Purpose – This paper examines the relative effectiveness of title keywords and assigned subject descriptors in representing the content of theses in various subject areas indexed in the Iranian Dissertations Database. Design/methodology/approach – The study was conducted by the content analysis research method. Findings – This research made a number of useful insights, such as a pattern of significant differences among the average number of keywords in the title in different subject areas. It also showed that 67 percent of the assigned descriptors are derived from the title keywords and that the relative recall for searches by title keywords is 44 per cent, while the relative recall for searches by subject descriptors is 56 per cent. Research limitations/implications – Although this investigation concentrates on a very specific database (the Iranian Dissertations database), its findings are offered in the wider context of a number of other related studies. Practical implications – It can be concluded that searching by subject descriptors gives better results than searching by title keywords. Originality/value – The paper reaffirms the value of assigned subject descriptors, while noting the effectiveness of title keywords in certain contexts.

Keywords