Impact of Controlled and Free Language Use in Retrieving Articles from the ProQuest and Science Direct Databases

Abstract Introduction: The growth and expansion of the Internet has changed the way information is accessed and many facilities have been created on the Web to facilitate and expedite information locating. Objective: To identify the impact of keyword documentation using the medical thesaurus on the retrieval of articles from Proquest and Science Direct databases. Materials and Methods:The present study was conducted in a semi experimental manner. In order to measure the relevance of the search results, the use of free language keywords and documented keywords with the medical thesaurus was reviewed and evaluated by students of Guilan University of Medical Sciences and researchers. Results: The level of information retrieved for free language keywords was with a value of 56.86 and more than standardized keywords with a value of 39.50 in the ProQuest database. The amount of information retrieved for free language keywords is 41.81 and above the standardized keywords with 39.69 in the Science Database. The comprehensiveness of the retrieved information for free language keywords is 34.79 and higher than standardized keywords with a value of 10.31 in the Proquest database. The comprehensiveness of information retrieved for free language keywords is 26.55 and more than standardized keywords with a value of 75.55 in the Science Database. Based on the results, the significance level of the test for both Proquest and Science Direct Directory databases is 0.403 and 0.548, respectively, according to the free and standardized language in Proquest and Science directories databases, respectively. Conclusion:Documentation of the keywords in the ProQuest database did not have a significant effect on the accuracy of information retrieved. It was also the case for Science Direct Database. Documentation of the keywords in the ProQuest database had no significant effect on the comprehensiveness of the retrieved information. Documentation of the keywords in ProQuestand Science Direct Directory had no effect on the retrieval rate of the articles, either. Conflict of interest: non declared