How to caption and cite in a paper.

Captions

Table and figure captions should start with a bold sentence describing, at a high level, what is being shown in the figures/tables.

Figure captions should be followed up with a clear description of the figure: what each of the axes represent, the colors of the points/lines, etc. Each panel, if it is a multi-panelled figure, should be described separately. Some writers add a sentence at the end describing the main take home point of the figure.

Table captions should include a careful description of what is meant by each row/column, and any details about data in the table (Why are cells missing or out-of-bounds numbers?).

Citing in text

I tend to ascribe very closely to rules about citing in text. Not everyone follows these rules as closely as I do.

  • citations (both paper, and figures/tables) should not be used as nouns.

  • citations to figures and tables should be in parenthesis at the end of the sentence describing the analysis that lead to that figure.

  • capitalize the citation to figures, equations, and tables. Whatever you go with (Eq. 3), or (Eqn. 3) or (Equation 3) is fine, but ensure that it is consistent for every reference to an equation.

  • put the citations in the proper order represented by the numbering. Do not cite Figure 3 before Figure 2. Do not cite Figure 4b before Figure 4a. Same is true for tables and supplemental figures and sections.

  • try as much as possible to put a figure/table nearby the text that references it.

  • borrowing any more than three words from a paper means you put that phrase in quotes and cite the paper from which it came.

  • cite often and freely. Giving respect to related work, or thoughtful work for that matter, never goes unappreciated (by me, as a reader).

  • any rules about limits on bibliography length can always be broken if the publication source is one you respect.

  • rules about limits to figures/tables cannot be broken as easily. Try to ascribe to these; use supplemental material if you have information-rich figures and tables that don’t work in the main text.