What is Shape of Science?
A tool for visualizing the structure of science
This open-access information visualization project offers researchers, editors and the general public a view of the structure of science as reflected through the interaction of scientific journals
Goals
Shape of Science is designed to offer:
- Open access to scientometric indicators for scientific journals
- Scientometric relationships among scientific journals
- Insight into the distribution and/or concentration of scientific communication in each country
- Distribution by subject categories
Features and Functionalities
del Shape of Science
FEATURES
- Open-access visualization tool
- Data and information of all Scopus indexed journals
- Updated annually
- Standardized information through a tool able to identify and disambiguate journals, authors, and institutions, enabling the unique identification of each journal and accurate attribution of citations
- The map is generated from a relational matrix based on citation, co-citation, and bibliographic coupling derived from Scopus indexed publications
- An overlay mapping methodology is used to position selected subsets of publications within the context of the global structure of scientific publications
FUNCTIONALITIES
- The interface allows the visualization of scientometric indicators and the clusters structure formed through shared authorship
- The interface includes references to subject areas and categories using automatic positioning and zoom+pan functions to facilitate navigation
- The interface is a valuable tool for analyzing the presence of Scopus indexed publications across different scientific domains, as well as the global distribution of publishing capacity by country and region
- Offers a set of filters by geography, subject area, quartiles, and other characteristics specific to scientific journals, whether open access or indexed in SciELO
Advantages of Shape of Science
We provide solutions and added value to our users
Publishers and editors
- Identify journals that share the same quartile and subject area
- Identification of journals that are closely related through their citation, co-citation, and coupling by proximity
Researchers
- Discover Scopus-indexed journals on a specific topic for potential submissions
- Identify the quartile and scientometric indicators that best suit their publication
- The map can be used as an analytical tool for research related to the representation of science and scientometrics
Universities
- Identify the journals that will help strengthen the impact of institutional scientific output and that belong to well-defined scientific communities
- Use journal and country scientometric indicators to establish policies for promoting research
- Understand the status of journals published in their country and those of their competitors
Governments
- Monitor the country’s scientific performance
Research Centers
- Identify the scientific communication trends in their discipline and research focus, as well as the research trends and fronts being pursued by the top-ranked journals
