How to write and publish a scientific paper - Barbara Gastel, Robert A. Day 2022

Sources offering further assistance
How to prepare effective graphs
Preparing the tables and figures

Various resources can aid in learning to prepare—and in preparing—graphs and other scientific graphics. Some style manuals, such as the AMA Manual of Style (Christiansen et al. 2020) and the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2020), have extensive sections on tables and figures, including examples of well-designed figures of various types. The Clinical Chemistry Guide to Scientific Writing (www.aacc.org/science-and-research/clinical-chemistry/clinical-chemistry%C2%A0guide-to-scientific-writing) contains excellent articles (Annesley 2010a, Annesley 2010b) on the basics of preparing good graphs. Other articles (for example, Rougier, Droettboom, and Bourne 2014) also provide helpful guidance in this regard.

Some style manuals (such as American Psychological Association 2020 and Banik et al. 2020) include advice on creating color visuals that colorblind individuals can follow. A piece by Collinge (2017) on this topic includes a list of color combinations to avoid. It also includes the following advice: In addition to colors, use symbols to distinguish items. For example, if different lines on a graph are different colors, also make the data points on them different shapes. Similarly, use not only colors but also patterns to distinguish bars on a bar graph. Also, to minimize confusion, use only a few colors.

Professional designers commonly keep “swipe files,” which are collections of examples to consider emulating. Likewise, if you encounter a well-designed table or figure presenting work akin to yours, consider keeping a copy to consult. Also consider, where permitted for free or affordably, literally swiping elements to use. Sources of free-to-use images include the Noun Project (thenounproject.com) and the Servier Medical Art collection (smart.servier.com). For biological scientists wanting to create scientific illustrations, the commercial resource BioRender contains icons and templates and includes tutorials on how to use them. Somewhat similarly, ScienceDraw includes images and templates to use in creating illustrations in a variety of sciences.

For scientists seeking professional illustrations (or consultation in preparing their own illustrations), many universities and other research-oriented institutions have scientific illustrators or other professionals specializing in visual communication of science. In addition, such illustrators can be identified through degree programs in scientific or medical illustration and through organizations such as the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators and the Association of Medical Illustrators.

With the resources available and your own resourcefulness, you can prepare graphs and other illustrations that effectively communicate your science.