Matching M edline/ P ub M ed data with W eb of S cience: A routine in R language

We present a novel routine, namely medline R , based on the R language, that allows the user to match data from M edline/ P ub M ed with records indexed in the ISI W eb of S cience ( W o S ) database. The matching allows exploiting the rich and controlled vocabulary of medical subject headings ( M e SH ) of M edline/ P ub M ed with additional fields of W o S . The integration provides data (e.g., citation data, list of cited reference, list of the addresses of authors' host organizations, W o S subject categories) to perform a variety of scientometric analyses. This brief communication describes medline R , the method on which it relies, and the steps the user should follow to perform the matching across the two databases. To demonstrate the differences from L eydesdorff and O pthof ( Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology , 64 (5), 1076–1080), we conclude this artcle by testing the routine on the M e SH category “ B urgada syndrome.”