Preparation of figures for medical articles: guidelines for physician-authors.

Abstract

Just as literary conventions and styles evolve, so even do "styles" (acceptable form) in medical writing. The guidelines suggested in this paper for the preparation of various types of figures are based on current standards in scientific and, particularly, medical writing. However, since at any given time there may exist two or more equally acceptable variations of "standard" practice, it is to a physician-author's advantage to examine the particular stylistic preferences and format of the journal to which he will submit his manuscript. Hopefully he can thereby avoid later editorial requests to revise or even completely redesign figures in which he has already invested much time.