Our laboratory developed a framework and a set of algorithms to create maps (simplified abstractions) of causal information in research findings, that can be used to integrate information and guide research planning. Based on this framework and algorithms, we developed a free web application that helps biologists keep track and interact with causal information in research papers (www.researchmaps.org).

Why researchmaps? In the last 30 years, there has been a dramatic increase in the complexity of experiments and publications in Biology, including in Neuroscience. This problem is specially severe in neuroscience, since in this field experiments often attempt to integrate across different sub-disciplines and levels of complexity, including, molecular, cellular, systems, behavioral, cognitive and clinical neuroscience. This discipline, for example, includes nearly three million research articles reporting approximately 30 million experiments.

We are looking for neuroscience students to helps us with our researchmaps project! This is a great opportunity for students interested in learning how neuroscientists integrate and plan experiments! Contact us!

For a recent Ray Kurzweil's newsletter article on our researchmaps work click here...

Alcino Silva talks about Researchmaps in a 2015 Current Biology interview

Key Publications:

- J Wood, NJ Matiasz, AJ Silva, A.A. W Hsu, and W. Wang., OpBerg: Discovering causal sentences using optimal alignments., in Big Data Analytics and Knowledge Discovery, R. Wrembel, et al., Editors. 2022, Springer: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland. p. 17-31. (link)

- Matiasz NJ, Wood J, Wang W, Silva AJ, Hsu W. Experiment Selection in Meta-Analytic Piecemeal Causal Discovery. IEEE Access. 2021;9:97929-97941. doi: 10.1109/access.2021.3093524. Epub 2021 Jul 1. PMID: 34532201 (PDF)

- Matiasz, N. J., J. Wood, P. Doshi, W. Speier, B. Beckemeyer, W. Wang, W. Hsu and A. J. Silva (2018). "ResearchMaps.org for integrating and planning research." PLoS One 13(5): e0195271 (PDF)

- Matiasz, N.J., J. Wood, W. Wang, A.J. Silva, and W. Hsu, Computer-Aided Experiment Planning toward Causal Discovery in Neuroscience. Front Neuroinform, 2017. 11: p. 12(PDF)

- Silva AJ, Müller KR. The need for novel informatics tools for integrating and planning research in molecular and cellular cognition. Learn Mem. 2015 Aug 18;22(9):494-8. PMID: 26286658. (PDF)

- Engineering the next revolution in neuroscience: the new science of experiment planning, 2013 by Alcino J. Silva, Anthony Landreth, John Bickle. Oxford Press, ISBN-13: 978-0199731756 ISBN-10: 0199731756 Edition: 1st. Book from Oxford Press 2013

- Landreth, A. and Silva, A.J. The Need for Research Maps to Navigate Published Work and Inform Experiment Planning. Neuron 2013 79 411-415 PMID: 23931992 (PDF)