Assessment of classification and indexing of an agricultural journal based on metadata in AGRIS and CAB Abstracts databases

Abstract

Agricultural thesauri and classification schemes are being increasingly upgraded as ontologies, prompting end-user awareness of the concept of structured taxonomies and metadata. Related agricultural databases, such as Agris and CAB Abstracts, exhibit differences in subject headings, indexing and classification what we illustrate on the example of an animal and plant production journal Acta Agriculturae Slovenica. Variations are attributable to differences among descriptors, categories, indexing rules, and information professionals. Similar search queries or syntax retrieves different documents. Certain level of replication in different databases, however, enhances retrieval recall and, in turn, boosts international visibility of scientific papers or documents.