BioVis Explorer: A visual guide for biological data visualization techniques

PLoS One. 2017 Nov 1;12(11):e0187341. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0187341. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Data visualization is of increasing importance in the Biosciences. During the past 15 years, a great number of novel methods and tools for the visualization of biological data have been developed and published in various journals and conference proceedings. As a consequence, keeping an overview of state-of-the-art visualization research has become increasingly challenging for both biology researchers and visualization researchers. To address this challenge, we have reviewed visualization research especially performed for the Biosciences and created an interactive web-based visualization tool, the BioVis Explorer. BioVis Explorer allows the exploration of published visualization methods in interactive and intuitive ways, including faceted browsing and associations with related methods. The tool is publicly available online and has been designed as community-based system which allows users to add their works easily.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Information Storage and Retrieval
  • Internet
  • User-Computer Interface*

Grants and funding

This work was partially supported by the framework grant “The Digitized Society—Past, Present, and Future” from the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) [grant number 2012-5659; https://www.vr.se]. We also acknowledge the support of the Discovery Project grant “Visualisation of large, complex networks through small, beautiful diagrams” from Australian Research Council (ARC) [grant number DP140100077; http://www.arc.gov.au/discovery-projects]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.