CS 5764: Information Visualization

Paper Review

This assignment is only for those of you who have NOT signed up to give a paper presentation in class during the semester. (The list of paper presenters is at: http://infovis.cs.vt.edu/cs5764/Fall2005/schedule.html). Students who did present papers in class DO NOT have to do this assignment.

According to my quick scan of the roster, the following students must do this assignment (let me know if you think otherwise):
Balmakhtar
Fabian
Hobby
Lele
Miehe
Silva
Tupe
Warren

The specific assignment is to write a critique of the following paper:

Purvi Saraiya, Chris North, Karen Duca, "An Insight-based Methodology for Evaluating Bioinformatics Visualizations", IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 11(4): 443-456, (July 2005).

The general assignment description is below. However, since the above paper is an evaluation paper, you should focus your critique on the evaluation methodology and results, not visualization system designs. Be sure to think about the big picture concepts and contributions presented in the paper. Do not be concerned with offending the authors. Trust me, we know the problems with the paper! Your grade is based on the depth of your analysis.

Due: Nov 16, in class, 2-3 pg hardcopy.

General Paper Review Assignment:

Students will write a review on one of the assigned readings. Read the assigned paper carefully. Most of the papers are about a visualization technique, but some are about empirical evaluations. This will give you experience in reviewing papers submitted for publication.

The review should first summarize the assigned paper, including:

the problem that the authors are trying to solve, and the solution (for evaluation papers: key findings).
specify the data->visual mapping (for evaluation papers: independent and dependent variables).
include a statement of the key intellectual contributions.

Second, the review should then critique the solution and contributions offered by the paper including:

identify the scalability of the approach (for evaluation papers: the limits of the results).
strengths and weaknesses; e.g. insight, scalability, user tasks, comparison with other solutions (for evaluation papers: validity, thoroughness, applicability, comparison with other results).
conclude with an overall rating of the paper.

The review should be 2-3 pages, single-spaced 11pt font. Bring a hardcopy to class. Be prepared to discuss the assigned paper in class.