SUBJECT CONTROL OF THE LITERATURE OF ACQUIRED-IMMUNODEFICIENCY-SYNDROME (AIDS)

This study analyses the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms used to index the literature of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The AIDSLINE database for the years 1983-1989 was the source for approximately 20,000 bibliographic records, which yielded more than 190,000 instances of subject headings. Subject headings introduced in 1987, 1988, and 1989 dominate the present subject access to the literature of AIDS. Indeed, in the short span of six years, even the set of subject headings used by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to construct the AIDSLINE database has been largely supplanted. The phenomenon of temporarily prominent subject headings reflects the uncertainty engendered by the AIDS phenomenon and the different approaches taken in the underlying biomedical investigations. The occurrence and distribution of subheadings suffixed to the subject "Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome" also reflect changes in focus and direction recorded in the literature of AIDS during its early turbulent history.