Controlled vocabularies provide standardized terminology to represent concepts across different names, languages, and domains. They contain preferred terms for concepts that may have been initially referred to differently. Controlled vocabularies establish hierarchical, equivalence, and associative relationships between terms through the use of broader terms, narrower terms, related terms, scope notes, and use/used for references to ensure consistent retrieval of information. Examples include gene nomenclature committees that designate official gene names and efforts to standardize names for genetic conditions.

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Topic
VOCABULARY CONTROLL

2. 2
Controlled Vocabulary
 Why do we have a controlled
vocabulary?
 Three of you independently identify a
new human gene, and each separately
name it different things.
 How do we handle
references/resolving/utilizing this
concept which has different names. Let
alone, across languages?!

3. 3
Controlled Vocabulary
 A list or a database of subject terms in
which each concept has a preferred
terms or phrase that will be used to
represent it in the retrieval tool; the
terms not used have references
(syndetic structure), and often scope
notes. Their can be aliases for
preferred terms (so the all three of your
gene names get recorded and are
matchable to the preferred term).

4. Example
 For gene names, there is an authority,
HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee
that designates an official curated name
for gene.
 During the research process however,
there may have been multiple initial
names.
4

5. More Examples
 Most processs however, do NOT have
standardized naming.
 For instance genetic conditions are not
named in one standard way. Doctors
treating patients often propose the first
name, but often expert working groups
later revise to more appropriate name.
5

6. Cont’d
 The basic genetic or biochemical defect that causes the condition (for
example, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency);
 One or more major signs or symptoms of the disorder (for
example, hypermanganesemia with dystonia, polycythemia, and
cirrhosis);
 The parts of the body affected by the condition (for
example, craniofacial-deafness-hand syndrome);
 The name of a physician or researcher, often the first person to
describe the disorder (for example,Marfan syndrome, which was
named after Dr. Antoine Bernard-Jean Marfan);
 A geographic area (for example, familial Mediterranean fever, which
occurs mainly in populations bordering the Mediterranean Sea); or
 The name of a patient or family with the condition (for
example, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which is also called Lou Gehrig
disease after the famous baseball player who had the condition). 6

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Thesaurus (structured thesaurus)
 Lexical semantic relationships
 Composed of indexing
terms/descriptors
 Descriptors = representations of
concepts
 Concepts = Units of meaning
(Svenonius)

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Thesaurus
 Preferred terms
 Non-preferred terms
 Semantic relations between terms
 How to apply terms (guidelines, rules)
 Scope notes
 Adding terms (How to produce terms
that are not listed explicitly in the
thesaurus)

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Preferred Terms
 Control form of the term
• Spelling, grammatical form
• Theatre / Theater
• MLA / Modern language association
 Choose preferred term between
synonyms
• Brain cancer or Brain Neoplasms?

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Common thesaural identifiers
 SN Scope Note
– Instruction, e.g. don’t invert phrases
 USE Use (another term in preference to
this one)
 UF Used For
 BT Broader Term
 NT Narrower Term
 RT Related Term

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Semantic Relationships
 Hierarchy
 Equivalence
 Association

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Hierarchies of Meaning
‘Glass’
‘Beer Glass’
‘Wine Glass’
‘Red wine glass’
‘White wine glass’
From: Controlled Vocabularies/ Paul Miller Interoperability Focus UKOLN

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Hierarchy
 Level of generality – both preferred
terms
 BT (broader term)
– Robins BT Birds
 NT (narrower term)
– Birds NT Robins
– Inheritance, very specific rules

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Equivalence
 When two or more terms represent the
same concept
 One is the preferred term (descriptor),
where all the information is collected
 The other is the non-preferred and
helps the user to find the appropriate
term

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Equivalence
 Non-preferred term USE Preferred term
– Nuclear Power USE Nuclear Energy
– Periodicals USE Serials
 Preferred term UF (used for) Non-preferred
term
– Nuclear Energy UF Nuclear Power
– Serials UF Periodicals

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Association
 One preferred term is related to
another preferred term
 Non-hierarchical
 “See also” function
 In any large thesaurus, a significant umber
of terms will mean similar things or cover
related areas, without necessarily being
synonyms or fitting into a defined hierarchy

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Association
 Related Terms (RT) can be used to
show these links within the thesaurus
– Bed RT Bedding
– Paint Brushes RT Painting
– Vandalism RT Hostility
– Programming RT Software