The Academic Tree

What's new at the Academic Family Tree

Apr 22, 2021: We're upgrading the web/database servers this week. There may be some intermittent downtime. Please alert us if you notice any persistent problems. admin at neurotree.org. Thanks!

Aug 17, 2019: Our Open Collective account is live! You can now make a contribution of any size to keep this site running. Read more here.

Jan 1, 2019: New publication based on Academic Family Tree data: Intellectual Synthesis in Mentorship Determines Success in Academic Careers

Feb 28, 2018: We've released a preprint on the synthesis of training by graduate and postdoctoral mentors: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/02/28/273888. Your comments are welcome!

Jan 5, 2018: Publication data back online! We managed to overload our old server capabilities with our ever-growing publication dataset. We had to temporarily shut down our publication updating system a few weeks ago, and you may notice that some recent publications were not listed. However, the server is now upgraded and tested, and the site should be back to its normal operation.

Apr 8, 2017: We've implemented a new archiving system that should streamline our ability to roll back edits and deletes, which involved substantial changes in the backend database. Superficial changes are minimal, but please let us know if you observe any strange behavior following edits or deletes. Eventually this system will allow us to open up edit access to standard users rather than restricting it to users with editor status. Thanks for your patience!

Mar 30, 2017: Funding data imported from the Federal RePORTER (Star Metrics) system are now linked to researchers in the Academic Family Tree. We've implemented a verification system for linking PIs to grants that similar the the system we've had in place for publications. Note that the Star Metrics database primarily contains data from NIH and NSF, so biomedical research is better represented than other fields. This new resource was funded by the NSF SciSIP Program. Your feedback appreciated!

Jan 24, 2017: We've finally shifted the academictree.org and neurotree.org web server from using non-encrypted http to an encrypted https protocol. The transition appears to have gone smoothly, but please let us know if you notice any problems.

Dec 8, 2016: The French invasion has begun! We've recently started syncing up with a large database of French dissertations. Look out for a lot of additions from doc_fr soon!

Jul 20, 2016: The Academic Tree for Geography is now online. http://academictree.org/geography/

Jun 8, 2016: New trees. Meteorology (http://academictree.org/meteorology/) and Plant Biology Trees (http://academictree.org/plantbio/) are online!

Apr 18, 2016: Neurotree will be showing off its newest features during the demo session at the FORCE 2016 meeting in Portland, OR.

Nov 20, 2015: Several users have requested the ability to manually add and edit publications. That is now possible on the beta site. http://neurotree.org/beta/. Your feedback appreciated!

Oct 2, 2015: A couple changes that make the site a little easier to use. First, zooming on the tree page has gotten a little smoother. Try the new +/- buttons at the bottom right of the screen or your mouse scroll wheel. Second, we've sped up search (we think!). Please let us know if any of these "improvements" aren't working. Thanks!

Sep 25, 2015: Dissertation data are in! We are in the process of merging mentorship data from the ProQuest dissertation database into the Academic Tree. We are working to ensure that we do not introduce too many accidental duplicates in this process, but some errors are likely. Please let us know if you notice any problems.

Aug 5, 2015: Now that we're linking Academic Tree researchers to their publications, we can start exploring the influence of mentorship on trainee research programs (and possibly vice versa!). The beta site now provides a simple overlay of research similarity on the tree display. As our publication matching system is refined, this measure should provide increasingly accurate characterization of the mentor-trainee interaction.

Jun 22, 2015: So far so good! The updated site interface seems to be mostly working. We had to temporarily disable the mean distance calculator to reduce load, but that should come back online shortly. Thanks very much to everyone who has provided feedback. Please email admin at neurotree dot org if you have any comments or questions about the site!

Jun 18, 2015: The rollout has begun! We're gradually phasing the new site interface from beta into the live site. We'll start with some of the smaller trees to make sure nothing serious has broken (History, Infectious Disease), but assuming there are no hitches, the other trees should come online soon.

Jun 6, 2015: Testing! We're getting close to rolling out our new site design. For a sneak peek at the new Neurotree, look here: http://neurotree.org/beta/. Your comments about the revamped site are welcome.

Apr 8, 2015: We have begun testing some changes to the interface. These should initially be subtle (e.g., support for multiple non-mentored institutional affiliations), but we are also planning to spruce up the look and feel of the site in coming weeks. Your comments and suggestions are welcome!

Mar 16, 2015: We have largely completed our server migration. Unfortunately the new IP address seems to be attracting the occasional would-be hacker. So far, these hacking attempts have managed to stall the site occasionally, mostly by overloading our error logs. There is no evidence that anything more serious has happened. We are in the process of revising all the site scripts to make them more robust to what appear to be fairly generic attacks.

Jan 14, 2015: Server migration underway. We are in the process of migrating to a faster and more stable server. This will hopefully be completed in a few days, but we apologize in advance for some occasional interruptions in service until then.

Nov 1, 2014: We're funded! The Academic Family Tree has received support from the Metaknowledge Network to improve site functionality and robustness of our mentorship database.

Oct 9, 2014: A new tutorial on navigating and contributing to academic trees is online. Thanks to Suzanne Grubb of ASHA for putting this together!

Aug 6, 2014: New tree! CSD Tree, the academic genealogy of Communication Sciences and Disorders is now online: http://academictree.org/csd/.

Feb 28, 2014: New tree! The Anthropology Tree is now online: http://academictree.org/anthropology/.

Oct 8, 2013: Query the Academic Tree database directly! We are testing a JavaScript Object Notation-based interface for dynamically retrieving data from the Neurotree and associated Academic Tree databases. Learn more here.

Sep 2, 2013: New tree. The Neuro-onocology Tree is now online: http://academictree.org/neurooncology/.

Aug 8, 2013: New tree. The Cell and Gene Therapy Tree is now online! http://academictree.org/cellgenetherapy/

Jul 29, 2013: New tree. GenetiTree - The Academic Genealogy of Human Genetics and Genomics - is now online. http://academictree.org/genetics/

Oct 5, 2012: We're published! Neurotree: A Collaborative, Graphical Database of the Academic Genealogy of Neuroscience published in PLoS One

Aug 7, 2012: Please give us your feedback! We're interested in learning how you use the site and any suggestions you might have for improvements: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LTH25DQ. We promise, it's very brief!

________

Home - News - About