Young gastrointestinal angle: How to create figures for your journal articles

AUTHOR'S PERSPECTIVE: FENNA M. JANSEN

Fancy figures

Important in articles but where to start, to find, or create a figure that fits your content? In this short section, I will share my experience in creating my own figures.

Do I need a figure?

First of all, why are figures so important, is it necessary to implement your own figure in your paper? Figures in general help the reader to visualize the written information. A well‐created figure can summarize the text resulting in understanding the main point at a glance. Moreover, it functions as an eye‐catcher, with the aim of attracting readers to read your article. If this is the case, more readers and attention can be reached for your article, something that is pursued by authors and research teams. Yet, this is also the most difficult task because figures can also create confusion and can make the content more complicated or difficult to understand.

So, a figure aims to clarify the content and it creates curiosity to take a closer look at the article only when created well and if created for a wide audience.

Main aim of implementing figures in your paper:

• ‐To visualize, summarize, and support complex content
• ‐To catch the eyes of the reviewers and readers

Starting point

We recently published a narrative review about extraintestinal manifestations in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in UEG Journal.¹ This review is about musculoskeletal, cutaneous, and ocular manifestations in patients with IBD (Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis). Because of the three different sections with each their own background information, we soon came across difficulties in how to make the content clear.

Facing obstacles

As previously mentioned, during the writing process, we had some topics that needed visual assistance. In one of the sections, we suggested a stepwise therapeutic approach of different joint complaints, also called arthralgia. This was complicated because there are various subcategories. In the ocular section, a figure was desirable to visualize the anatomical locations and by explaining the clinical expression of the different ocular manifestations. However, none of the existing figures in the medical literature or available on the Internet met our wishes. Some figures showed too much information whereas other figures missed anatomical structures. This was the main trigger to create a figure by ourselves.

Main reason to create your own figure:

• ‐To personalize the figure to your paper and thereby improve the quality and functionality of the figure
• ‐To bypass the difficulties in the use of figures from other author's (copy rights, patent, or awaiting for the author's response)

Create your own figure

While writing, I already visualized what kind of flow chart we would need to clarify the content. After a quick draft of the flow chart on a piece of paper, I searched for the best program to draw flow charts in, and I ended up with draw.io. This program is mainly used for flow charts or tables. The program has a wide spectrum of options in lay‐out, shape, color, size, and overall design. It is easy to use and to adjust.

For the ocular section, I needed a program to establish an eye with different layers. I followed a short adobe course as an introduction on how to use this program and all of its functions as our university has a license to use Adobe for free. Adobe Illustrator can be used for creating figures (such as an eye) consisting of different layers in order to create a two‐dimensional figure. I used different anatomical figures from the Internet as examples, and I tried to combine the most important anatomical structures without making the figure too confusing or abstract. I performed this in both Adobe Illustrator and in draw.io. In Adobe Illustrator, this process took longer because the program is complicated with an extensive amount of functions whereas draw.io is more simplistic and easy in use.

Furthermore, other programs that can be used for figures include Visio to create flow charts or GraphPad to draw other figures. For the latter, a license is necessary.

Advantages draw.io:

• ‐Appropriate to create flow charts and tables
• ‐Easy to use, no license or membership necessary
• ‐Various options for designs, shapes, and colors

Disadvantages draw.io:

• ‐If not saved as adjustment file (file name has to be with draw.io instead of pdf), no adjustment in the same figure is possible
• ‐Time‐consuming to make one figure straight‐lined. The program does not automatically adjust sizes of different columns into the same size
• ‐When extending or adding new columns in the total figure, you have to drag all different columns separately and especially when started too close to the left side (starting point)

Advantages Adobe Illustrator:

• ‐Ingenious, with a great amount of functions and options
• ‐Great investment for the long‐term
• ‐Triggers the creativity

Disadvantages Adobe Illustrator:

• ‐Time investment necessary to get trained in the use of the program
• ‐Difficult to keep the overview because of all the possibilities
• ‐Application is not always supported or licensed by the university

I hope this article will inspire other authors to illustrate their manuscripts with clear eye‐catching figures. Most important, create a figure that fits your paper!

ILLUSTRATOR'S PERSPECTIVE: SUSAN TYLER

My name is Susan Tyler, and I have been a professional medical illustrator for over 23 years; my training took 4 years; I started with pen and ink progressing to modern day digital illustration.²

I find the most important area for any medical visual for me is a clear brief from the author and knowledge of the subject matter or how to research the subject, also good communication skills with the author and publisher.

Adobe Illustrator is by far the best programme to use. Learn about resolutions and pixels if you want your image to look crisp and sharp, and also ask your publisher what page size the image will fit into. There is nothing more unprofessional looking than fonts being over or under sized! Make sure you give your visual a short name, long titles can play havoc with production down the line, and never take an image from a Google search to avoid infringing a copyright!

Jansen FM, Tyler S. Young gastrointestinal angle: How to create figures for your journal articles. United European Gastroenterol J. 2021; 1–2. 10.1002/ueg2.12147

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.