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. 2016;109(3):2077-2091.
doi: 10.1007/s11192-016-2119-7. Epub 2016 Oct 8.

Cited references and Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) as two different knowledge representations: clustering and mappings at the paper level

Loet Leydesdorff  1 , Jordan A Comins  2 , Aaron A Sorensen  3 , Lutz Bornmann  4 , Iina Hellsten  1
Affiliations

Cited references and Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) as two different knowledge representations: clustering and mappings at the paper level

Loet Leydesdorff et al. Scientometrics. 2016.

Abstract

For the biomedical sciences, the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) make available a rich feature which cannot currently be merged properly with widely used citing/cited data. Here, we provide methods and routines that make MeSH terms amenable to broader usage in the study of science indicators: using Web-of-Science (WoS) data, one can generate the matrix of citing versus cited documents; using PubMed/MEDLINE data, a matrix of the citing documents versus MeSH terms can be generated analogously. The two matrices can also be reorganized into a 2-mode matrix of MeSH terms versus cited references. Using the abbreviated journal names in the references, one can, for example, address the question whether MeSH terms can be used as an alternative to WoS Subject Categories for the purpose of normalizing citation data. We explore the applicability of the routines in the case of a research program about the amyloid cascade hypothesis in Alzheimer's disease. One conclusion is that referenced journals provide archival structures, whereas MeSH terms indicate mainly variation (including novelty) at the research front. Furthermore, we explore the option of using the citing/cited matrix for main-path analysis as a by-product of the software.

Keywords: Alzheimer; Citation; Journal; Main path; MeSH.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Number of yearly papers (diamond) and citations per paper ratio (triangle) over time
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Visualization of the 2-mode matrix jcr_mh.net showing 5345 journals cited (upper case) and 3482 MeSH terms (Capital case) in 3558 documents. Layout with Kamada and Kawai (1989); visualization in VOSviewer. This map can be web-started at http://www.vosviewer.com/vosviewer.php?map=http://www.leydesdorff.net/software/mhnetw/jcr_mh_map.txt&label_size_variation=0.3&zoom_level=1&scale=0.9
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Visualization of the fourth component of the 2-mode matrix jcr_mh.net showing 598 journals cited and 326 MeSH terms. Nine clusters are distinguished with modularity Q = 0.375 (Blondel et al. 2008). Layout using (Fruchterman and Reingold 1991) and visualization in VOSviewer. This map can be web-started at http://www.vosviewer.com/vosviewer.php?map=http://www.leydesdorff.net/software/mhnetw/comp4map.txt&network=http://www.leydesdorff.net/software/mhnetw/comp4net.txt&label_size_variation=0.2&zoom_level=1&scale=1.20&colored_lines&n_lines=10000&curved_lines
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
First component of the Jaccard-normalized matrix: 1083 cited journals and 900 MeSH terms; subdivided into 11 clusters (Blondel et al. ; Q = 0.220); layout and visualization using VOSviewer
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Forty papers on the so-called “key route global main path” in the citations among the 3416 WoS documents under study. Decomposition using the Louvain algorithm in Pajek (Blondel et al. ; Q = 0.757); layout using Kamada and Kawai (1989)
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