AGRICOLA -- Guide to Subject Indexing

as a sea urchin, for a warm-blooded animal. These procedures are of interest and thisdescriptor should be used even if authors do not point out this aspect of their work.No. 11, April 1987SUBJECT: Attributes of biological materialsWhen indexing articles which discuss, quantitatively or qualitatively, the presence of asubstance, or its constituents or metabolites, in (normal or abnormal) organs, tissues,body fluids, secretions, etc., assign CAB descriptors for both the substance and theorgan, tissue, etc., in which it occurs.• E.g., An article on plasma concentrations of copper should be indexed withBLOOD PLASMA and COPPER.• An article on acetylcholine in the brain should be indexed with BRAIN andACETYLCHOLINE.• An article on alkaloids in root tissues should be indexed with ROOTS andALKALOIDS.Similarly, when indexing articles which discuss other characteristics of organs, tissues,etc., assign CAB descriptors for both the characteristic and the organ, tissue, etc., whichit characterizes.• E.g., An article on weight of the adrenal glands should be indexed withADRENALS and WEIGHT.Note that the CAB Thesaurus does contain some precombined descriptors whichobviate the necessity of using two descriptors.• E.g., An article on age of leaves should be indexed with LEAF AGE, not withLEAVES and AGE.• An article on lipids in the blood should be indexed with BLOOD LIPIDS, notwith BLOOD and LIPIDS.The needed information will usually be found in the title, abstract, and/or introductionof an article, but it may sometimes be necessary to examine the materials and methodssection to locate it.26