Who is Who in Phylogenetic Networks: Articles, Authors and Programs

TL;DR

This paper introduces 'Who is Who in Phylogenetic Networks,' a comprehensive database of articles, authors, and tools in the field, along with web tools for analysis and visualization of research trends and collaborations.

Contribution

It provides the first integrated database of phylogenetic network research, linking publications, authors, keywords, and software, with tools for network analysis and trend identification.

Findings

Over 600 publications and 500 authors included

Network analysis reveals key collaboration patterns

Identifies research trends and hotspots

Abstract

The phylogenetic network emerged in the 1990s as a new model to represent the evolution of species in the case where coexisting species transfer genetic information through hybridization, recombination, lateral gene transfer, etc. As is true for many rapidly evolving fields, there is considerable fragmentation and diversity in methodologies, standards and vocabulary in phylogenetic network research, thus creating the need for an integrated database of articles, authors, techniques, keywords and software. We describe such a database, "Who is Who in Phylogenetic Networks", available at http://phylnet.univ-mlv.fr. "Who is Who in Phylogenetic Networks" comprises more than 600 publications and 500 authors interlinked with a rich set of more than 200 keywords related to phylogenetic networks. The database is integrated with web-based tools to visualize authorship and collaboration networks and analyze these networks using common graph and social network metrics such as centrality (betweenness, eigenvector, degree and closeness) and clustering. We provide downloads of raw information about entries in the database, and a facility to suggest modifications and contribute new information to the database. We also present in this article common use cases of the database and identify trends in the research on phylogenetic networks using the information in the database and textual analysis.