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Development of InfoGraphic Services for Journals and Articles
By Tae-sul Seo, Principal Researcher, Science and Technology Information Centre, Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information
- November 2016 -
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This technical report was translated after modifying the following article:
Cho, S. and Seo, T. 2016. "Study on Development of Journal and Article Visualization Services”, J
Kor Soc Libr Inform Sci. 50(2): 183-196 (Korean)
Background
Scholarly journals represent the distribution medium for scientific and technical knowledge.
Numerous journals are being published around the world while several thousand journals
are in publication in South Korea. However, because most of the information in journal
articles is in text-based services, researchers spend much time in reading related articles.
Fig. 1: History of information retrieval
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Since long ago, abstracts of journal articles have been utilised to reduce time during
information search. The development of computers and telecommunications has
significantly decreased information retrieval time for researchers to obtain scholarly
information even without visiting physical libraries. During the mid-1990s, an introduction
of the Web has increased convenience with a graphical user interface as well as allowing
the full-text to be downloaded for reading. As the age of Web 2.0 emerged during the 21st
century, adopting the notion of Semantic Web has facilitated the link across information
resources. Recently, in tandem with proliferation of mobile platforms, the visualisation of
analysed information conveys information intuitively.
Visualisation enhances human understanding by transforming text data or information into
multimedia including tables, figures or videos. Visualisation improves human cognition
such as pattern recognition, summarisation, insight, inference and understanding (Patterson
et al., 2014). Moreover, the visualisation could provide an intuitive and effective search for
scholarly information. (Seo, T.-S. et al. 2014)
Trends in Journal Publishing Technologies
The notion of semantic publishing has emerged in order to increase readability of XML-
based journal articles (Shontton et al. 2009; Shontton 2009). Various efforts for semantic
publishing have been made, including visualisation techniques applied to journal articles.
Meanwhile, global journal publishers are testing various possibilities of visualisation for
scholarly information. Such testing includes IOP Publishing’s Article Evolution project,
Elsevier’s Article of the Future project and Wiley’s Anywhere Article project. The IOP
project (http://iopscience.iop.org/info/page/articleevolution) inserts a video abstract in an
article, rendering the article more accessible through audio and visual tools. The Elsevier
project visualises an integral part of the article by using a graphical abstract (2013). The
Wiley project allows readers to browse all figures in the article simultaneously by capturing
the content of an article with rapid navigation.
(http://olabout.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-819787.html) In addition, a cartoon
abstracts from Taylor & Francis had won the 2016 ALPSP Awards by the Association of
Learned & Professional Society Publishers (http://www.alpsp.org/ALPSP-Awards).
Data Models
Journal Data Model
Table 1 summarises user-based request items for information in scholarly journals by
readers, researchers, libraries and publishers. The traditional research information services
focus on the content of research information predominantly from readers’ perspective, as
indicated in Table 1. Moreover, detailed information on scholarly journals is on demand by
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various information consumers. Fig. 2 is a journal data model based on Table 1.
Table 1: User-based request items for information in scholarly journals
Fig 2: Journal data model (Cho et al. 2016)
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Article Data Model
Fig 3 is a diagram showing major items in the article data model of the Journal Article Tag
Suit (JATS), a technical standard by the National Information Standards Organization
(NISO). The JATS provides a broad set of 254 data elements and 135 attributes. To
visualise articles in scholarly journals, a selective set of items are necessary.
Fig 3: Article data model of the Journal Article Tag Suit (JATS) (NISO 2012)
Visualisation Techniques
Visualisation methods are divided into time visualisation (e.g. various time series graphs),
distribution visualisation (e.g. pie charts, tree maps), relation visualisation (e.g. bubble
charts), comparison visualisation (e.g. star charts) and spatial visualisation (e.g. mapping).
Furthermore, a infographic combines several visualisation methods with design components
and storytelling techniques. (Seo, T.-S. et al. 2014)
For scholarly journals and articles, journal infographic and article infographic can be
developed by creating visualisation models according to each data item as well as by
discovering and applying visualisation methods appropriate for each data element.
