CLOSED: Special Issue on Breakthroughs, Challenges, and Opportunities in Biological Data Visualization

IEEE CG&A seeks submissions for this upcoming special issue.

Publication: September/October 2025

The rapidly expanding data generated by advanced methods in biology is creating enormous challenges at the interface between humans and biological data that can be represented and analyzed visually. To meet these challenges, a blend of methodology from the visualization, bioinformatics and biology domains is required. This methodology encompasses perception and design knowledge, algorithm design, techniques for analyzing and visualizing big data, statistics, and specific domain knowledge for different application problems. Powerful and integrative visualization methods are necessary, as well as methods for visually communicating the outcome of computational analytical methods and findings. This special issue aims to highlight new challenges in biological data visualization (BioVis), and state-of-the-art solutions created by the vibrant BioVis community. We invite contributions on all aspects of data visualization in biology, from molecular to cell, tissue, organism and population biology. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Genome and sequence data visualization, including genomic variation data, 3D and 4D genome visualization, and chromosome interaction maps
Multivariate omics data visualization (transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, etc.)
Phylogenetic data visualization, as well as biological networks and pathways
Neurobiology and developmental biology visualization, biological atlases and metadata
Macromolecular structures (e.g., protein or RNA structures) visualization
Biological image data, such as microscopy data visualization
Visualization for the modeling and simulation of biological systems
Biovis systems and software frameworks, and integrating visualization and machine learning for biological analysis
Biological workflows or collaborative processes, processes for interdisciplinary collaboration between biology and visualization, and usability of visualization by biologists, including communicating uncertainty
New challenges, breakthroughs, and opportunities in biological data visualization

Submission Guidelines

For author information and guidelines on submission criteria, visit the Author’s Information page. Please submit papers through the IEEE Author Portal and be sure to select the special issue or special section name. Manuscripts should not be published or currently submitted for publication elsewhere. Please submit only full papers intended for review, not abstracts, to the IEEE Author Portal. If requested, abstracts should be sent by email to the guest editors directly.

Questions?

Contact the guest editors at cga5-2025@computer.org.

Elisabeta (Liz) Marai, CGA AE, Professor of Computer Science, University of Illinois Chicago
Jillian Aurisano, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, University of Cincinnati