The IEEE Thesaurus stands as a meticulously crafted controlled vocabulary, encompassing approximately 12,300 terms vital to the engineering, technical, and scientific domains, along with specific terminology from IEEE societies. This comprehensive thesaurus is a reflection of the language utilized within IEEE’s vast collection of transactions, journal articles, conference papers, and standards. It adheres to American English spelling conventions while providing cross-references to British English variants, ensuring broad accessibility and usability.
The very structure and scope of the IEEE Thesaurus are shaped by the diverse engineering and scientific disciplines represented by IEEE’s societies, councils, and communities. Critically, Thesaurus Serves the technological fields that IEEE champions, acting as a bridge between researchers, authors, and the wealth of information available. Updated bi-annually, the online files always present the most current version of this essential tool.
At its core, the IEEE Thesaurus employs controlled vocabulary, designating preferred terms known as descriptors. These descriptors are the recommended terms for indexing, ensuring consistency and precision in information retrieval. The thesaurus’s construction rigorously follows the ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005 (R2010) standard, Guidelines for the Construction, Format, and Management of Monolingual Controlled Vocabularies, underscoring its commitment to quality and established practices. Each descriptor encapsulates a singular concept, derived directly from the content of IEEE periodicals, conference papers, standards, and organizational materials.
The IEEE Thesaurus is indispensable as a tool designed to refine and enhance the indexing and subsequent retrieval of articles and other scholarly materials from IEEE publications, all accessible through IEEE Xplore®. It fosters a unified and consistent linguistic framework, benefiting authors, researchers, and those engaged in online information discovery. By providing a standardized vocabulary, the thesaurus serves to streamline the research process, making it more efficient and effective for users navigating the extensive resources of IEEE.
*For in-depth information regarding controlled vocabularies, display formats, usage, spelling conventions, and criteria for descriptor selection, please consult Sections 5 through 8 of the ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005 (R2010) standard, accessible at https://www.niso.org/publications/ansiniso-z3919-2005-r2010.
