Visualizing 60 years of anthrax research

Using a collection of 2472 papers covering 60 years of anthrax research, we demonstrate three techniques for visualizing and mapping knowledge in a scientific specialty. Timelines, maps of clusters of papers by time, reveal the temporal changes in the specialty. Crossmaps, maps of the correspondence of groups of entities of different entity-types, reveal overlapping relations among sub-specialties within the specialty. Usage plots, maps of entity usage over time, allow visualization of emergence and obsolescence in the specialty of key entities such as seminal references and important researchers. The timeline visualization of the anthrax collection of papers reveals that anthrax research grew in two distinct phases, and that the specialty experienced major disruptions in reaction to the Soviet anthrax bioweapons accident at Sverdlovsk in 1979, and the anthrax postal bioterror attacks in the United States in 2001. A crossmap of research fronts to reference clusters reveals groups of key references in the specialty, and the overlapping relation of those groups to research topics in the specialty. A usage plot of references reveals the temporal emergence and obsolescence of key groups of references in the specialty.