Figures and tables

Many readers look at the figures before they read a word. A figure should make its point without the text beside it.

Figure or table?

Use	When
A table	The reader needs exact values, or you compare several measures at once.
A line chart	Something changes over time or over a continuous range.
A bar chart	You compare amounts between a few groups.
A scatter plot	You show how two measures relate.
A diagram	You explain equipment, a process or a design.
A photograph	The reader must see the real thing.
A sentence	There are only two or three numbers.

Do not show the same data twice, as a table and as a chart.

Captions

A caption should let the figure be understood alone.

Weak	Better
Results.	Moisture content of mango slices over time in the solar dryer and in the open sun. Bars show one standard deviation (n = 6).

• Say what is shown, then what the reader should notice.
• Explain symbols, colours and abbreviations.
• Give the sample size and what error bars mean.
• Captions for figures go below; captions for tables go above. The editor places them for you.

Do not type “Figure 1” or “Table 2”. The number is added for you and stays right when you move things. Refer to them in the text as “Figure 1” and they are linked.

Make it readable

• Label both axes, with units: “Drying time (hours)”.
• Type large enough to read when the figure is at its printed size.
• Start a bar chart’s axis at zero.
• Few colours, and not red against green alone. Use shape or line style as well as colour.
• No three-dimensional effects, shadows or decorative backgrounds.
• Same style throughout the paper: one typeface, one set of colours.

Tables

Tables are drawn in the plain academic style: a rule at the top, one under the headings and one at the bottom, with no vertical lines. A full grid can be chosen where a table needs it.

• Headings say what the column holds, with its unit.
• Align numbers to the right, with the same number of decimal places down a column.
• Do not give more decimal places than you measured.
• Put what you compare side by side in neighbouring columns.
• Explain anything unusual in a note under the table.

You can paste a table from Word or a spreadsheet, and merge cells where needed.

Images

• Use the original file, not a picture of a screen.
• Crop to what matters.
• Diagrams and charts: PNG, or SVG if your tool makes it.
• Photographs: JPG.
• Paste or drop a picture into the page and it is uploaded.

Other people’s figures

A figure from someone else’s publication needs their permission, unless its licence allows reuse, and it always needs a credit in the caption: “Adapted from [3]”. Drawing it again yourself does not remove the need to credit the source.

Equations

Use the formula button and write the equation in LaTeX. Define every symbol the first time it appears, and number an equation only if you refer to it later.