Orthogate Classification of Orthopaedic Subject Heading (OCOSH)

OCOSH is a "brute strength" solution to the problem of how to generate a code for Orthopaedic Subjects. The concept was originally developed by Myles Clough because of the lack of granularity provided by MeSH for categorizing and tagging orthopaedic resources on the Internet.

More elegant solutions will be produced but this is an overview of the concept.

Follow the subject you are interested in until it ends in a link or an exit point. If you would like further discrimination in your code follow that link. If that is as far as you need to classify your subject, the OCOSH code at your exit point is the one you want. You should copy it to transfer it to your document or search engine.

1. Select the OCOSH code and press Control + C

2. Go to the target document or search engine and press Control + V to paste the code into the metadata for that page:

where ocosh_code is replaced by the OCOSH code selected from step 1.

A working example of the OCOSH in action can be seen on

Orthopaedic Web Links - http://www.orthopaedicweblinks.com/OCOSH_Classification/index.html.

The concept should be expanded to create a true ontology for classification of orthopaedic subjects.