circlize implements and enhances circular visualization in R by Zuguang Gu, et al.
Abstract:
Summary: Circular layout is an efficient way for the visualization of huge amounts of genomic information. Here we present the circlize package, which provides an implementation of circular layout generation in R as well as an enhancement of available software. The flexibility of this package is based on the usage of low-level graphics functions such that self-defined high-level graphics can be easily implemented by users for specific purposes. Together with the seamless connection between the powerful computational and visual environment in R, circlize gives users more convenience and freedom to design figures for better understanding genomic patterns behind multi-dimensional data.
Availability and implementation: circlize is available at the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN): http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/circlize/
The article is behind a paywall but fortunately, the R code is not!
I suspect I know which one will get more “hits.” 😉
Useful for exploring multidimensional data as well as presenting multidimensional data encoded using a topic map.
Sometimes displaying information as nodes and edges isn’t the best display.
Remember the map of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia?
You could display the same information with nodes (topics) and associations (edges) but it would not be nearly as compelling.
Although, you could make the same map a “cover” for the topics (read people) associated with segments of the map, enabling a reader to take in the whole map and then drill down to the detail for any location or individual.
It would still be a topic map, even though its primary rendering would not be as nodes and edges.