The KnetMaps tool to visualize biological knowledge networks

What is it about?

KnetMaps is a JavaScript-based tool for the interactive visualization of knowledge networks. It is well suited for applications that need to visualise complementary, connected and content-rich data in a single view. KnetMaps loads data in JSON format, visualizes the networks using lightweight JS libraries, and supports interactive touch gestures. KnetMaps uses effective visualization techniques to prevent information overload.

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Why is it important?

Networks have been widely used to visually represent complex information in many disciplines, from social sciences to biology, computer science and manufacturing. Knowledge networks are increasingly used to model diverse knowledge domains by acquiring and integrating information and applying a reasoner to derive new knowledge. A challenge when visualizing knowledge networks is to avoid information congestion and overload that could hinder user experience. In molecular biology, there is a wealth of available information, and visualizing all of it at once reduces the value of a visualization or makes it even unusable for analytical purposes, and therefore requires the development of special approaches when visualizing such data, which is where KnetMaps is particularly useful.