While graph drawing focuses more on the aesthetic representation of node-link diagrams, graph visualization takes into account other visual metaphors making them useful for graph exploration tasks in information visualization and visual analytics. Although there are aesthetic graph drawing criteria that describe how a graph should be presented to make it faster and more reliably explorable, many controlled and uncontrolled empirical user studies flourished over the past years. The goal of them is to uncover how well the human user performs graph-specific tasks, in many cases compared to previously designed graph visualizations. Due to the fact that many parameters in a graph dataset as well as the visual representation of them might be varied and many user studies have been conducted in this space, a state-of-the-art survey is needed to understand evaluation results and findings to inform the future design, research, and application of graph visualizations. In this article, we classify the present literature on the topmost level into graph interpretation, graph memorability, and graph creation where the users with their tasks stand in focus of the evaluation, not the computational aspects. As another outcome of this work, we identify the white spots in this field and sketch ideas for future research directions.

The stock market is an essential sub-sector in the financial area. Both understanding and evaluating the mountains of collected stock data has become a challenge in relevant fields. Data visualisation techniques can offer a practical and engaging method to show the processed data in a meaningful way, with centrality measurements representing the significant variables in a network, through exploring the aspects of the exact definition of the metric. Here, in this study, we conducted an approach that combines data processing, graph visualisation and social network analysis methods, to develop deeper insights of complex stock data, with the ultimate aim of drawing the correct conclusions with the finalised graph models. We addressed the performance of centrality metrics methods such as betweenness, closeness, eigenvector, PageRank and weighted degree measurements, drawing comparisons between the experiments’ results and the actual top 300 shares in the Australian Stock Market. The outcomes showed consistent results. Although, in our experiments, the results of the top 300 stocks from those five centrality measurements’ rankings did not match the top 300 shares given by the ASX (Australian Securities Exchange) entirely, in which the weighted degree and PageRank metrics performed better than other three measurements such as betweenness, closeness and eigenvector. Potential reasons may include that we did not take into account the factor of stock’s market capitalisation in the methodology. This study only considers the stock price’s changing rates among every two shares and provides a relevant static pattern at this stage. Further research will include looking at cycles and symmetry in the stock market over chosen trading days, and these may assist stakeholder in grasping deep insights of those stocks.

Due to force-directed algorithms’ capabilities of producing aesthetically pleasing graph layouts, which follow metrics for graph drawing aesthetics, these layouts have become the most common methods in the practical data visualization area. However, evaluating the performance of relevant algorithms remains a challenge, since graph layout quality is largely relying on aspects such as human intuition, personal judgment and methods’ pre-setting parameters. In addition, most aesthetics criteria of graph drawing conflict with each other. This study evaluated the performance measurements of four force-directed algorithms in terms of seven commonly applied aesthetic criteria based on practical raw data collected, and demonstrated the experimental framework. The early outcomes compared twenty final graph layouts and gave empirical evidences; the study may assist with future detailed force-directed algorithms selection based on users’ specific requirements.

Virus outbreaks are threats to humanity, and coronaviruses are the latest of many epidemics in the last few decades in the world. SARS-CoV (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Associated Coronavirus) is a member of the coronavirus family, so its study is useful for relevant virus data research. In this work, we conduct a proposed approach that is non-medical/clinical, generate graphs from five features of the SARS outbreak data in five countries and regions, and offer insights from a visual analysis perspective. The results show that prevention measures such as quarantine are the most common control policies used, and areas with strict measures did have fewer peak period days; for instance, Hong Kong handled the outbreak better than other areas. Data conflict issues found with this approach are discussed as well. Visual analysis is also proved to be a useful technique to present the SARS outbreak data at this stage; furthermore, we are proceeding to apply a similar methodology with more features to future COVID-19 research from a visual analysis perfective.

Graphs are often used to model data with a relational structure and graphs are usually visualised into node-link diagrams for a better understanding of the underlying data. Node-link diagrams represent not only data entries in a graph, but also the relations among the data entries. Further, many graph drawing algorithms and graph centrality metrics have been successfully applied in visual analytics of various graph datasets, yet little attention has been paid to analytics of scientific standard data. This study attempts to adopt graph drawing methods (force-directed algorithms) to visualise scientific standard data and provide information with importance ‘ranking’ based on graph centrality metrics such as Weighted Degree, PageRank, Eigenvector, Betweenness and Closeness factors. The outcomes show that our method can produce clear graph layouts of scientific standard for visual analytics, along with the importance ‘ranking’ factors (represent via node colour, size etc.). Our method may assist users with tracking various relationships while understanding scientific standards with fewer relation issues (missing/wrong connection etc.) through focusing on higher priority standards.

Introduction: As the world’s largest carbon emitter, China’s decarbonization efforts are critical to global climate governance. Existing studies have mainly focused on carbon emissions at the national level in China, with less attention paid to the provincial level, especially in analyzing less developed regions in northwest China (e.g., Qinghai Province). This study explores specific carbon reduction pathways for less developed provinces, represented by Qinghai Province, by analyzing in depth the potential carbon emission risks in the province.Methods: Using data from Qinghai Province’s 14th Five-Year Plan and Vision 2035 documents, we developed three carbon reduction scenarios (baseline, moderate, and stringent). We used the extended STIRPAT (Stochastic Impacts of Population, Affluence, and Technology Regression) model and ridge regression to analyze the impacts of five key drivers: population size, primary electricity utilization, GDP per capita, primary industry output, and agricultural fertilizer use. Scenario projections are complemented by advanced visualization techniques to improve policy relevance.Results: Our analysis reveals three important findings: (1) an environmental Kuznets curve pattern emerges between GDP per capita and carbon emissions; (2) population growth is recognized as a major driver of carbon emissions, with each 1% increase in population leading to a 3.184% rise in carbon emissions; and (3) the strategic development of primary electricity shows a huge potential for emission reduction. With stringent environmental protection measures, Qinghai can cap its carbon emissions by 2030, in line with national climate goals.Discussion: These findings challenge conventional assumptions about underdeveloped regions’ climate roles, demonstrating that targeted provincial strategies can significantly contribute to national decarbonization goals. The inverted U-curve relationship suggests economic development and emission reduction can be synergistic post-threshold GDP levels. We recommend prioritized investments in renewable energy infrastructure and population-optimized urbanization policies. This provincial-level modeling approach provides a replicable framework for other developing regions balancing economic growth with climate commitments.