Policy note. This handbook is a living document and does not replace official NMSU, College of Engineering, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Graduate School, funding-agency, immigration, employment, or university policies. When conflicts arise, official policies and written funding/appointment letters take precedence.
Figure Principles
Good figures should make the main result easier to understand, not just decorate the paper or presentation.
Check each figure for:
- Clear question or message
- Legible labels
- Units
- Appropriate color scale
- Accessible contrast
- Consistent styling across panels
- Captions that explain what the reader should notice
Maps
For maps, include:
- Study area
- Coordinate reference system when relevant
- Scale or context
- Legend
- Data source
- Projection appropriate to the region and analysis
Color
Use sequential color maps for ordered magnitudes, diverging color maps for departures around a meaningful center, and categorical palettes for groups.
Avoid color choices that make categories hard to distinguish or imply structure that is not present in the data.
For specific plotting libraries, scientific colormaps, and color-vision checkers, see the Publication Figures category in the lab tool catalog.
Reproducible Figures
Final figures should be generated by scripts whenever possible. Save figure-generation code with the project, including preprocessing steps and data paths.
Presentations
Presentation figures often need less detail than paper figures. Increase font sizes, reduce unnecessary gridlines, and emphasize the main comparison.