Los Alamos researchers create 'Map of Science'

Data provides high-resolution picture of scientists' information retrieval habits

Laboratory scientists have produced the world's first Map of Science - a high-resolution graphic depiction of the virtual trails scientists leave behind when they retrieve information from online services. The research, led by Johan Bollen of the Los Alamos National Laboratory Research Library, appears this week in PLoS ONE (the Public Library of Science), here.

This "Map of Science" illustrates the online behavior of scientists accessing different scientific journals, publications, aggregators, etc. Colors represent the scientific discipline of each journal, based on disciplines classified by the Getty Research Institute's Art and Architecture Thesaurus, while lines reflect the navigation of users from one journal to another when interacting with scholarly web portals.

Posted by kv at March 12, 2009 04:35 PM