Find a Commonwealth Resource
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
HealthData.Gov
Updated Oct 29, 2026
About this dataset
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) is a hierarchically-organized terminology for indexing and cataloging of biomedical information. It is used for the indexing of PubMed and other NLM databases. Please see the Terms and Conditions for more information regarding the use and re-use of MeSH. NLM produces Medical Subject Headings XML, ASCII, MARC 21 and RDF formats.
Updates to the data files are made according to the following schedule:
MeSH XML MeSH Descriptor files updated annually MeSH Qualifier files updated annually MeSH Supplemental Concept Records (SCR) updated daily (Monday - Friday)
MeSH ASCII MeSH Descriptor files updated annually MeSH Qualifier files updated annually MeSH Supplemental Concept Records (SCR) updated daily (Monday - Friday)
MeSH MARC21 All files posted monthly
MeSH RDF All files posted daily (Monday - Friday)
Data and resources (9)
Download - MeSH - Current Production Year
Modified Jun 29, 2026
- XSL
Download - MeSH - Current Production Year
Modified Jun 29, 2026
- HTML
Download - MeSH - Current Production Year
Modified Jun 29, 2026
- HTML
Download - MeSH - Current Production Year
Modified Jun 29, 2026
- HTML
Download - MeSH - Archive of Prior Production Years
Directories 1999-2010 -All the yearly release files produced by MeSH from 1999 to 2010 Directories 2011-2016 -These directories contain the yearly release file of MeSH. These files are distributed in November of the prior MeSH year and do not get updated. RDF MESH N-TRIPLE DATA folders - for info…
Modified Jun 29, 2026
- HTML
API - MeSH RDF SPARKL endpoint
The SPARQL 1.1 endpoint returns RDF results and graphs. The lookup API returns simple JSON.
Modified Jun 29, 2026
- HTML
Query Interface - MeSH Browser - Current Production Year
The browser offers two search methods: FullWord Search and SubString Search. Each method can be further modified to search by Exact Match, All Fragments, or Any Fragment.
Modified Jun 29, 2026
- HTML
MeSH RDF Resources
Resources supporting the RDF serialization of the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH).
Modified Jun 29, 2026
- HTML
MeSH on Demand
MeSH on Demand identifies MeSH Terms in your text using the NLM-developed automated indexing algorithm. After processing, MeSH on Demand returns a list of MeSH Terms relevant to your text as well as a list of related articles from PubMed.
Modified Oct 29, 2026