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Journal Visualisation Plans
An infographic representing all information items in a scholarly journal can be effective in
presenting journal information. Table 2 summarises visualisation items and visualisation
plans.
Table 2: Visualisation plans according to information items in scholarly journals
Category Item Visualisation Note (Information Provided)
Identifier
Journal Title -
Print ISSN -
Online ISSN -
Homepage URL Thumbnail Linking (comprehensive information
on scholarly journals)
Editor
EIC’s country National Flag Linking (reputation of EIC)
E d i t o r ’s geographic
distribution World Map
Publisher Publisher Name - Linking
Indexing Indexed in Banner Linking (scholarly journal impact)
Covered by Banner Linking
Copyright CCL Banner Linking (use term information)
Subject
Subject Category -
Scope TagCloud
For titles of articles published within
the next five years (scope of theme
covered)
Others
Publication Frequency Icon & Bold (information frequency)
Language Icon (readability)
Number of Article per
Year Icon & Bold (Information amount)
Launched in Bold (history)
Author Fee Icon (submission fee)
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Journal Article Visualisation Plans
A infographic representing all information items in a journal article can present journal
information effectively. Table 3 summarises visualisation items and plans.
Table 3: Visualisation plans according to information items in journal articles
Category Item Visualisation Note (Information Provided)
Front Matter
Journal Title -
Article Title Bold
Abstract TagCloud Full-text (summary information
according to word frequency)
Author Name Icon & National Fl
ag
Author identifier linking (reputation
and nationality of an author)
Vol./No./Page -
History - (up-to-date information)
CCL Banner Linking (use term information)
Article Body
Figure Icon & Button Linking (number of figures, preview)
Table Icon & Button Linking (number of tables, preview)
Equation Icon & Button Linking (number of equations,
preview)
Back Matter Reference Icon & Button Linking (number of references)
Developing Visualisation Services for Scholarly Information
Development Outline
Figure 4 is an outline for developing visualisation for both journals and articles.
Approximately 70 journals were selected from KPubS, which is an XML-based journal
publishing platform operated by the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information
(KISTI). Journal infographics were developed for each scholarly journal while article
infographics were developed for each journal article. All words in the TagClouds of both
journal and article infographics were interlinked to the DBPedia via the LOD technology.
The website for scholarly information visualisation service (http://open.kpubs.org) was
developed by PHP, and the data were converted into the JSON format. D3 was used for
visualisation.
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Developing Journal Infographics
A journal infographic provides a clearer visualisation for intuitive understanding relevant
information on journals. For such intuitive understanding, the infographics use visual items
such as journal thumbnail and images for publication frequency, number of article per year,
editor’s nationality, number of editors per continent and terms of use. Furthermore, detailed
information shows up at a click because an editor-in-chief uses the Open Researcher and
Contributor ID (ORCID) and terms of use adopts the Creative Commons License (CCL).
The ORCID and the CCL were hyperlinked to the detailed information.
Fig. 4: Development outline for visualisation of journals and articles
Instead of the scope of a journal, a TagCloud was created by using the title of journal
articles published within five years, and via the LOD interlinking, specific terminology is
immediately available.
Other information including bibliographic information remains text-based due to the least
value of visualisation.
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Fig. 5: Details in the infographic interface developed for a journal
Developing Article Infographics
If a user clicks on the button, “Archive,” shown in the journal infographic in the previous
section, a thumbnail will show up, sorting out the issues in a reverse chronological order. If
the user clicks one of the thumbnails, a list of articles for that issue will then show up.
Similarly, if the user further clicks on one of the articles, the user can then browse the
journal article infographics, as shown in Fig. 6.
The primary difference of journal article infographics from traditional text-based services is
that the former can display a full-text TagCloud rather than only abstracts by authors. In
addition, journal article infographics are able to provide the meaning of all words on the
TagCloud via the LOD interlinking to the DBPedia.
