Having attended the talk by George Musser, a former editor for Scientific American in New York, I realized how wrong sometimes a scientific figure can be and how bad influence it could bring to the whole research work. After all, the only purpose of using a science figure is to give a clear representation of the complex concepts and results in research papers, but not to make them more confusing. In order to remind people (including myself) to avoid using such figures, I have listed down some of the bad examples I found online here:
- Graphs, figures, and tables can save readers time and energy, aid their understanding of an article, and reduce the word count of the main text. However, many graphics submitted to and published in scientific journals fail to meet their potential and include mistakes that jeopardize their clarity.
- For COVID-19, we have no clue. For measles, researchers have estimated this figure to be above 90%. These surveys are also of limited value in isolation. They are designed to determine temporal trends, i.e. How the value changes over time, as a reflection of disease control efforts.
- Graphs, figures, and tables can save readers time and energy, aid their understanding of an article, and reduce the word count of the main text. However, many graphics submitted to and published in scientific journals fail to meet their potential and include mistakes that jeopardize their clarity.
1. Simple, not sophisticated
These scientists were trying to map metabolites, but instead they made a London subway map! It is significant that a science figure to be clear, and more importantly, simple.
A similar example can be found here:
Bad, bad Science Figures April 12, 2016 April 12, 2016 doggyandcattyblog Having attended the talk by George Musser, a former editor for Scientific American in New York, I realized how wrong sometimes a scientific figure can be and how bad influence it could bring to the whole research work. In this tutorial we will take a look at the do's and dont's of good poster design. Academic posters are often crowded with information and text.
Even the author himself reflected on this as a “rainbow-colored Death Star exploding”. It is understandable that researchers always want to present as much results as possible in a figure, but sometimes being too enthusiastic is not very helpful – it’s better to cool down and sort out the direct message you want to pass. Throwing everything to the audience will only make them go away.
2. For the sake of being professional
Researchers should not make an excuse for themselves like “Oh I am only a scientist, I don’t know what is Photoshop”, or “the results are important, no matter how I present them”. Wrong! Whether people will view you as a professional in academic research, or in fact, in any fields of working, depend 90% on first impression.
Moreover, reports show that up to 75% of our brain cells process information through visualizing system, that is to say, pictures and figures are usually the first to reach your audience. Therefore, no offense to the authors but a scientific figure like below will only make people think, “is that a publication from kinder-gardeners?”
Come on scientists, you spend days and nights in laboratory to get the most perfect data, but cannot spare just 1-2 hours for a workshop of graphic design? We said simple, but not childish. Don’t let a unprofessional figure ruin the whole academic publication.
Good And Bad Scientific Figures Definition
3. Use a useful figure
A science publication has to have figures, but only useful ones. A paper discovering glass transitions in polymer thin films presented a figure with almost parallel lines. In a situation like this, can we just write in one line “the probability distributions are the same”? Or, if there is something that the authors want to highlight, maybe he or she can depict the data in another form rather than dotted lines. At least people can tell your points from reading your figure.
Have you encountered bad scientific figures before? Or probably you are about to put one or two in your next publication. Please avoid the falls above, and feel free to share in the comments about your experience and thoughts.
-Alice Yu Yuebo
Good And Bad Scientific Figures Examples
References:
[1] http://www.realclearscience.com/lists/bad_scientific_figures/
[2] http://jasonya.com/wp/science-figures-we-could-do-without/
[3] http://www.badfigure.org/
[4] http://blog.everydayscientist.com/?p=125