Participant profile

Doctoral students of the UPV/EHU

Calendar

Araba Campus: November 2024

Duration / Timetable

10 hours (four 2h30 hour classes run over two weeks)

Time: 12:00 to 14:30

Attendance Requirement

Students will be expected to attend 100% of the classes together with the submission of all practical work assignments (see points 3 and 5 of the Basic regulations for participation in transversal training activities organised by the Doctoral School).

Language

English

Modality

Face-to-face and home-work

Pre-requisites

Students must have access to a computer (Windows or Mac) in order to install the software provided. This will allow them to actively participate in teaching activities and complete practical assignments. Additionally, students have the option to bring figures or scientific panels they are working on to class for discussion.

Location and dates

Speaker, Trainer and Profile

Denis Scaini: An Ikerbasque researcher active in the field of neuronal regenerative engineering, currently working at the JRL laboratory of the UPV/EHU. His work involves a robust interdisciplinary approach, requiring practical communication skills and strategies that transcend various research fields. Throughout his academic career, he has prioritised the visual medium, using graphs, figures, illustrations, and technical drawings to effectively convey complex scientific concepts to both specialists and the general public. He has authored numerous scientific articles in various journals, always striving to adhere to the highest visual communication standards. This has led him to recognise the importance of presenting scientific findings with clarity and precision, which is often overlooked. The proposed course aims to provide practical examples and guidelines for optimising the visual representation of research findings. The goal is to make this knowledge accessible to all.

Group size

Max 12 students

Registration

Objectives

One of the most critical aspects of research is communicating the research results to others, whether they are other researchers or members of the general public. The inability to deal with this task, which is sometimes underestimated, can make it difficult or impossible for scientifically relevant results to be diffused and understood.

Scientific journals, both generalists and those focused on specific scientific fields, play a key role in scientific communication. A typical scientific article consists of four to eight multi-panel figures that serve various functions: summarising or outlining key ideas or processes described in the text of the article, presenting scientific experimental results in the form of graphs with supporting information (e.g. statistics), showing examples of experimental data (e.g. microscopy images, spectrograms, gels, etc.), or summarising data in the form of tables. The precise number, format, and style of a figure and its corresponding panels are determined by the editorial style specific to each journal to maximise comprehension and make the article appealing, pleasant, and understandable. This course aims to analyse the main characteristics that a good figure should have as a complement to a scientific article.

Several editorial styles will be used to illustrate the best options for making a figure clear, elegant, and effective in terms of scientific communication from a theoretical perspective. We will also discuss examples of poorly structured and misleading figures to avoid some of the most common mistakes in the editorial design of a scientific figure. Additionally, the course will include a practical component in which example figures will be created following the graphic and communicative principles covered in the theoretical portion.

Competences to be acquired by the doctoral student

• Ability to conceive, design or create, implement and adopt a substantial process of research or creation.
• Ability to communicate with the academic and scientific community and with society in general about their fields of knowledge in the modes and languages in common use in their international scientific community.
• Ability to promote Open Science and Citizen Science, in accordance with Article 12 of Organic Law 2/2023 of 22 March, as a way of contributing to the consideration of scientific knowledge as a common good, through the evaluation of transversal activities carried out by the doctoral student related to different dimensions of Open Science and Citizen Science, as well as the training acquired in these disciplines in the form of micro-credentials or similar.

Format

The course consists of four classes, each lasting about 2.5 hours, spread over two weeks. There will be a 15-minute break midway through each class. After each session, practical computer-based assignments will be given to reinforce the theoretical concepts covered. These activities will be completed individually and presented and discussed in the following class. These practical tasks should take at most one to two hours to complete.

All classes will be conducted as seminars, comprising presented material, examples, and opportunities for open discussion. Students should be prepared to take their own notes and actively participate and contribute to each class.

All classes will be conducted in English, including technical terminology and examples, and students are expected to use English as the primary language during the sessions. Therefore, it is recommended that students have reasonable confidence in working in English, at least in reading.

Content

By the end of the course, students will learn both the theoretical and practical aspects of creating impactful and communicative scientific figures.

The theoretical part will cover the purpose and characteristics of figures in scientific articles, show positive and negative examples of scientific figures in journals, explain the components and structure of a scientific figure, introduce basic concepts of graphic formats (e.g., vector vs bitmap), provide examples of graphic/image editing software, discuss main editorial graphic standards and formats, and teach how to prepare graphs, histograms, charts, microscopic images, diagrams, and vignettes for publication. Furthermore, it will cover data integrity and copyright standards in scientific figure preparation.

On the practical side, students will have access to open-source and commercial graphic software demos and will be able to prepare example figures under the teacher's supervision, applying the rules learned during the course. At the end of the course, there will be discussions on students' case studies, where they will work in groups to identify the best graphical solutions for presenting specific data sets or information in a scientific article.