Every Guides article from the Scientific Figure blog.
14 publishers checked: diagrams are allowed at most, data images at none, and a disclosure is expected everywhere. One table, read in September 2026.
Nature caps a figure legend at 300 words; PNAS wants N in it; APA means something else by the word. What nine publishers require, with a worked example.
A box spans Q1 to Q3 and Tukey whiskers reach 1.5 × IQR — but R, Excel and SPSS disagree on Q1. Worked examples, and the legend journals require.
A 96-well plate measures 127.76 × 85.48 mm with wells on a 9 mm pitch. Every dimension ANSI/SLAS fixes, and the four it leaves to the manufacturer.
A cellular respiration diagram shows the three stages in the compartments where they run, with about 30 ATP, not 38. Here is where both totals come from.
A labelled plant cell diagram with what every part does, plus the four structures animal cells lack: wall, plastids, central vacuole, plasmodesmata.
A labelled animal cell diagram drawn to measured volumes — mitochondria fill 22% of a liver cell, the nucleus only 6%. Printable blank version included.
Read a phylogenetic tree from the root outward, following the nesting rather than the tip order. Then decode the scale bar, the node numbers and the root.
A cladogram shows branching order and nothing else; branch length carries no information. Learn to read nodes, clades and outgroups step by step.
To read a circuit diagram, start at the source and trace each symbol until you return to it. This guide decodes symbols, R1 designators and both standards.
Start from the journal’s column width; the rest of the figure follows. Every spec here is traced to the PLOS, Nature or Elsevier document that states it.
Elsevier wants 1328 × 531 px at 300 dpi; Cell Press 1200 px square. Every publisher’s graphical abstract spec, traced to the document that states it.
Free to start · 100 credits · no card
Type a sentence — get a publication-ready, fully editable figure in about 30 seconds.
