Form 1 Survey

OMB Control Number: 0925-0648

Expiration Date: 1/2015

Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 30 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching exiting data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a current valid OMB control number. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to NIH, Project Clearance Branch, 6705 Rockledge Drive, MSC 7974, Bethesda, MD 20892-7974, ATTN:PRA (0924-0648). Do not return the completed form to this address

1. Could you tell me about your research, including the problems this research is trying to solve and the estimated impact of the research?

   • What is your ultimate goal for this project?

   • How many users do you think you have?

   • Is your product open source?

   • Can you summarize the impact the product or research has had so far?

2. How did you decide to use MeSH and/or MeSH indexing for this research, and how specifically do you utilize MeSH and/or MeSH indexing in your research?

   • Did you consider other options?

   • What is most useful about MeSH and MeSH indexing for your research?

   • Which elements of MeSH and/or MeSH indexing do you use in your research and what is the significance or each element?

     • Subject Headings (Descriptors)

     • Subheadings(Qualifiers)

     • Major Topics (IM concepts, “starred” concepts)

     • Substances

     • Entry terms (thesaurus)

     • Tree structure (parents and children relationships)

     • Other parts of the MeSH record? (See also, previously indexed as…)

3. What do you wish MeSH and/or MeSH indexing had or could do that it currently does not? For your research purposes, how do you work around any shortcomings or insufficiencies?

   • What other vocabularies and resources do you use in this research?

   • Could your research be enhanced by linking or mapping MeSH in some way to other resources?

   • Have you found any additional resources you would like to map to but cannot, and why?

   • Are there changes you would like to see made to MeSH and/or MeSH indexing?

4. Besides the current subject indexing, are there other types of curation or annotation of the literature that you would find helpful?

5. NLM is very interested in making our data accessible and usable. For your purposes, are you satisfied with the way the data you need is delivered? Please discuss any issues with access to MeSH and/or MEDLINE data that you have.

   • Would it have been helpful to have MeSH and/or MEDLINE available in Resource Description Framework (RDF)?

   • Would you like to be able to pick and choose specific parts of MeSH and/or MEDLINE for download, or is it easier to download everything for your purposes?

   • Did our licensing or memorandums of understanding create any obstacles for you?

   • How are updates to MeSH reflected in derived products or research?

6. Do you know any other researchers using MeSH or MeSH indexing?