Standards for Scientific Graphic Presentation | Hacker News Reader

Standards for Scientific Graphic Presentation

juretriglav.si

My two go-to theorists for data presentation:

William Cleveland: http://www.stat.purdue.edu/~wsc/

Jacques Bertin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Bertin

Blog post was cool, especially to hear about the systematization of subway graphics, but if you say "scientific graphic" you have to read those guys immediately. (And the person whose name begins with "T" is a bit overrated in my estimation).

My go-to practitioner: Jean-luc Doumont: http://www.principiae.be/X0302.php I highly recommend his talks (he tours universities in the US quite often) -- they are full of small practical nuggets on data presentation.

Wow! Great reference and lots of material to study. He too would be perfect on a new presentation standardization working group. I have to say that since this post has gone live, I've gotten so many great references, just shows a lot of very smart people thought about this problem - it would be fantastic to connect them all somehow.

Thanks for those two suggestions -- will take a look at both.

What I particularly liked about Jure's article was his storytelling -- the TL;DR at the start is a great hook, as is the link with the New York subway signage, and so when he gets to the scientific figure standards (and presents a very thorough commentary) you're interested enough to take in the details.

My name begins with a T.

Jokes aside, thank you very much for the references. There has been a lot of (if a bit discordant and disconnected) work in this field and it would be great if we could form a new age Joint Committee on Standards for Graphic Presentation, harmonizing these efforts.

Here's a really inspirational video to get you excited: http://vimeo.com/73643542

I'm a big fan of showing Bret Victor's breakdown of a messy and wordy scientific article into an interactive and easy to understand version: http://worrydream.com/ScientificCommunicationAsSequentialArt...

It plays off his much larger notion of changing the way we present what we do. His collection of talks on vimeo do a great job at detailing things if you have the time.

Since the author of the post is here, I'll note that I can see the missing references in the worldcat.org database - in book form. I think these links will work, though they might screen by IP:

http://ucsb.worldcat.org/oclc/6441789

http://ucsb.worldcat.org/oclc/7164016

http://ucsb.worldcat.org/oclc/2270071

Perhaps some colleagues at UCSF can help you get them with an inter-library loan? Thanks for the great post.

Edward Tufte is considered the guru on the subject. His primary principle is to minimize the ratio of ink to data points. That doesnt preclude artistic creativity as long as it increases clarity.

Tufte's work, at least as he presents it in his books, is a bit extravagant. It is hard for me to extract practical advice and ideas for data visualization.

So many things to fix in science this doesn't even make my top 5. Anyways, deciding how to show data is a great avenue for scientists to expose their inner artist. I wish more papers and presentation took pride in how well they read, how pretty the figures are, etc.

When we have finally made all public research freely accessible and reduced the perverse gaming incentives involved in publications and grants, then maybe we should tackle standardization of graphics.

Absolutely agree that many things are broken in science, but you do realize that progress can be asynchronous? Otherwise my top 1 problem to fix would be war.

juretriglav, speaking of problems to fix, I've found at least one the missing books that you're looking for, but unfortunately, it's not a freely downloadable or online version. I have also found a lot of useful information, but I'm still sifting and organizing it.

To start off with, the "American Standards Association" otherwise known by the acronym "ASA" is the old name of the organization now known as "American National Standards Institute" ("ANSI"). They changed their name in 1966 (I think), but it's impossible to retroactively change every occurrence of the name, and some prefer one or the other, so let's just say standards are seldom standardized.

The "American Society of Mechanical Engineers" ("ASME") is just one of many organizations that have worked with ANSI/ASA. It was ASME which originally worked on the standards you mentioned.

The 1936 book you mentioned was tough to find since it does not have a standard number, and I think this indicates the time before ASA started creating and using standard numbers.

Title: "Code of Preferred Practice for Graphic Presentation: Time Series Charts"

http://books.google.com/books/about/Code_of_Preferred_Practi...

Libraries http://www.worldcat.org/title/code-of-preferred-practice-for...

I'm fairly sure that's the 1936 book you wanted due to the notes here:

http://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/1850233

  ASA, Z15.2--1938
  "This manual represents a rather comprehensive revision of the material
  issued in April, 1936, under the title, 'Code of preferred practice for
  graphic presentation--time-series charts'."--Foreword.

The above is, the 1938 version you already have. I'll post the other info as soon as I get it sorted.

Thanks for the effort, jcr! I know about the evolution/history of ASME, ASA and ANSI, but like you, it hasn’t helped me locate copies.

For the 1979 version, it’s possible to purchase it online through the IHS.com store, https://global.ihs.com/doc_detail.cfm?&item_s_key=00009858&i... and I was really close to purchasing it, but decided instead to give it a few more days, maybe someone has access to it in a library or something.

If we can't find it anywhere in the next week or so, I'll just order it (100 USD with shipping).

Again, thank you very much for your effort!

That's a bit unfair. A chart provides an orthogonal view on the data, rather than just relying on a narrative description or a few numbers. This in itself is useful. Many cases of scientific fraud/errors have come to light because of the charts. Therefore, attempts to improve chart standards would be a gradual and achievable way to improve scientific quality. Not to sound cynical, but data access and research incentives aren't going to be 'fixed' any time soon, if ever.

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