Page 86 - How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper, 8th Edition 8th Edition

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process. This factor becomes especially important if you are combining two or more graphs into a single illustration.
Combined or not, each graph should be as simple as possible. "The most common disaster in illustrating is to include
too much information in one figure. The more points made in an illustration, the more the risk of confusing and
discouraging the reviewer" (Briscoe, 1990).

Figure 3 is a nice graph. The lettering was large enough to withstand photographic reduction. It is boxed, rather than
two-sided (compare with Fig. 2), making it a bit easier to estimate the values on the right-hand side of the graph. The
scribe marks point inward rather than outward.

Size and Arrangement of Graphs

Examine Fig. 4. Obviously, the lettering was not large enough to withstand the reduction that occurred, and most
readers would have difficulty in reading the ordinate and abscissa labels. Actually, Fig. 4 effectively illustrates two
points. First, the lettering must be of sufficient size to withstand reduction to column or page width. Second, because
width is the important element from the printer's point of view, it is often advisable to combine figures "over and
under" rather than "side by side." If the three parts of Fig. 4 had been prepared in the "over and under" arrangement,
the photographic reduction would have been nowhere near as drastic, and the labels would have been much more
readable.

The spatial arrangement of Fig. 4 may not be ideal, but the combination of three graphs into one composite
arrangement is entirely proper.

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Figure 3. Effect of spermidine on the transformation of B. subtilis BR 151. Competent cells were incubated for 40 min
with spermidine prior to the addition of 5 µg of donor DNA per ml ( ) or 0.5 µg of donor DNA per ml ( ).

DNA samples of 5 µg ( ) or 0.5 µg per ml ( ) were incubated for 20 min prior to the addition of cells.
(Mol. Gen. Genet. 178:21–25, 1980; courtesy of Franklin Leach.)

Whenever figures are related and can be combined into a composite, they should be combined. The composite
arrangement saves space and thus reduces printing expense. More important, the reader gets a much better picture by
seeing the related elements in juxtaposition.

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