There are a few things that we should all do consistently in the lab so that the quality of our results and presentations is consistently excellent.  Following these standard practices will ensure that we don't have to go through multiple revisions before we get to the final published figures. If followed carefully, this will save you a lot of work, and will also make your Powerpoint presentations very easy to put together because you will know in advance that all the graphs will accurately and legibly depict your results!

1) Data file names:  These should be based on date like 05804___.abf, with serial numbers from 000 to 999. 

a) When a figure is made, please include the data file name in a small font (<8pt) within the figure, so we can backtrace to find the original data file when necessary.

2) Figures:  Start from the beginning, first working from top down, and then bottom up. 

a) Top down: 

i) What is the point of the figure?

ii) Sketch out the figure in cartoon form.  What will the panels be?

iii) Usually you will want to show a typical example with raw data first

iv) Then some analysis of that data

v) Finally, group data supporting the generality of the finding.

b) Bottom up

i) What size will the figure be in the journal?

(1)  One column or two?

(2) Look at manuscript requirements for the journal you will submit the paper to determine the width of the final figure (in mm).

(3) In the Graphics program that you are using specify the figure size to be the same as that determined above (in mm).

(a)In Coreldraw

(i) An empty box that is the width of a one or two column figure can be used to design the figure so that it fits in the box

(ii) Corel has some funny features like allowing you to draw the outline of text in a different pen or color than the text itself.  You almost never want to do this and can prevent it by selecting the text and then right-clicking on the X in the color bar.

(b) In Origin

(i) You can specify the size of a figure as % of page or in actual measurements (mm).

(ii) In the plot details dialog box, go to the "display" page, and set Fixed Factor to 1 (not scale with layer frame).  Also here, make sure that you do NOT "clip data to frame"

(iii) You can draw a calibration bar in origin, as an alternative to axes.  This give a nice, uncluttered look.  It is under Graph, New XY scaler.  You will need to go into the "scale" object by double clicking on it to set the X and Y titles for the scale.  The size of these can be specified in the X range and Y range boxes.  You will need to type these values along with the appropriate MKS units. You can turn off the axis in the "display" dialog box under plot details

(iv). Once you have a standard 1, two, 3 or four panel figure in origin, with line styles, thicknesses, fonts, etc all just to your liking, go to the file menu and "Save Template As...". Make sure you don't save it as one of the standard names, like "COUNTOUR, SCATTER", but rather as something new and specific like "4_panel_figure". Then you can use this next time you have a similar figure to make, and it will be very much less work!

(c)For either Origin or Corel, use standard plotting details.

(i) All of your figures for the paper should look the same, whether they are one or two column, they should all use the same symbol size, font & size, etc.

(ii) Line width: 0.3mm (~1 pt) is a good for almost everything. 

1. traces

2. symbols

3. axes

4. Error bars!

5. Edges of bars in bar plots

6. Origin's default is to make the these too thin.

(iii) Text

1. san serif is best – arial or helvetica

2. for most of the figure lettering use a small font, something like 10-12 pt.

3. For panel labels (e.g. A, B, C, D), panel titles ( e.g., control, TTX, wash ) and legends keep the same font, but increase the size (~12-14) and possibly make bold or italics.

4. Symbols

a. 10-12 pt is about right.

b. When making a scatter plot, use filled vs unfilled when possible.  These are easy to distinguish even if the symbols are small.

5. XY graph axes labels should describe the independent and dependent variables (e.g. not just ms and pa, but time and whole cell current, units should be included in parentheses).

6. Traces

a. In CorelDraw, make sure traces are drawn with a round pen.  For some reason, the default seems to be a square pen, which makes the traces look ugly.

b. Axon traces can be directly imported into Origin using the File, Import menu.

c. You can also use the clipboard to copy the traces from Clampfit in text file format, and then paste them into origin, where you will get two columns with time and signal information.  If you plot this as a line plot, remove the axes and add a scale bar you end up with a nice figure.

d. Two traces can be distinguished from each other with different colors, or in gray scale.  To make a 50% gray line visible it may be necessary to increase its width beyond the standard 1pt size.  2 points often works well.

7. For micrographs include a scale bar

a. the legend for the scale bar can be either on the bar or, if it would interfere with visualization of the image, in the legend.

8. Don't leave too much whitespace in the figure.

a. Stretch data in subpanels so that the space is used effectively.

c)  When done, print out the figure in its final (in the journal) size. 

d) Proof the figure

i) Are the different symbols distinguishable?

ii) Is all the text of uniform size and font and legible?

iii) Are all the lines visible?

iv) If two or more data traces are shown overlapped on the same plot, are they distinguishable based on size, or color, or labeled arrowhead?

v) Is there a cal bar for each panel without axes?  Is it correctly labeled?

vi) Most importantly, does it clearly prove the scientific point you are trying to make?