Cool Toys Pic of the day - KNALIJ & Sci2
KNALIJ:
Sci2 (Science of Science) Tool:
sci2.cns.iu.edu/user/index.php
These two scientific data mining and knowledge visualization tools
have a certain amount in common. Both tools are free, and support
research and data visualization of the science on a topic. Firstly and
foremost for me, both of these are items I discovered through the
kindness and sharing of my professional library colleagues. The first
time I saw anything about KNALIJ was literally on our library
information screen, where one of my peers in our library had selected
it as the tool of the week. I have my suspicions as to who might have
chosen it, but I'm not sure. However, for Sci2 I definitely know who
it was. I had just started to write this post when Kristi Holmes pinged me
on Twitter with the info about Sci2.
KNALIJ allows you to do a Pubmed search and then displays an
interactive bubble map of either the results, co-authorship, journals,
or impact of funding. For the results map, it selects a set of the
most current articles on your search topic. How many is not something
I'm sure of, and I did not see any results earlier than 2009 in my
searches. The display shows you the most commonly associated subject
headings for your term, with bubbles. The more results for a concept,
the larger the bubble; the more central a concept the hotter the
colors. The maps are interactive, allowing you to mouse over and get
more information about a bubble and its relationships. They also allow
you to output a PDF of the generated map.
I tried both simple and complex searches. I found some of the most
intriguing maps from doing simple searches on large topic domains.
More complex searches seemed to have peculiar results that made me
question how the interface was mapping the search over to Pubmed. The
unclear limit on what subset of the database is being searched also
compromises the results for the purpose of doing actual research,
however the results are quite fascinating for illustrating concepts
for students or an audience. My test was a very quick and dirty one,
so perhaps with further exploration of the advanced search features,
prefs and search builder I might be able to clarify some of what I was
trying to do.
Now, for Sci2, it is a similar kind of tool, but more clearly and
robustly serving the goals of scientists for doing actual research and
creating publishable graphics.
In their words:
"The Science of Science (Sci2) Tool is a modular toolset specifically
designed for the study of science. It supports the temporal,
geospatial, topical, and network analysis and visualization of
scholarly datasets at the micro (individual), meso (local), and macro
(global) levels."
Sci2 does not analyze PubMed data but instead the ISI Web of
Knowledge. It gives more obvious control of the data set and outputs,
but of course demands a greater investment of time in learning how to
use it effectively and appropriately.
Both of these are interesting tools, useful, but for rather different
purposes, despite some of the superficial similarities.
Cool Toys Pic of the day - KNALIJ & Sci2
KNALIJ:
Sci2 (Science of Science) Tool:
sci2.cns.iu.edu/user/index.php
These two scientific data mining and knowledge visualization tools
have a certain amount in common. Both tools are free, and support
research and data visualization of the science on a topic. Firstly and
foremost for me, both of these are items I discovered through the
kindness and sharing of my professional library colleagues. The first
time I saw anything about KNALIJ was literally on our library
information screen, where one of my peers in our library had selected
it as the tool of the week. I have my suspicions as to who might have
chosen it, but I'm not sure. However, for Sci2 I definitely know who
it was. I had just started to write this post when Kristi Holmes pinged me
on Twitter with the info about Sci2.
KNALIJ allows you to do a Pubmed search and then displays an
interactive bubble map of either the results, co-authorship, journals,
or impact of funding. For the results map, it selects a set of the
most current articles on your search topic. How many is not something
I'm sure of, and I did not see any results earlier than 2009 in my
searches. The display shows you the most commonly associated subject
headings for your term, with bubbles. The more results for a concept,
the larger the bubble; the more central a concept the hotter the
colors. The maps are interactive, allowing you to mouse over and get
more information about a bubble and its relationships. They also allow
you to output a PDF of the generated map.
I tried both simple and complex searches. I found some of the most
intriguing maps from doing simple searches on large topic domains.
More complex searches seemed to have peculiar results that made me
question how the interface was mapping the search over to Pubmed. The
unclear limit on what subset of the database is being searched also
compromises the results for the purpose of doing actual research,
however the results are quite fascinating for illustrating concepts
for students or an audience. My test was a very quick and dirty one,
so perhaps with further exploration of the advanced search features,
prefs and search builder I might be able to clarify some of what I was
trying to do.
Now, for Sci2, it is a similar kind of tool, but more clearly and
robustly serving the goals of scientists for doing actual research and
creating publishable graphics.
In their words:
"The Science of Science (Sci2) Tool is a modular toolset specifically
designed for the study of science. It supports the temporal,
geospatial, topical, and network analysis and visualization of
scholarly datasets at the micro (individual), meso (local), and macro
(global) levels."
Sci2 does not analyze PubMed data but instead the ISI Web of
Knowledge. It gives more obvious control of the data set and outputs,
but of course demands a greater investment of time in learning how to
use it effectively and appropriately.
Both of these are interesting tools, useful, but for rather different
purposes, despite some of the superficial similarities.