Abstract

Social scientists have long expressed an intensive interest in the conceptual bases of their disciplines. Compilers of subject heading lists and thesauri also have emphasized the significance of concepts for documentary retrieval purposes. How were these different approaches reconciled and presented in retrieval aids produced for social sciences? To answer this question a comparative analysis of subject heading lists and thesauri, based upon a 10 per cent page sample of each work, was undertaken to collect data relating to word/concept relationships and concept structuring; 18 subject heading lists and 20 thesauri were examined. Analysis revealed that retrievalists, despite the known distinctiveness of the social sciences, produced subject heading lists and thesauri with distinguishing characteristics little different from those found in similar ‘tools’ in the sciences and technologies. The reasons for these unexpected similarities are explored.

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