SCImago: rank, analyze, compare, and visualize science

A visualization of research in the US, generated in SCImago. It is the same (or similar) Java tool Mike Love used for his Genealogy of Influence Map. Compare to a more elaborate static map of science found by Luke/Mike. SCImago lets the user define the science catagory, country and type of visualization which is pretty cool.

A bubble graph of science field rank (x-axis H index) by cites per doc (y-axis). Medicine and biochem/molecular biology are the big green and olive points. Multidisciplinary studies is the small salmon colored point at the top right.

In addition to flashy visualizations, SCImago is a free journal ranking tool, that is sorely needed. I am currently using this function to pick a journal for my latest manuscript.

Here is an introduction to SCImago as posted on their website:

“The SCImago Journal & Country Rank is a portal that includes the journals and country scientific indicators developed from the information contained in the Scopus® database (Elsevier B.V.). These indicators can be used to assess and analyze scientific domains.

This platform takes its name from the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) indicator, developed by SCImago from the widely known algorithm Google PageRank™. This indicator shows the visibility of the journals contained in the Scopus® database from 1996.”

PARK(ing) Day :: Friday Sept 19, 2008

Pictures from PARK(ing) Day 2007, Raleigh, NC — NC State Architecture students

“PARK(ing) Day is a one-day, global event centered in San Francisco where artists, activists, and citizens collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spots into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public parks.”

Bottled at the source

Here is a fascinating article on a new science/art piece in London. It combines water quality, ethnohydrology, and art to label bottled tap water from districts in London with their likely contents– such as anti-depressants, cocaine, birth control hormones, and vitamins. Here is a snippet from the blog entitled “London Biotypes: Exploring Potential City- Body Ecology.”

The largest part of the pharmaceuticals and chemicals we take go through our bodies and eventually end up in waste water. As water and waste treatment plants haven’t been designed to filter them, the content of our medicine cabinets are eventually passed into the water supply. In London, tap water comes from surface water which implies that traces of our medicine can end up in our drinking water. This results in local differences in tap water, based on the food and drugs we ingest….

Using synthetic biology and in particular the biobricks tools, bacteria are programmed to become cheap biosensors. The bacteria-sensors, housed in the small transparent compartments, change colour when oestrogen, antibiotics, Viagra or Prozac are detected in the water. Since synthetic biology is both open source and modular, this instrument can be redesigned to detect other chemicals by any Urban Biogeographer, even amateurs as the technology is becoming increasingly accessible.

What are your thoughts on this new spin on bottled water? I’d like to try the sewage sampler myself?

[image from drinktap.org and the American Water Works Association]