Instructions on Figures

JAVMA and AJVR Instructions on Figures

General guidelines

• Figures should complement, not duplicate, the text or tables.
• Figure callouts refer to entire figures (eg, Figure 2), not to individual figure panels (eg, Figure 2A).
• Call out all figures in the text of the manuscript at least once. The first mention of each figure should be in sequence (ie, do not introduce Figure 3 before Figure 2)
• Permissions for use of Figures, Tables or other Content Owned by another party—If your manuscript contains previously published material (text, images, tables, photographs, drawings, etc), you are responsible for obtaining permission for reuse from the original copyright holder. At the time of submission, your cover letter should include a statement verifying that you have obtained permission for reuse of figures or tables. Within the manuscript, the legend for reproduced or adapted content should include a full citation of the previous publication:

(Reproduced from Minas T, Nehrer S. Current concepts in the treatment of articular cartilage defects. Orthopedics. 1997;20[6]:525–538. Reprinted with permission.)
 
(Adapted from Akhtar M. Histopathologic features. In: Madkour MM, ed. Madkour’s Brucellosis. 2nd ed. Springer-Verlag Inc; 2001:65–73. Reprinted with permission.)

Figure images

• Resolution
  • 300+ dots per inch (dpi) for images.
  • 600+ dpi for graphs or line charts.
• Uploaded as a separate image file (such as .tif, .jpeg, or .png; not a PDF).
• For multiple panels, label each panel with a large-font capital letter.
• If a figure contains 2 or more rows of panels, apply letter labels sequentially from left to right in the first row, then from left to right in the second row, and so on.
• Name image files to clearly indicate their figure number and, if appropriate, panel label (eg, Figure 1, Figure 2A, and Figure 2B).
• Avoid using Word as an image editor because the resulting edited images generally have low resolution.
• Avoid the following:
  • Client, patient, or facility identification data.
  • Proprietary names or symbols.
  • Faces or identifying features of individuals, unless permission has been granted by the individuals for their inclusion.
  • Borders.
  • Background shading.
  • Pie charts.
• Please note that figures created with the BioRender software suite may not have a high enough resolution for publication.
• Text and symbols in all figures should be sufficiently large to be legible.
• Radiographic images should include positional markers; orthogonal views should be provided.
• For photomicrographs, include an internal marker bar indicating scale and define the length that the marker bar represents in the figure legend.

Tips for figure labels:

• Capitalize only the first letter of the first word of each label (ie, sentence case), with exceptions for capitalization of proper nouns and abbreviations.
• Include the units of measure in parentheses after the label, as applicable, such as “Serum glucose (mg/dL).”
• Use a font that can be easily read.

Figure legends

• Include figure legends in the manuscript immediately after the list of references and before any tables.
• Legends should provide sufficient information to allow the figures to be understood without reference to the text.
• The legend of Figure 1 generally should include the nature of the subjects or samples represented or the signalment and reason for the patient’s examination. Subsequent figure legends may then refer to the animal, animals, sample, or samples “described in Figure 1.”
• Redefine in the legend any abbreviations from the main text that reappear in the figures or at least 3 times in the figure legends; define in alphabetical order immediately after the body of the legend (eg, ALP = Alkaline phosphatase. CK = Creatine kinase.). Once an abbreviation is defined in a figure legend, it should subsequently be used in the figure legends without expansion.
• In legends, describe what is indicated by each marker, pointer, symbol, or abbreviation used in the images. For example, “cystic structure (dashed outline) is evident between …” and “for each box-and-whisker plot, the solid line within the box represents the median, the lower and upper limits of the box represent the OR the whiskers delimit the range, and circles represent outliers.”
• If a figure is not owned by the manuscript authors (eg, radiographic images provided by a referring veterinarian, diagnostic or clinical images generated at a previous place of employment, or a figure adapted from another source), include a full citation of the previous publication in the legend.
• Reporting guidelines for mitotic figures: Histologic assessment of mitotic figures in tumors are reported in international system for units (SI) for area (mm²[2.37 mm²]). Mitotic figures reported in a unit area use mitotic count as opposed to mitotic index. 
• For ECG traces, include the paper speed and scale (eg, Paper speed = 50 mm/s; 1 cm = 1 mV).

• For radiographic images, include the radiographic beam direction.
• The AVMA journals follow the naming convention described by Smallwood et al (Smallwood JE, Shively MJ, Rendano VT, Habel RE. A standardized nomenclature for radiographic projections used in veterinary medicine. Veterinary Radiol. 1985;26[1]:2–9. doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-8261.1985.tb01105.x).
• See “Preferred terminology for naming of radiographic projections.”

• For ultrasonographic images , include the following:
  • Descriptions of the imaging plane and anatomic level of each plane. This information does not need to be repeated in a subsequent legend of the exact same images in Clinical Challenge articles, such as “What Is Your Diagnosis?”
  • Descriptions of scales alongside images or calipers positioned within images.
  • Descriptions of ECGs present in echocardiographic images.
• Crop images to exclude as much extra black space as possible.

• For CT and MRI images, include the following:
  • Descriptions of the imaging plane and anatomic level of each plane. This information does not need to be repeated in a subsequent legend of the exact same images in Clinical Challenge articles, such as “What Is Your Diagnosis?”
  • If applicable, whether the image was obtained before or after contrast administration and the phase after contrast administration.
  • The sequences (MRI images ) or window settings and slice thicknesses (CT images).

• For photomicrographs, specify the stains used and the lengths of the scale marker bar (eg, H&E stain; bar = 100 µm).

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