Priniciples of Thesaurus Construction and Indian Science Abstracts Indexing System

Abstract

The general principles used in constructing thesauri and specifically those used in the Thesaurus of Engineering and Scientific Terms ( TEST) are mentioned. The 'free word' indexing system of the Indian Science Abstracts (ISA) is explained A sample of keywords used in ISA index is compared with the corresponding descriptors of TEST. Suggests that a free word indexing system such as the one used in ISA, if properly standardised, could provide a standard vocabulary for indexing science and technology documents.