SCImago Shape of Science

Journal search

Initializing 3D visualization…

Geo

Region/Country of journal publisher

Country of authors

Subject

Area

Related journals

Min. weight 0.00

Depth

Mesh edges Apply sidebar filters Show full component

View on SCImago

User guide

Each sphere is a journal. Color = thematic cluster; position = citation-network similarity. Use the left panel to filter and the detail panel to inspect a journal and its neighbors.

Camera

Drag Rotate around the map

Scroll / Pinch Zoom in or out

Ctrl + Drag Pan the view

Double-click empty space — Reset camera

R Reset camera · Esc Close detail panel

+ / − Adjust node size · B Toggle bloom

Visual settings

Left sidebar Visual settings: brightness, node size, fog, size-by-SJR, wireframe, LOD shrink, and optional bloom (off by default — higher GPU cost).

Default preset — balanced overview. Presentation — brighter, larger nodes, more fog, bloom on, wireframe off.

Settings persist in your browser (localStorage).

Navigation

Click a sphere — Open journal detail + citation ego-network

Click empty space — Close detail panel

Hover a sphere — Tooltip with name and cluster (also works in detail mode on visible neighbors)

Search

Type a journal name. Use ↑↓ to move through results and Enter to fly to the selection.

Filters & legend

Sidebar filters combine with AND logic (all active constraints must match).

Publisher country/region — hides journals whose edition country does not match (one country per journal).

Country of authors — loads the citation-network overlay from SCImago ajaxmap (ISO country codes). Journals can have authors from many countries; this shows the slice for the selected author country.

Click cluster — Hide or show that group

Double-click cluster — Fly camera to that cluster

Ctrl + Click cluster — Solo mode (only that group)

Reset clusters button — Show all clusters again

Filter by publisher country, author country, ASJC area/category, quartile (Q1–Q4), Open Access, or SciELO.

Citation network

In detail mode, lines link the selected journal to its citation neighborhood in 3D.

Min. weight — hide weaker links and neighbors below the similarity threshold.

Depth (1–3 hops) — how far to walk from the selected journal. Expand network bumps depth by one hop (up to 3).

Mesh edges — draw links between all visible neighbors, not only star lines from the center. Capped at the top 2,000 edges by weight (a warning appears if truncated).

Apply sidebar filters — when on, neighbors hidden by the left panel are also hidden in the 3D network. Off by default so you can explore the full local neighborhood.

Show full component — reveal the entire connected component (up to 200 nodes). Resets when you change depth.

Related journals — paginated table (50 rows per page), sorted by weight. Click a row to open that journal. Rows marked filtered out match the citation link but are hidden by sidebar filters.

Use cases

Find a specific journal

Type its name in Journal search.
Pick a result with Enter or click it.
Review metrics and open the SCImago profile link.

Explore one scientific field

Ctrl + Click a cluster in the legend (e.g. Medicine).
Rotate and zoom to inspect its shape in the 3D map.
Click the reset clusters button when you want all clusters back.

Open Access journals in a region

Add a publisher country under Geo.
Enable Only Open Access Journals.
Optionally restrict to Q1 quartile.

Study citation neighbors

Click any visible sphere.
Raise Min. weight or Depth (or use Expand network) to grow the subgraph.
Enable Mesh edges to see how neighbors connect to each other.
Browse the Related journals table and click a row to jump to another journal.

Compare impact tiers

Toggle quartile chips (Q1–Q4) to hide lower tiers.
Combine with Subject → Area for a narrower slice.
Click a journal to see its SJR, quartile, and H-index side by side.

Author-country landscape

Pick a country under Country of authors.
Wait for the overlay to load — only journals in that author slice stay visible.
Compare with Publisher country to contrast editorial vs. authorship geography.