Project

Discipline

data visualization; digital humanities; mobility; bibliometrics; research network

Lead
La mappa mondiale del mondo scientifico.
Lay summary
Questo progetto affronta il problema di visualizzare le collaborazioni e la mobilità degli accademici attraverso la creazione di una mappa globale disegnata a scale differenti, dall'individuo alle organizzazioni e gli stati. Questa mappa è intesa come uno strumento per fornire una guida professionale per la mobilità scientifica studiando i flussi degli accademici nel mondo intero.

Direct link to Lay Summary

Last update: 15.06.2018

Lead
Worldwide Map of Research.
Lay summary
This project addresses the challenge of displaying collaboration and mobility of scholars through the creation of a global map at different scales, from individuals to organizations and countries. The map is intended as an instrument to provide a professional guide to scientific mobility in order to study flows of scholars worldwide.

Direct link to Lay Summary

Last update: 15.06.2018

Worldwide Map of Research reveals the hidden dynamics that are in action in the world of universities and research centers. Scholars and researchers work together daily in order to accomplish various tasks, from publications to courses, from grants to supervision, combining forces to achieve better results. This complex network of collaborations occurs at different levels (a) individually between scholars and (b) collectively between organized research groups such as laboratories, departments, institutions, and countries. This proposal addresses the challenge of visually revealing collaboration and mobility of current research environments through the creation of a worldwide map, intended as an instrument to understand the global research networks and as a guide to professional mobility.In a time when politicians are engaging in heated discussions centering around immigration, naturalization, visa, borders, and mobility, placing into question the circulation of individuals, I aim to show that scientific research relies on the collaboration of millions of researchers, each deeply connected in a global network. These researchers make progress by visiting different countries, where they can expand their own network of collaborations. In this sense, the Worldwide Map of Research will be a new instrument, revealing global research networks and suggesting how they can be expanded, in other words a new tool for research mobility.This proposal relies on an open-access dataset that is increasing yearly. The ORCID organization introduced a not-for-profit solution that is based on an open identifier for individuals that aims to connect them. This identifier corresponds to a research profile that can be enriched through the addition of publications, education, employment, and other information. Today, many institutions support the ORCID initiative, encouraging scholars and researchers to participate. The initiative is currently supported by 846 member organizations, including the majority of Swiss institutions among which are CERN, ETH, EPFL, and SNSF.The proposal foresees the writing of two papers, one on the technical methods (IEEE VIS Conference), and another centering on the use and the interpretation of the visualizations (a conference proceeding in the Digital Humanities conference or an article in the Frontiers Journal).However, the central point of the proposal is the publication of a prototype of the Worldwide Map of Research. Making this visualization public will allow the assessment of the project’s relevance, and enable feedback from its users. The Worldwide Map of Research, indeed, is intended to serve as an instrument for fostering the collaboration and mobility of scholars, and a tool of self-recognition for both organizations and countries, enabling an understanding of their own position in the sphere of international research.