Method evidence record

Indexing Consistency Analysis

Indexing consistency analysis goes beyond reporting a single agreement number to diagnose why indexing varies and what that variability costs. It distinguishes between-indexer consistency (do different people agree?) from within-indexer consistency (does the same person agree with themselves on re-indexing?), models how factors such as indexing exhaustivity, vocabulary specificity, document subject, and indexer experience drive the variability, and — following Rolling's question of whether consistency stands in for quality — traces how inconsistency degrades retrieval. The aim is actionable: identify the terms, subjects, and conditions where indexers diverge most, and feed that back into guidelines, vocabulary design, and training.

Evidence statusSources recorded, not reviewedBibliographic sources are present. Claim-level evidence review has not been performed.