Checklists for Writing a Scientific Manuscript 14- 11
▪ Use black-and-white patterns instead of colors (unless your target journal publishes color figures for free). Gray generally does not reproduce well either; gray bars often look blotchy when printed in a journal, and different shades of gray may all look alike. ▪ On line graphs, put the dependent variable (the outcome variable of interest) on the vertical axis (y-axis) and the independent variable (the variable that is thought to influence the dependent variable) on the horizontal axis (x-axis).
▪ On line graphs, avoid having more than 3 or 4 curves (lines).
▪ On bar graphs, make all the bars the same width, and make the space between the bars less than the bar width. ▪ On pie graphs, limit the segments to those large enough to be seen and labeled. Group components too small to be shown individually into 1 wedge labeled “other.” Label each segment of the pie, and include the percentage for each segment as part of the label.
▪ As for all figures, provide legends for your graphs. In general, the legends should
▪ Give enough information that the reader can understand the graph without reading the text.
▪ Define abbreviations and explain symbols used in the graph.
▪ Name the method used; describe the method in detail if that is the journal’s style.
▪
Be as short as possible.
▪ Follow the journal’s guidelines regarding acceptable file formats (Po werPoint [.ppt] and Excel [.xls or .xlsx] are usually not acceptable), file naming conventions, and other electronic figure requirements.
Tables
▪
Provide a number and title for the table.
▪ Provide a heading for each column and a row stub (row heading) for each row.
▪ Put material that is to be directly compared in adjacent columns or rows. Readers usually prefer to make comparisons horizontally (across rows) rather than vertically (down columns). ▪ Use spanning column headings to avoid repeating the same information in multiple column headings. Indenting row stub subcategories under main categories achieves a similar goal in the row stubs.
▪ Leave cells blank only if no value is possible.
▪ Be sure that any footnote symbols used in the body of the table match up with the footnotes listed below the table. ▪ Do not use vertical lines to separate columns in tables. The careful alignment of columns makes vertical lines unnecessary. By convention, the only horizontal lines used are
▪ Lines above and below the column headings,
▪
A line below the last row of data, and
▪ Lines below spanning column headings.
▪ In tables showing comparisons or subsets, give percentages in addition to actual values.
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