# MiRA — Multilayer Interactive Rendering Application

> MiRA (Multilayer Interactive Rendering Application) is a free, browser-based, installation-free tool for interactive visualisation of multilayer networks in ecology and biology.

MiRA runs entirely in the browser with no installation, no account, and no server-side
processing. Multilayer networks are uploaded as JSON or CSV, or passed directly from the
emln R package. Sessions can be saved and restored; figures export as PNG, JPG, or PDF.
MiRA is a visualisation tool, not an analysis package: analytical results such as module
affiliation or centrality should be computed upstream and uploaded as node, link, or layer
attributes, where they become available for colour mapping, node sizing, and filtering.

MiRA provides seven visualization modes: Network Mode (3D stacked layers), Map Mode
(layers on a geographic map), Layer View (layers as a meta-graph of force-directed bubbles),
Grid View (small-multiples, one panel per layer), Meta-Network Mode (aggregated single-layer
view), Dashboard Mode (analytics panels), and Data Mode (tabular inspection and subsetting).
MiRA supports bipartite networks (e.g. plant–pollinator, host–parasite), spatial/geographic
layer placement, temporal and multiplex networks, and directed links.

## Documentation
- [Manual](https://mira.ecomplab.com/docs/manual.html): full documentation of all modes, the JSON schema, and CSV import.
- [Data format](https://mira.ecomplab.com/data-format.html): the multilayer network JSON schema and CSV import layout.

## Tutorials
- [Plant–pollinator network visualisation](https://mira.ecomplab.com/tutorial-plant-pollinator.html): visualizing a bipartite plant–pollinator multilayer network.
- [Spatial ecological network map](https://mira.ecomplab.com/tutorial-spatial-map.html): placing network layers on a geographic map with Map Mode.
- [Temporal network visualisation](https://mira.ecomplab.com/tutorial-temporal.html): visualizing change across time in a temporal multilayer network.
- [Multilayer brain network visualisation](https://mira.ecomplab.com/tutorial-brain-network.html): visualizing a multilayer human brain connectome.

## Why MiRA
- [Why MiRA](https://mira.ecomplab.com/compare.html): why MiRA is the browser-based, no-code tool for interactive multilayer network visualisation, and how it relates to muxViz, Arena3Dweb, Gephi, and Cytoscape.

## Source and citation
- [GitHub repository](https://github.com/Ecological-Complexity-Lab/MiRA): source code, issue tracker, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
- [Preprint](https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.09597): Nehoray, Bloch & Pilosof, Interactively visualizing biological multilayer networks using MiRA.
- [emln R package](https://github.com/Ecological-Complexity-Lab/emln): data structures and `plot_multilayer()` integration.