GlobeCorr: interactive globe-based visualization for correlation datasets

Abstract

Motivation Increasingly complex omics datasets are being generated, along with associated diverse categories of metadata (environmental, clinical, etc.). Looking at the correlation between these variables can be critical to identify potential confounding factors and novel relationships. To date, some correlation globe software has been developed to aid investigations, however they lack secure, dynamic visualisation capability. Results GlobeCorr.ca is a web-based application designed to provide user-friendly, interactive visualisation, and analysis of correlation datasets. Users load tabular data listing pairwise variables and their correlation values, and GlobeCorr creates a dynamic visualisation using ribbons to represent positive and negative correlations, optionally grouped by domain/category (such as microbiome taxa against other metadata). GlobeCorr runs securely (locally on a user’s computer) and provides a simple method for users to visualise and summarise complex datasets. This tool is applicable to a wide range of disciplines and domains of interest, including the bioinformatics/microbiome and metadata examples provided within. Availability and Implementation See https://GlobeCorr.ca, Code provided under an open source MIT license: https://github.com/brinkmanlab/globecorr Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.