Mapping the topical space

摘要

Flip through ten pages of this issue of Nature, and your eyes will be drawn to headlines and images. In our information-thick, data-supported world, optimal representation is key. Yet many scientists lack the tools and training to create great data visualization - to digitally parse data in many dimensions, revealing patterns and relationships in phenomena ranging from patent citations to the evolution of great scientific discoveries. Guidance is on offer from books such as Edward Tufte's Envisioning Information (Graphics Press, 1990) and Stephen Few's Show Me the Numbers (Analytics Press, 2004). In recent years, Nature Methods' Points of View column by Bang Wong, Martin Kryzwinski and invited co-authors has tested design rules on real data sets. Now, in Atlas of Knowledge, information scientist Katy Boerner aims to bring much of this together. As the second book in a series of three, it follows Atlas of Science (MIT Press, 2010), an introduction to the power of information visualization (see B. Schneiderman Nature 468, 1037; 2010). Both books complement Boerner's comprehensive travelling exhibition Places & Spaces: Mapping Science, now in its tenth year.