Drexel Snapshot: A New Way to Look at Research

This is an enhanced dual-overlay map showing more than 18,000 publications by 3,790 authors at Drexel University and the 68,263 references from which they draw information (click on the image to take a closer look).

It was generated by CiteSpace, a data visualization tool created by Chaomei Chen, PhD, a professor in the College of Computing & Informatics. CiteSpace can query Thomson Reuter’s Web of Science and generate graphics like this to show the origins and genesis of our scientific knowledge.

Chen used it to create this visualization, which displays research cited by Drexel authors as a star map, as a way of identifying clusters of knowledge—topics that our faculty members most frequently tap into as part of their studies. The densest groupings are around the subjects of trust, polymers, commitment therapy and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

He has also used it to study where research collaborations are most frequently taking place (between America and the UK, it turns out). And to see where the research of Nobel Laureates falls within the web of scientific knowledge (usually near the confluence of multiple disciplines). Chen is currently working on a way to show an evolving universe of scientific claims in a context of available evidence and alternative interpretation, as a way of making scientific knowledge more accessible and easier to work with.

For media inquiries, contact Britt Faulstick, news officer, Drexel University, at bef29@drexel.edu.