Online coverage of the literature on thermal physiology.
Online searches for research topics in thermal physiology usually do not retrieve more than 40% of the existing publications. In order to determine whether this low retrieval rate is due to deficient coverage of the literature or to problems in storage and retrieval of information, a list of 25 major papers, 25 minor papers and 15 obscure papers on thermal physiology was compiled. The 65 documents were searched online in the MEDLINE database. Retrieval rate was more than 60% for obscure papers, 80% for minor papers, and 90% for major papers. It is concluded that MEDLINE has an appropriate coverage of the literature on thermal physiology and that the low retrieval rate in online searches is due mostly to problems in information processing.
Refinetti
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Institute of Environmental Stress, University of California, Santa Barbara 93106.
D000818:Animals; D001833:Body Temperature Regulation; D006801:Humans; D008523:MEDLARS; D014481:United States