STUDIES OR *QUALITATIVE RESEARCH OR *STATISTICS OR SURVEY, or by searching selected Text Word/Keyword combinations.

Figure 1 illustrates retrieving citations indexed with the new subject caption. For a complete listing of all Subject Caption values and their definitions, consult the Bioethics Thesaurus.

Figure 1 - Retrieving on a Subject and EM (SC)

   SS 1 /C?

   USER:

   file bioe



   PROG:

   YOU ARE NOW CONNECTED TO THE BIOETHICS (1973 FORWARD) FILE.



   SS 1 /C?

   USER:(kwd) *genetic screening



   PROG:

   SS (1) PSTG (1122)



   SS 2 /C?

   USER:

   1 and em (sc)



   PROG:

   SS (2) PSTG (154)



   SS 3 /C?

   USER:

   prt compr include kwd, sc



   PROG:



   1

   SI  -  KIE/52477

   AU  -  Watson, E.K. ; Williamson, R. ; Chapple, J.

   TI  -  Attitudes to carrier screening for cystic fibrosis: 

	  a survey of health care professionals, relatives of 

	  sufferers and other members of the public.

   SO  -  British Journal of General Practice.  1991 Jun; 

	  41(347): 237-240.

   KWD -  *attitudes ; *carriers ; *cystic fibrosis ; *family 

	  members ; *genetic screening ; *mass screening ; 

	  newborns ; *nurses ; patients ; *physicians ; 

	  pregnant women ; primary health care ; *public 

	  opinion ; reproduction ; survey

   SC  -  cl ; em ; gr ; hp  

		       *  The value for Empirical 

			  Approach and one of the  

			  Keywords that co-occur 

			  with this SC value are 

			  highlighted in these two 

			  sample citations.  

       .       



       .       



       .



   SI  -  KIE/51332

   AU  -  Witt, David R. ; Schaefer, Catherine ; Hallam, 

	  Patricia ; Wi, Soora ; Blumberg, Bruce ; Fishbach, 

	  Andrea ; Holtzman, Judy ; Kornfeld, Shoshana ; Lee, 

	  Robin ; Nemzer, Laurie ; Palmer, Robbin

   TI  -  Cystic fibrosis heterozygote screening in 5,161 

	  pregnant women.

   SO  -  American Journal of Human Genetics.  1996 Apr; 

	  58(4): 823-835.

   KWD -  attitudes ; audiovisual aids ; *carriers ; 

	  comprehension ; *cystic fibrosis; evaluation 

	  studies ; genetic counseling ; 

	  *genetic screening ; health education ; health 

	  maintenance organizations ; Hispanic Americans 

	  ; ;mass screening ; motivation ; *pregnant women ; 

	  prenatal diagnosis ; psychological stress ; 

	  socioeconomic factors ; whites

   SC  -  cl ; em ; gr



	

  Key to Subject Caption Values Appearing in this Example



	    CL   -       Clinical Approach

	    EM   -       Empirical Approach

	    GR   -       Genetics, Reproduction, and Abortion

	    HP   -       Health Care and Public Health

New Publication Types (PT)

Nine primary Publication Types (see list below) have been in use since indexing for BIOETHICSLINE began in 1974. One of them appears on every record in the database.

Additional Publication Types were introduced when BIOETHICSLINE began to include some MEDLINE-derived records in late 1996. Although a few of the new PTs were added to older database records retroactively, at present retrieval may be small on some of the new Publication Types.

The new Publication Types are not mutually exclusive, as was the case with the original nine. Most of the new PTs are equivalent to the National Library of Medicine's MeSH Publication Types, and they follow MeSH patterns of using singular or plural forms.

Scope Notes for each of the following Publication Types will be published in the 1997 edition of the Bioethics Thesaurus.

Primary Publication Types (1974- )

ANALYTIC

AUDIOVISUAL MATERIAL

BILL

COURT DECISION

JOURNAL ARTICLE

LAW

MONOGRAPH

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE

UNPUBLISHED DOCUMENT

New Publication Types(co-occur with Primary PTs)

ACADEMIC DISSERTATIONS (1997; retroactive by TW search)

ADDRESSES (1997)

BIBLIOGRAPHY (1997; retroactive by KW search)

BIOGRAPHY (1997)

CASE STUDIES (1997)

COMMENT (1997)

DIRECTORY (1997)

EDITORIAL (1997; retroactive by TF search)

GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS (1997)

GUIDELINE (1997)

INTERVIEW (1997)

LETTER (1997; retroactive by TF search)

MANUALS (1997)

MULTICENTER STUDY (1997)

NEWS (1997; retroactive by TF search)

POLICY STATEMENTS (1997; retroactive by TF search)

PRACTICE GUIDELINE (1997)

REVIEW (1997; retroactive by KW search)

REVIEW, TUTORIAL (1997)

TEXTBOOKS (1997)

HealthSTAR Records Now in BIOETHICSLINE

Beginning with the 9702 Entry Month (EM), BIOETHICSLINE incorporates selected records from HealthSTAR. HealthSTAR-derived records are identified in the Secondary Source ID (SI) field by the prefix AHAKIE followed by the Unique identifier, e.g., AHAKIE/95194497. As of the end of March, there were 12 records in BIOETHICSLINE downloaded from HealthSTAR. As with all BIOETHICSLINE records, each derived record also includes an SI assigned by the Bioethics Information Retrieval Project and identified by the prefix KIE followed by a five digit number, e.g., KIE/51384.

Selected records from MEDLINE were introduced in the BIOETHICSLINE file beginning with the 9612 (EM). See page 7 of the November-December 1996 issue of the Technical Bulletin for an article about the introduction of derived MEDLINE records in BIOETHICSLINE.

Comments in BIOETHICSLINE

The Comments (CM) field appears in BIOETHICSLINE only in MEDLINE-derived and HealthSTAR-derived records in which this field is present. Comments in records generated by the BIOETHICS Information Retrieval Project appear in the General Notes (GN) field. To display comments in this file, include both the GN and CM fields in the PRINT command, because the comment information may appear in either field, depending on the origin of the record.

Availability of the Bioethics Thesaurus, 1997 Edition

The 1997 edition of the Bioethics Thesaurus is scheduled to be published in May. It will provide explanatory scope notes and cross references to broader, narrower, and related terms for most of the 650+ Keyword Descriptors used in indexing and searching BIOETHICSLINE. It will also include updated versions of the "Selected List of 'Major Issue' Keywords," the full list of Subject Captions, the Permuted Keyword Index, and the list of Publication Types annotated with scope notes.

Copies of the Bioethics Thesaurus, 1997 Edition may be ordered from:

Attn: Kathleen Reynolds

Kennedy Institute of Ethics

Georgetown University, Box 571212

Washington, DC 20057-1212

Phone: 800-MED-ETHX or 202-687-6689

Fax: 202-687-6770

E-mail: medethx@gunet.georgetown.edu

The price for standard delivery via first-class mail in North America is $20 per copy; elsewhere, the airmail price is $25. All orders must be prepaid. Checks should be made payable to the Kennedy Institute of Ethics; charges to MasterCard or VISA are also accepted.

The new edition of the Thesaurus will also be made available for downloading from NLM's web site. Its availability will be announced in a future technical note in the Technical Bulletin.

--prepared by Tamar Joy Kahn

Kennedy Institute of Ethics

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