While I hope to create a forum here for the discussion of visualization in science, there are many resources already available. I’m planning on posting as I slowly discover and make my way through these resources.
On the suggestion of Eliza Jewett, I just bought the book Visual Strategies: A practice guide to graphics for scientists and engineers by Felice C. Frankel and Angela H. DePace.
Flipping through the book, I really like how “before” and “after” images are displayed. Each image is given an audience (senior scientists in your field? graduate students not in your field?) and a purpose (summary figure in a research paper? explanatory figure for a textbook?) in addition to other information.
Each figure also has a set of “graphical tools” that act like a checklist for thinking through how to improve the readability of the figures.
Once I go through the book a bit more, I’ll do a post on some of the highlights and maybe take apart one of my own figures using the methods in this book.
science on the retina 