Metodologia de revisão de vocabulário controlado em Saúde Pública
= Methodology for the structured vocabulary in Health Sciences review
The DeCS- Health Sciences Descriptors – is a trilingual and structured vocabulary (into hierarchical trees) used for index and retrieve scientific literature in this area and is an integrating component of the Virtual Health Library (BVS). It includes more than 25,000 terms, organized in subject heading lists, one of them – Public Health (SP), which has at about 5.000 terms. In 1985, the SP heading list was organized by BIREME in sub-lists, in partnership with professors from Faculdade de Saúde Pública – FSP/USP. In 2002, BIREME developed a specific project aiming the DeCS-SP update which could be carried out due to BVS-SP members’ support. The DeCS-SP terminology review and update were essential due to the changes in the document language dynamics as a consequence of knowledge development. The FSP Library participated in this project with the aim of developing a methodology for review and update 6 of the 9 SP sub-lists: Health Administration and Planning, Delivery of Health Care, Demography, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Nutrition and Health Sector Reform. The methodology took three steps. 1st step: to establish the domain of Public Health and its sub-lists subject headings; to verify the relevance and hierarchical position of each descriptor; to establish “pilot trees” (with changes in the original tree) which were sent to specialists in Public Health for evaluation. 2nd step: to analyze the changes – in content or position, and descriptors inclusion or exclusion - made by the specialists in the pilot trees. The analysis took into consideration the frequency of descriptors usage in LILACS data base. Also, to write or change the definitions of each descriptor already in a new tree, validated by the specialists. 3rd step: submit the new trees to the National Advisory Committee for evaluation and ask for certificate. 4th step: once approved, to write the indexing annotations, and English and Spanish versions of the descri ptors and their definitions; to introduce all the changes in DeCS-SP into BVS. This work reinforced the need of systematic DeCS-SP review, and showed that the methodology developed specifically for this purpose was very suitable