Automatized indexing of scientific periodical papers: analysis of the applying of SISA software using DeCS terminology in Dentistry area

Abstract

Abstract: The indexing automation has been subject of discussions among researches of Information Science, but they are not clear on the use of indexing softwares. So, it is necessary to know the indexing softwares, as well as its applying in the analysis of documentary contents. It is proposed a search on the indexing consistency and on the exhaustivity and precision in information retrieval, by means of comparative analysis between SISA (Sistema de Indización Semi-Automatico) automatic index and BIREME (Centro Latino-Americano e do Caribe de Informação em Ciências da Saúde) manual indexing. The aim of this paper is to contribute for the theoretical development of the indexing automation and the improvement of SISA. For that, it was carried out the applying and evaluation of SISA through calculation of consistency indexes between the two types of indexing, and calculation of exhaustivity and precision indexes in information retrieval, by means of searching into BDSISA and BIREME databases, composed by descriptors taken from SISA and manual indexing respectively. The data analysis revealed that the consistency indexes in the assignment of descriptors oscillate between zero and 75% with average index of 23,25%. The exhaustivity indexes in BDSISA retrieval oscillate between zero and 100% with average index of 35,72% ; BIREME had the same oscillation and average index of 77,04%. The precision index in information retrieval oscillates between zero and 100% in both databases, with difference in average index which is 40,92% in BDSISA and 78,69% in BIREME. The differences among the terms used in scientific papers comparing to the DeCS ones were the main difficult factors to achieve higher consistency indexes in the indexing. These differences reflected in the exhaustivity and precision indexes in the information retrieval, showing that it is necessary to improve the documentary language used by SISA software and to incorporate linguistic methods.