Effective Figures and Tables
8- 7
▪ State briefly the message you wish the reader to receive from the figure or the most important finding evident in the figure.
▪ State original magnification and stain, if applicable.
▪ Define abbreviations and explain symbols used in the figure.
▪ Name the method used; describe the method in detail only if that is the journal’s style.
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Keep the legend as short as possible.
▪ Put the legends for all the figures on a separate page, not on the figures themselves.
Figures often have 2 or more parts, labeled A, B, etc. If you are considering a multipart figure, be sure to consider whether the readers need to see the parts of the figure together on the same page, either side by side or stacked vertically. Photographs showing a patient before and after a procedure, for example, might need to be printed together to facilitate comparison. If the readers do not need to see the images together, it is probably better to make them separate figures (which are easier for the journal’s production staff to work with). For example, a drawing of a surgical procedure and a flow chart showing the steps in deciding whether to perform surgery do not need to be printed on the same page because they deal with concepts that are not closely related. Publishers vary in their policies regarding color figures. Color is best used when it aids understanding of a figure (for example, to distinguish subgroups). Color can also make a figure more attractive. However, some journals require the author to pay for color printing, which can run as much as $1,000 per figure. Check your target journal’s author instructions for its policies.
Examples of Common Types of Figures
Following are examples of common types of figures used in medical and basic science articles.
The first example includes photographs and a line drawing. The photographs of tissue sections from transgenic mice show that the head muscles are altered when certain genes are not expressed. Points to note include the following: ▪ In this multipanel figure, each panel is labeled with a letter, and the figure legend describes each panel by referring to the letter. ▪ Arrows indicate items of interest in the figure so that readers do not need to search for them.
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