Ecological word associations, animated

Posted by llester on January 26, 2016

Created by Ray Dybzinski (Loyola University Chicago, Institute of Environmental Sustainability) and Gord McNickle (Purdue University, Botany and Plant Pathology, @EvoEcoGames) and originally published on 8 January 2016.

Which ecological concepts have most occupied ecologists over the last fifty years? The video animates the frequency of words appearing in Ecology abstracts from 1964 (when the journal began publishing abstracts with research articles) to 2013. Word size is proportional to frequency. Proximity in abstracts is reflected in proximity and shared color in the word cluster. Dybzinski and McNickle used VOSviewer, a program for visualizing bibliographic networks, to map a moving window of words from 400 abstracts.

Learn more about their methods in the notes to the YouTube post.

Van Eck, N.J., & Waltman, L. (2010). Software survey: VOSviewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping. Scientometrics, 84(2), 523-538. – See more at: http://www.vosviewer.com/publications/

Share this article

News

Welcome to Sweden

No, not Greg Poehler’s short-lived international sitcom by the same name, but very literally what the hotel clerk said when I checked in. He smiled; since I’d been practicing on Duolingo for a few weeks and had hoped to proudly correctly pronounce Tack så mycket and instead replied (translated) “you’re welcome,” I did not. Blame the jet lag. Nonetheless, greetings from…

Read Post
Call for Nominations: ESA Regional Policy Award

ESA seeks nominations for its Regional Policy Award to recognize a policymaker who has integrated environmental science and policy in initiatives that foster more sustainable communities.

Read Post
Ecology Doesn’t Stop at the Coast: ESA at the Ocean Sciences Meeting

By Adrienne Sponberg ESA recently joined more than 6,000 ocean scientists from around the world at the bi-annual Ocean Sciences Meeting (OSM) in New Orleans. OSM is a joint meeting between the American Geophysical Union, Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography and the Oceanography Society. Executive Director Catherine O’Riordan and Director of Society Programs Adrienne Sponberg staffed the ESA…

Read Post
Give and Help Us Take Our Next Great Stride Forward

By ESA President Shahid Naeem It’s now February and, as ESA’s President, I realize that my term is almost half over. It is a good time to reflect on our accomplishments from the past few months, while realizing that these have been possible because of the hard work of ESA members over many years. I’ve been with ESA since 1984,…

Read Post

View All News

Archived News

Join ESA

The Ecological Society of America is a community of 9,000 scientists, researchers, decision makers, policy managers, and educators who are dedicated to understanding life on earth. We are an advocate for ecology and a voice for ecologists. ESA strengthens connections within and outside our community to support your work and promotes ecological science. As our discipline expands its boundaries with new ideas, new experimental tools, and the recruitment of young scientists, we hope you will join us!