Creating clear and informative image-based figures for scientific publications

Helena Jambor; Alberto Antonietti; Bradly Alicea; Tracy L. Audisio; Susann Auer; Vivek Bhardwaj; Steven J. Burgess; Iuliia Ferling; Małgorzata Anna Gazda; Luke H. Hoeppner; Vinodh Ilangovan; Hung Lo; Mischa Olson; Salem Yousef Mohamed; Sarvenaz Sarabipour; Aalok Varma; Kaivalya Walavalkar; Erin M. Wissink; Tracey L. Weissgerber

doi:10.1371/JOURNAL.PBIO.3001161

Creating clear and informative image-based figures for scientific publications

Helena Jambor, Alberto Antonietti, Bradly Alicea, Tracy L. Audisio, Susann Auer, Vivek Bhardwaj, Steven J. Burgess, Iuliia Ferling, Małgorzata Anna Gazda, Luke H. Hoeppner, Vinodh Ilangovan, Hung Lo, Mischa Olson, Salem Yousef Mohamed, Sarvenaz Sarabipour, Aalok Varma, Kaivalya Walavalkar, Erin M. Wissink, Tracey L. Weissgerber

Hormel Institute

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

28 Scopus citations

Abstract

Scientists routinely use images to display data. Readers often examine figures first; therefore, it is important that figures are accessible to a broad audience. Many resources discuss fraudulent image manipulation and technical specifications for image acquisition; however, data on the legibility and interpretability of images are scarce. We systematically examined these factors in non-blot images published in the top 15 journals in 3 fields; plant sciences, cell biology, and physiology (n = 580 papers). Common problems included missing scale bars, misplaced or poorly marked insets, images or labels that were not accessible to colorblind readers, and insufficient explanations of colors, labels, annotations, or the species and tissue or object depicted in the image. Papers that met all good practice criteria examined for all image-based figures were uncommon (physiology 16%, cell biology 12%, plant sciences 2%). We present detailed descriptions and visual examples to help scientists avoid common pitfalls when publishing images. Our recommendations address image magnification, scale information, insets, annotation, and color and may encourage discussion about quality standards for bioimage publishing.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	e3001161
Journal	PLoS biology
Volume	19
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1371/JOURNAL.PBIO.3001161
State	Published - Mar 31 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
TLW was funded by American Heart Association grant 16GRNT30950002 (https://www.heart.org/en/professional/institute/grants) and a Robert W. Fulk Career Development Award (Mayo Clinic Division of Nephrology & Hypertension; https://www.mayoclinic.org/departments-centers/nephrology-hypertension/sections/overview/ovc-20464571). LHH was supported by The Hormel Foundation and National Institutes of Health grant CA187035 (https://www.nih.gov). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Jambor et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Jambor, H., Antonietti, A., Alicea, B., Audisio, T. L., Auer, S., Bhardwaj, V., Burgess, S. J., Ferling, I., Gazda, M. A., Hoeppner, L. H., Ilangovan, V., Lo, H., Olson, M., Mohamed, S. Y., Sarabipour, S., Varma, A., Walavalkar, K., Wissink, E. M., & Weissgerber, T. L. (2021). Creating clear and informative image-based figures for scientific publications. PLoS biology, 19(3), Article e3001161. https://doi.org/10.1371/JOURNAL.PBIO.3001161

Jambor, H, Antonietti, A, Alicea, B, Audisio, TL, Auer, S, Bhardwaj, V, Burgess, SJ, Ferling, I, Gazda, MA, Hoeppner, LH, Ilangovan, V, Lo, H, Olson, M, Mohamed, SY, Sarabipour, S, Varma, A, Walavalkar, K, Wissink, EM & Weissgerber, TL 2021, 'Creating clear and informative image-based figures for scientific publications', PLoS biology, vol. 19, no. 3, e3001161. https://doi.org/10.1371/JOURNAL.PBIO.3001161

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AU - Audisio, Tracy L.

AU - Auer, Susann

AU - Bhardwaj, Vivek

AU - Burgess, Steven J.

AU - Ferling, Iuliia

AU - Gazda, Małgorzata Anna

AU - Hoeppner, Luke H.

AU - Ilangovan, Vinodh

AU - Lo, Hung

AU - Olson, Mischa

AU - Mohamed, Salem Yousef

AU - Sarabipour, Sarvenaz

AU - Varma, Aalok

AU - Walavalkar, Kaivalya

AU - Wissink, Erin M.

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Creating clear and informative image-based figures for scientific publications

Abstract

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