MAPSustain: Visualising biomass and biofuel research

This paper discusses the visual and interaction design of an online website that supports the interactive exploration of research on biomass and biofuel research. The dataset used covers 13,506 publication records from MEDLINE, the Department of Energy (DOE) and Thomson Reuter's Web of Science (ISI), as well as the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) patents, and funding by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the years 1965 to 2010 (see details in Kong et al., forthcoming). The analyses and visualisations reveal where research and development (R&D) takes place in the United States and also in topic space. Results aim to guide researchers gaining an overview of relevant expertise and research, industry representatives interested in identifying potential collaborators and competitors, or agencies interested in supporting or promoting a specific area of sustainability research.