Furthermore, previews on all references, figures, tables and equations are also available at
the bottom.
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Fig. 6: Details in the infographics interface developed for journal articles
Discussion
Advances in Visualisation of Scholarly Information
The visualisation service developed in this study allows intuitive and prompt understanding
of journals and articles therein. Visualising scholarly information may contribute to
efficient retrieval of scholarly information by researchers. Furthermore, the efforts may
enhance the demand of visualising scholarly information, in turn fostering the scholarly
information industry.
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Fig. 7: Comparing interfaces of text-based services and visualisation services
However, users accustomed to the traditional scholarly information may need more time to
familiarise themselves with the new interface. Furthermore, such endeavour may face
opposing views. Thus, consensus between the academia and the industry on the scope and
extent of visualisation may be required.
Scholarly Implications
The meaning of the new features at the new interface requires consideration. 1) Instead of
the scope of scholarly journals, a TagCloud was created using the title of journal articles
published within the last five years and 2) instead of abstracts of articles, a TagCloud of
main texts was created. While the scope of scholarly journals provided by editors provides a
general overview of articles, the journal TagCloud provides the themes extracted from real
articles. Thus, referring to the TagCloud, editors can modify the scope of journals or
determine the future direction of the journal.
In addition, the TagCloud of main texts of an article can be an additional information tool
supplementing the author abstract. Namely, the article TagCloud can beneficially provide a
quantitative indicator for a specific theme handled in an article.
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Challenging Issues For a widespread use, visualisation of scholarly information faces several challenges, listed
as follows:
First, the number of XML-based articles is limited. As there are only few journals providing
completely XML-based texts in South Korea, PDF documents must be converted into XML documents to extend the visualisation services. A new technology is required to visualise
PDF documents, or cheaply convert PDF documents into XML documents because this
work requires much time and cost.
Second, the Korean dictionaries for the LOD are very few. As the DBPedia is an English
service, an automatic translation system must be developed to better connect to the Korean
literature and Korean dictionaries for the LOD such as the DBPedia must be developed.
Conclusion
This study introduced a pilot service to implement data model for the visualisation of
scholarly information. Further, the study presented visualisation techniques for each
scholarly information object and infographics for both journals and articles.
Scholarly information may be made more accessible to readers by adding visualisation
techniques beyond the traditional text-based services. However, the overuse of visualisation
may distort the information provided by journals and articles, and thus, an appropriate level
of visualisation is required.
The widespread use of visualisation services for scholarly journals and articles must be
preceded by the construction of structured information elements for full-XML texts.
Therefore, an XML conversion of scholarly articles or advanced visualisation technologies
for non-XML documents must be developed.
References [1] Seo, T.-S. et al. 2014. Strategy for Scholarly Information Service, Seoul: KISTI. [2] Cho, S.-N. et al. 2016. “Analysis of journal attributes of 403 KoreaScience journals from the viewpoint of author”, Science Editing, 3(1): 19-25. [3] “Designing the Article of the Future”. 2013. Innovation in Publishing. January 16. [online] [cited 2016. 5. 13.] <https://www.elsevier.com/connect/designing-the-article-of-the-future> [4] National Information Standards Organization (NISO). 2012. “JATS: Journal Article Tag Suite Version 1.0”, ANSI/NISO Z39.96. [5] Patterson, R. E. et al. 2014. "A Human Cognition Framework for Information Visualization," Compter Graphics, 42: 42-58. [6] Seo, T. and Choi, S. 2014. “Data Models for Visualization Service of Scholarly Journal and Article Information”, ICCC 2014 Proceedings, 155-156. [7] Shotton, D. 2009. "Semantic publishing: the coming revolution in scientific journal publishing," Learned Publishing. 22(2): 85-94. [8] Shotton, D. et al. 2009. “Adventures in Semantic Publishing: Exemplar Semantic Enhancements of a Research Article,” PLoS Computational Biology. 5(4): 1-17.