What do the bubbles on the wheel of science represent?

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• Each bubble represents a Topic or Topic Cluster (depending on the view you’ve chosen).
• The size of the bubble indicates the output of the entity in the Topic or Topic Cluster.

  • This means the same Topic can be different sizes for different entities, but positioned in the same place on the Wheel (see below).
• The position of the bubble is based upon the ASJC categories of the journals in which the Scholarly Output is published.

  • The position relates to the Topic as a whole and is not affected by the entity you are looking at.
  • The more influence an ASJC has over a Topic, the closer it will bring the Topic to its side of the Wheel of Science. As a result, the Topics closer to the center of the Wheel are more likely to be multidisciplinary, compared to the Topics towards the edge of the Wheel.
  • Note that a Topic may be placed at the edge of the Wheel, but still be considered multidisciplinary because it is equally influenced by a number of ASJCs that are located on the same side of the Wheel.
• The calculation for the bubble size is:
  maxRadius = 80
  minRadius = 8
  denominator = maxVal - minVal
  if(denominator == 0) { denominator = 1 }
  Topic Circle radius = ((maxRadius - minRadius) * (scholarlyOutputofTopic - minVal) / denominator + minRadius)
• The "max" and "min" values are based upon the scholarly output values of the topics for the entity for the selected time period and subject area

  • This means that the "max" value can vary from one time period and subject area to another

In the example below, the researcher has published 7 Scholarly Outputs in the Topic of Eye; Eye movements; Vergence eye. Worldwide there are 130 Scholarly Outputs in this area between 2014 to >2019. This Topic has articles published primarily the ASJCs of Medicine and to a lesser degree in Neuroscience, which is why the bubble is placed to the edge of the Medicine subject area on the Wheel.