Automated indexing in MEDLINE and the Medical Text Indexer (MTI), 2000-2025: a scoping review.
Objectives: To synthesize and map literature on automated indexing of the biomedical literature, with a focus on the Medical Text Indexer (MTI) at the National Library of Medicine (NLM). We review the drivers, benefits, and challenges of automated indexing, evolution of the MTI from 2000-2025, and i...
| Publicado en: | Journal of the Medical Library Association Vol. 114; no. 3; pp. 191 - 208 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , |
| Formato: | research systematic review tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
University of Pittsburgh, University Library System
Jul2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=195364668&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 195364668 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 15365050 PI8 jtl: Journal of the Medical Library Association issn: 15365050 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jul2026 vid: 114 iid: 3 pid: 60406 pub: University of Pittsburgh, University Library System place: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania artinfo: ui: 195364668 195364668 195364668 10.5195/jmla.2026.2406 195364668 ppf: 191 ppct: 17 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P tig: atl: Automated indexing in MEDLINE and the Medical Text Indexer (MTI), 2000-2025: a scoping review. aug: au: Giustini, Dean Amar-Zifkin, Alexandre Chen, Eileen Kung, Janice Y. affil: Reference Librarian/Health Sciences Librarian, UBC Biomedical Branch Library, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia Library, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada sug: subj: Automation Abstracting and Indexing Trends Medline National Library of Medicine (U.S.) Medical Literature Human Scoping Review Embase Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature Print Index PubMed ab: Objectives: To synthesize and map literature on automated indexing of the biomedical literature, with a focus on the Medical Text Indexer (MTI) at the National Library of Medicine (NLM). We review the drivers, benefits, and challenges of automated indexing, evolution of the MTI from 2000-2025, and impacts on information retrieval in MEDLINE. Methods: We conducted a scoping review following the JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis and reported findings using PRISMA-ScR and PRISMA-S. We searched several bibliographic databases, key journals, conference proceedings, and grey literature sources, with no restrictions on language or study design. Eligible publications were published 2000-2025 and focused on MTI development. Screening, data charting, and thematic analysis were conducted by multiple reviewers. Results: We included 64 publications, with most originating from the United States (n=53, 83%) and five from Canada (8%). Study methods included evaluation or comparative studies (65%), qualitative descriptions (25%), and mixed methods (11%). MTI evolved from a rules-based recommendation tool in 2002 to the neural network--based MTIX in 2024. Despite numerous enhancements to the MTI, human curation remains necessary for approximately one-third of records to correct inaccuracies, capture missed concepts, and address errors arising from figurative language or algorithmic biases. Conclusions: This review synthesizes twenty-five years of MTI research (2000-2025). Despite reduced indexing times and a markedly improved algorithm, the MTIX has not yet achieved full equivalence to human indexing. Our findings suggest searchers should watch for algorithmic ambiguities in their MEDLINE searching and adapt accordingly. Health sciences librarians should work with stakeholders, including authors, to shape future algorithmic indexing methods, outputs, evaluation and research. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research systematic review tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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