Preparing Thesis Figures

1 Figure Preparation checklist

1. Determine what message you want the reader to take from your figure, and the most effective way of conveying that point
2. Remove any extraneous or distracting data that distracts from the main message of your figure (taking care not to make the figure misleading by doing so)
3. Determine how large the figure needs to be: how much space will it take up on a page?
4. Will it be easy for your reader to see key details if the figure is this size?
5. Check that the figure is clear and not pixellated: will your reader be able to see all the important details? Is the resolution good enough?

• You should always prepare figures in vector format (i.e. PDF, PS, or SVG) where possible to avoid pixellation issues.

6. Check that the colour scheme you have chosen is colour-blind friendly and not visually jarring
7. Check that any fonts used are legible at the size printed
8. Figure titles should give a concise “take-home message” conveying the result(s) shown in the figure
9. Figure legends should give enough detail about the experiment for the reader to understand what was done (the figure should be able to stand on its own)

• Dr Feeney’s guidance on writing good figure titles and legends (with examples)

2 A guide to figure preparation

• Refer back to the Data presentation and figure preparation (BM432 workshop 6 materials) as needed.
• Points of View - In my opinion the definitive guide to graphic design for scientific figures - LP
• Making model figures (slides used in our regular meeting discussion)
• Beyond Bar and Line Graphs: Time for a New Data Presentation Paradigm - A compelling case for why you should never use bar graphs, and especially not dynamite plots - LP
• Read Ten Simple Rules for Better Figures - Yet another excellent “Ten Simple Rules…” article - LP
• Digital Images Are Data: And Should Be Treated as Such - It’s natural to think of images as being “neutral” in some way, but they are not - LP
• Ten common statistical mistakes to watch out for when writing or reviewing a manuscript - Another “Ten Simple Rules…” article - LP
• Fundamentals of graphic design—essential tools for effective visual science communication - A good, short summary of graphic design principles relevant to scientific communication - LP
• 11 Graphic Design Tips to Create Images Like a Pro - Economical advice for powerful graphic design - LP

3 Other Useful Resources

• Biorender - Useful clipart and images for building your own figures - LP
• ImageJ Basics - The standard open source image analysis software - LP
• Coblis — Color Blindness Simulator - It’s kind to consider the needs of others, so always check your images for colourblindness accessibility - LP
• Data visualization with ggplot2 :: Cheat Sheet - ggplot is an amazing way to generate powerful graphs, though there can be a learning curve, especially if you don’t yet know R - LP

4 Dr Feeney’s pet peeves for figures

• Why You Must Plot Your Growth Data On a Semi-log Graph - TBH, this is trivial to do now in most graphic packages, so there’s no excuse - LP
• Make sure you include a scale on any images that need them (e.g., micrographs, phylogenetic trees)
• By convention, figure titles and legends are presented below the corresponding figure, while table titles are presented above the corresponding table.
• Make sure your text is formatted correctly within your figure (e.g., species names should be italicized, gene and protein names should be formatted correctly)