MeSH is the acronym for Medical Subject Headings. PubMed uses a controlled vocabulary, meaning that there is a specific set of terms used to describe each article. Each MeSH term represents a single concept used in the biomedical literature. Familiarity with this vocabulary will make you a better PubMed searcher, as the best way to search PubMed is to use MeSH terms. MeSH imposes uniformity and consistency to the indexing of biomedical literature.
Using MeSH therefore makes your search:
1. RELEVANT (only articles that relate to the topic you want will be retrieved).
2. CONSISTENT (related subjects are consistently grouped together under the same headings).
3. Subheadings allow you to focus or narrow your search.
4. Automatic explosion.
5. Allows you option to chose major focus.
6. Reduces number of "false drops" retrieved.
7. Helps you avoid ambiguous terms or synonyms.
8. MeSH terms can be broad, i.e. "anatomy," or narrow, i.e. "eyelashes"
10. Saves you time
