Rainbow Color Map Usage in Geoscience Publications, 2005-2020

2,638 papers from five geoscience journals were systematically surveyed for their use of color visualizations. The dataset classifies papers by color encoding issues, including rainbow color maps and red-green deficiencies, based on publications from 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020. Richard Westaway of the University of Bristol compiled this data, which also incorporates a prior survey from Stoelzle and Stein (2021).

Use Cases

• Quantifying the prevalence of problematic color maps in geoscience literature based on the col_code classification.
• Analyzing trends in visualization practices over time based on the publication year field.
• Studying authorship patterns and collaboration in visualization-focused papers based on the n_authors field.
• Linking specific papers to their color encoding for meta-research based on the title and base_url fields.

Strengths

• Includes 2,638 classified papers from a systematic survey.
• Covers a 15-year time span across four specific publication years (2005, 2010, 2015, 2020).
• Integrates a prior, independently available survey dataset from Stoelzle and Stein (2021).
• Provides a clear classification scheme (col_code) for color visualization issues.

Limitations

• Row count and file size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred from the description.
• Data may reflect geographic or disciplinary bias inherent to the five selected journals.

Provenance

Source

University of Bristol, based on a survey described in Westaway, R. M. (2022) 'GC Insights: Rainbow colour maps remain widely used in the geosciences'.

Collection Method

Systematic survey of papers from five geoscience journals (Earth System Dynamics, Geophysical Research Letters, Ocean Science, Solid Earth, The Cryosphere).

Time Range

2005, 2010, 2015, 2020