  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 (AD). 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.

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