Structured Abstracts in MEDLINE: Newly Identified and Mapped Labels Available

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has updated its list of structured abstract labels. This updated list, along with the NLM-assigned broader category mappings, can be downloaded for free from the Structured Abstracts resource page which also provides NLM guidelines and other background information to assist licensees or researchers.

The Updated Label List and NLM Category Mappings file contains 2,454 labels: 1,949 labels (from the 2012 Label List) and 505 new labels. Each label has a map to one of five corresponding broader NLM Categories (i.e., BACKGROUND, OBJECTIVE, METHODS, RESULTS, or CONCLUSIONS) and an indication of whether the label is classed as an "Ending Label" concept. The 505 new label entries have a timestamp of "|20131106". This file does not contain labels that map to UNASSIGNED as an NLM Category (see explanation).

Completed MEDLINE citations (medline [sb]) and PubMed-not-MEDLINE citations (pubmednotmedline [sb]) in PubMed that contain one or more of the 505 newly verified and mapped labels were revised to reflect the new labels, effective on or about November 6, 2013.

Read more about Structured Abstracts in MEDLINE/PubMed.