THIS PAPER DESCRIBES A METHOD (SCHEME) FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A VOCABULARY IN THE FIELD OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS FROM PRIMARY JOURNAL ARTICLES. ALL TERMS APPEARING IN A RECENT JOURNAL (VOL. 39, JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS) JUDGED TO BE IMPORTANT WERE DIVIDED INTO THREE CATEGORIES--(1) PROPERTIES, PROCESSES, PHENOMENA, (2) OBJECTS, INCLUDING SYSTEMS AND MATERIALS, AND (3) METHODS, INCLUDING DEVICES. IN ADDITION TO THESE THREE CLASSIFICATIONS, TERMS SPECIFYING SPECIAL CONDITIONS WERE ALSO USED SUCH AS MASS, ENERGY, AND TEMPERATURE. BY THE THREE MAJOR CLASSIFICATIONS AND APPROPRIATE ADDITIONAL TERMS DESCRIBING CONDITIONS, A MULTI-COORDINATED INDEX IS ESTABLISHED. THE THESAURUS WAS REVIEWED BY SPECIALISTS WHO GAVE SUGGESTIONS FOR REVISIONS AND ADDITIONS. ADDITIONAL TERMS WERE ADDED IN THE PROCESS OF USING THE THESAURUS IN EXPERIMENTAL RETRIEVAL. THE COMPLETE VOCABULARY IS INCLUDED IN THE PAPER. METHODS USED TO DEVELOP THIS THESAURUS WERE ALSO USED TO DEVELOP THESAURI FOR THE FIELDS OF PLASMA PHYSICS AND LASERS AND MASERS. THE PAPERS WHICH WERE INDEXED ACCORDING TO THIS SYSTEM FORM THE DATA BASE FOR A NUMBER OF EXPERIMENTS CURRENTLY BEING CONDUCTED ON RETRIEVAL MECHANISMS. (DH)