PubExplorer: An interactive analytical system for visualizing publication data

With the intersection and convergence of multiple disciplines and technologies, more and more researchers are actively exploring interdisciplinary cooperation outside their main research fields. Facing a new research field, researchers often hope to quickly learn what is being studied in this field, which research points are receiving high attention, which researchers are studying these research points, and then consider the possibility of collaborating with core researchers on these research points. In addition, students who are preparing for academic further education usually conduct research on mentors and mentors’ research platforms, including academic connections, employment opportunities, etc. In order to satisfy these requirements, we (1) design a research point state map based on a science map to help researchers and students understand the development state of a new research field; (2) design a bar-link author-affiliation information graph to help researchers and students clarify academic networks of scholars and find suitable collaborators or mentors; (3) designs citation pattern histogram to quickly discover research achievements with high research value, such as the Sleeping Beauty papers, recently hot papers, classic papers and so on. Finally, an interactive analytical system named PubExplorer was implemented with IEEE VIS publication data, and its effectiveness is verified through case studies.