Description
Circos is circular visualization software originally designed for displaying genomic data and relationships, using chord diagrams to show connections between data points arranged in a radial layout. Created by Martin Krzywinski at Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia, and first published in 2009 in the journal Genome Research. The software renders data as arcs connecting segments around a circle, with ribbon width representing magnitude. Originally built for comparing chromosomal rearrangements in cancer genomes, Circos has been widely adopted beyond genomics for visualizing migration flows, trade relationships, music collaborations, and any dataset involving connections between categories. It has been cited in thousands of scientific papers and become an iconic chart type in data visualization.
