A Comparison of Metadata Elements and the Hypertext Markup Language in Records Retrieved from Specialized Medical Databases in Iran and around the World

This research aims to compare the Dublin Core metadata elements and the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) tags in records of specialized medical databases in Iran and around the world.Design/Methodology/ Approach: The Fields available in the search pages of Pubmed, Ovid Medline, MD Consult, Medline Plus, Iranmedex and Pars Medline medical databases were studied. Then the relevant records were surveyed in terms of the usage of metadata elements. The metadata fields available for search in information resources in specialized medical databases in Iran and around the world were compared. Content analysis was used for studying the metadata elements used in the retrieved records. For data analysis, descriptive statistical methods and correlation tests were employed. Dublin Core metadata elements and HTML tags are rarely found in the retrieved pages. Furthermore, most of the observed tags were elements that were used in designing databases and the databases had not considered these elements in organizing their records. This was observed in all databases except for Medline Plus. Dublin Core metadata elements existed only in Medline Plus database. These elements include: title, subject, publisher, date, type, identifier, language, and relation. Moreover, in the documents retrieved from the studied databases, all of the html tags except for the copyright tag were used. Elements including title, type, description, creator, robots, and keyword were the most used elements. Pumbed has the highest number of metadata fields and Medline Plus has the lowest number. The research assumption that there is a significant relation between the metadata elements in data sources and the metadata fields for searching in data sources of specialized medical databases in Iran and around the world was confirmed. Metadata fields and elements are used rarely and improperly in the medical databases in Iran and around the world. This is despite the fact that the more the metadata fields and elements develop, the more accurately the search and retrieval of records will match user's needs. In medical databases of Iran, less attention has been paid to these elements in retrieving information.