PILOTS Thesaurus: Using the Systematic Table

The Systematic Table structures our examination of each document that we receive. Eight alphabetical lists:

contain general terms for these areas. These, in turn, are divided and subdivided, so that the level of specificity with which a particular paper deals with these areas can be reflected in our indexing.

For example, an article on the treatment of PTSD might deal with "Treatment" in general, or more specifically with "Drug Therapy." It might concentrate on one type of drug therapy, such as "Antidepressant Drugs," or on one of these in particular, such as "Tricyclic Derivatives." Each of these terms represents a narrowing of the concept mentioned immediately before, which the PILOTS Thesaurus indicates by means of indentation:

Treatment
..Drug Therapy
....Antidepressant Drugs
......Tricyclic Derivatives

By examining the systematic Table, you can locate terms with which to search the database, even if you don't know what terms our vocabulary might use.

The Systematic Table is especially useful in ensuring that you will locate all the papers that deal with your subject. Using the example above, let's say that you are looking for papers on the use of antidepressant drugs in treating PTSD. "Antidepressant Drugs" is an obvious descriptor to use; but you might also want to look at those papers that deal with specific categories of antidepressants, which would be indexed under more specific descriptors rather than the more general one.

Unfortunately, the search software employed by the Dartmouth College Information System, which hosts the PILOTS database, does not offer the ability to "explode" a search �� that is, it is not possible to instruct the database to search simultaneously for a descriptor and its narrower terms. To ensure that your search retrieves all the literature on a subject, it is necessary to enter all the relevant descriptors. In our example, you would use

Drug Therapy OR Antidepressant Drugs OR Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors OR Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors OR Tricyclic Derivatives

in your search statement.

To make it simpler for users to perform such searches, we have prepared several detailed search expressions, which may be copied and pasted into the "Advanced Search" box when you are using the PILOTS database.

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