CoVis - a new tool to discover reliable COVID-19 research

For the development of therapeutics and vaccines for COVID-19, scientists depend on valid knowledge on the coronavirus. But finding reliable research results is often difficult: with over 20,000 papers published on the topic, scientists spend a lot of valuable time reviewing the literature.

The new tool CoVis enables scientists to kick-start their COVID-19 research. In the EU-funded project, experts compile valid research results in a freely accessible database. In addition, a knowledge map provides a quick overview of research outputs. When key issues are not answered by a single research source, data and images from multiple sources are compiled into a visual dashboard called a ReFigure.

The collection is not meant to be exhaustive, but to offer a single reference point for definitive research in eight key areas: immunity, vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, viral biology, host biology and clinical findings and epidemiology. After careful review and discussion with our users, we added an additional area, introduction to coronavirus research, which includes foundational papers in coronavirus research to those who have no prior background.

CoVis makes it easier to get started on the topic - but also helps you to stay up-to-date. In order to do justice to the rapid development of COVID-19 research, the database is extended regularly by a dedicated team of curators. Resources are nominated based on the interest of the individual contributor and posed for inclusion along with the rationale for inclusion. The nominated resources are discussed by curators as to their exhibited impact, or potential impact for moving the field forward. 

CoVis has been developed in cooperation between Open Knowledge Maps (Austria) and ReFigure (USA). The work is financially supported by the EOSC Secretariat as part of the COVID-19 Fast-Track Funding. CoVis is an open infrastructure following the principles of open science and can therefore be fully reused. Content on CoVis is licensed under a CC BY. The CoVis database is made available under CC0. Our software is open source and hosted on Github under the MIT license.

Link: https://openknowledgemaps.org/covis