What are the differences between Emtree and MeSH?
Last updated on September 02, 2025
The Emtree thesaurus is a hierarchically structured, controlled vocabulary for biomedicine and the related life sciences. It includes a whole range of terms for drugs, diseases, medical devices and essential life science concepts. Elsevier’s biomedical experts use Emtree for deep, full-text indexing of all journal articles in Embase, ensuring maximum discoverability of biomedical evidence.
MeSH stands for medical subject headings. MeSH is a controlled vocabulary health sciences thesaurus used by U.S. National Library of Medicine experts to index articles for MEDLINE/PubMed. It consists of comprehensive sets of terms with descriptors in a hierarchical structure and its purpose is also to support discoverability of data and evidence.
Emtree and MeSH have similar facet structures. Emtree was modeled on MeSH in1988. They both include broader and narrower terms and synonyms, and are linked to CAS registry and Enzyme Commission numbers.
The table below shows the differences by product and the ways Emtree can benefit you:
Emtree | MeSH | Emtree benefits for users |
|---|---|---|
Terminology is given in natural language | Terminology may be inverted | Emtree is more intuitive with the terms order (e.g., myeloid leukemia) (e.g., leukemia, myeloid) being more easily recognized. |
Over 370,000 synonyms (including over 200,000 drug synonyms) | Includes fewer synonyms (or entry terms): ca. 220,000 | There is a higher probability that search terms chosen by users are in Emtree. |
Includes all of the MeSH terms, many as Emtree synonyms | Does not include all the Emtree terms Emtree synonyms | MeSH users find Emtree easy to search. |
Relies upon meaning invested in terms by the authors use of them | Has many scope notes to describe how terms are used or intended | Embase users do not need to look up scope notes to understand terms. |
Larger: over 82,000 preferred terms | Smaller: over 27,000 preferred terms | Emtree gives users a better chance of finding both drug and non-drug terminology. |
Extensive drugs facet with over 33,000 preferred terms | A more limited drugs facet with around 9,250 preferred terms | Emtree has a more comprehensive and up-to-date drugs terminology. |
New drug terms updated earlier, and updates are made three times per year | Only established drug terms are added | Emtree gives better results for new drugs. |
Over 4,500 specific terms for general and medical devices | Fewer medical device terms | Emtree is the best available resource for medical device information. |
Polyhierarchical structure with duplicated trees | Polyhierarchical structure with differences between trees | Emtree enables unambiguous and context-free explosion searches. |
All drug and chemical information included | Detailed drug information in a supplementary file | All the necessary drug information |
Detailed drug and device trade and manufacturer name indexing | Indexes fewer terms that are not searchable in MEDLINE | Embase users can search or filter for specific drug or device trade or manufacturer names. |
Updated three times per year: the latest drugs, diseases, organisms and procedures are indexed and added with back-posting of older records | Updated once per year | Emtree's update schedule ensures that new information is added quickly so that Embase users can easily find current literature. |
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