Figure Guidelines

Supporting Information Figures: Figures submitted as supporting information serve a supplementary role and are subject to fewer technical requirements than main article figures. They must also be uploaded as separate files. Consult the supporting information guidelines for full details.

Figure Preparation Checklist

Before submitting, authors are advised to review the following:

Journal policies concerning the depiction of human subjects and licensing and copyright.
The figure preparation guidelines and, where applicable, the requirements for blot and gel data reporting.
The figure file requirements covering all technical specifications.
Guidance on formatting and submitting figures and captions for peer review.

Blot and Gel Reporting Requirements

These requirements apply to all figures and supporting information files containing blot or gel data. They exist to ensure complete transparency in reporting and to allow readers to verify findings by examining the underlying data in its unaltered state.

Providing original blot and gel images

Authors are required to supply the original, uncropped, and minimally processed images behind all blot and gel data appearing in main figures and supporting information. These files are not required at the point of initial submission but will be requested during peer review or before a final acceptance decision is made.

When compiling and submitting blot and gel data files, please follow this procedure:

Assemble all original blot and gel images from the manuscript's main and supplemental figures into a single PDF file. Image editing software such as GIMP or Photoshop may be used to compile and annotate these images before saving as a TIFF with LZW compression.
Name the file 'S1_raw_images' and upload it as a Supporting Information file, or deposit it in a publicly accessible data repository. If deposited externally, include the dataset identifier — such as a DOI — in the Data Availability Statement.
Each raw blot or gel image should be annotated to show the loading order, the identity of each experimental sample, the method by which the image was captured, and which figure panel it corresponds to. Molecular weight markers must be visible or clearly indicated on the raw image.
The maximum permitted file size is 20 MB. Files that exceed this should be deposited in a suitable external repository, or authors should contact the journal to discuss alternative arrangements.

Standards for presenting blot and gel data

The following rules govern the preparation of figures that contain blot or gel results, including but not limited to western blots and electrophoretic gels:

Images must not be modified in ways that alter the scientific information they convey. Any image-wide adjustments made to enhance visibility must be applied uniformly across the entire image.
Panels must not be cropped too tightly around bands. Some background area above and below bands should remain visible.
When comparing band intensities across samples, all samples being compared must have been run on the same gel or blot.
Each figure must include all appropriate controls. Where relevant, control samples should be run on the same blot or gel as experimental samples.
A single figure panel must not be composed of band images taken from different blots, exposures, or gels. When it is necessary to present data from multiple gels or blots, these should be shown as clearly separated panels within the figure.
If lanes within a single blot or gel image have been rearranged for presentation purposes, the rearrangement must be clearly marked with a thin vertical line on the figure, and the figure legend must explain how the final image was assembled.

Preparing Figures from Image Files

These guidelines support the creation of high-quality figures and help authors avoid problems arising from improper image handling. Figures must not be modified in ways that misrepresent the data in the original image.

Types of manipulation that are not permitted

The following are all considered unacceptable forms of image alteration:

Adding, enhancing, moving, or deleting specific features or elements within an image.
Presenting grouped images without clearly indicating that they originated from different parts of the same gel, or from separate gels, fields, or experimental conditions.
Using brightness, contrast, or color balance adjustments that conceal, remove, or distort any part of the data, including non-specific signals or background.

Where a gel has been spliced, a thin dividing line must mark the point of alteration. It is acceptable to remove a complete lane and join the remaining lanes together, provided all spliced sections come from the same original image.
Images must retain the background signal that was present in the original. Cleaning tools such as rubberstamp or wipe effects, or aggressive brightness and contrast adjustments that eliminate background, are not acceptable.

Producing high-quality images

Confirm that images have a resolution of at least 300 pixels per inch and appear clear and sharp rather than pixelated.
Take care not to accidentally reduce image resolution when working in graphics software.

Important — do not artificially inflate resolution: When opening an image in graphics editing software, do not increase the total pixel count beyond what the original image contained. Doing so forces the software to fabricate pixel data that did not exist in the original, which constitutes a misrepresentation. Resolution can only be legitimately increased by reducing the physical dimensions of the image proportionally.

Figure File Requirements

The table below summarises the key technical specifications.

Specification	Requirement
File Format	TIFF or EPS only
Dimensions	Width: 789–2250 pixels (at 300 dpi). Maximum height: 2625 pixels (at 300 dpi)
Resolution	300–600 dpi
File Size	Under 10 MB
Text within Figures	Arial, Times, or Symbol font only, sized between 8 and 12 point
Figure Files	Named sequentially: Fig1.tif, Fig2.eps, etc. File name must match the caption label and in-text citation.
Captions	Must appear in the manuscript document, not embedded in the figure file

File Format

Only TIFF and EPS formats are accepted for figure submission.

Which format should I use — TIFF or EPS? TIFF is generally more straightforward to work with. EPS files are prone to problems including corrupted or missing fonts, oversized mask elements, stray anchor points, and unwanted bounding boxes, all of which can produce errors or degraded output during typesetting.

Dimensions

	Centimeters	Inches	Pixels at 300 dpi
Minimum width	6.68	2.63	789
Maximum width	19.05	7.5	2250
Maximum height	22.23	8.75	2625

At the maximum height, the figure fills the entire page and does not include the caption.

"Dimensions" here refers to the figure itself, not including surrounding white space.

Helpful tips

To align the figure with the text column in the published PDF, keep the width at or below 5.2 inches (13.2 cm).
When building figures in presentation software such as PowerPoint, OpenOffice, or Keynote, verify that each image component meets the pixel dimensions above.
For a figure that spans the full page width of 19.05 cm, the source image should be 2,250 pixels wide.
Keep the Chain/Lock symbol active when adjusting dimensions so that the width-to-height ratio is preserved.
Use Image → Properties (or Image → Information) to check the current dimensions of your image.

Resolution

Figures should be submitted at the correct final dimensions with a resolution within the range of 300 to 600 dpi.

A low-resolution figure cannot be repaired by increasing the dpi value in graphics software after the fact. The figure must be recreated from the original source at the correct resolution.
Figures submitted at below 300 dpi will appear blurred, jagged, or pixelated in the published article.
The overall quality of a figure is determined by its weakest element. If a 72 dpi line graph is placed inside a 300 dpi TIFF, the graph will appear blurred or pixelated regardless of the container file's resolution.

File Size

Each figure file must be under 10 MB. The following steps can be taken to reduce file size where needed.

Reducing the size of TIFF files

Apply LZW compression when saving.
Set resolution within the 300–600 dpi range.
Flatten the image before saving. A properly flattened TIFF will contain a single layer labelled "background".

Reducing the size of EPS files

Source images embedded within EPS files should be compressed using your preferred compression method and must not exceed full page dimensions.
If an EPS file remains too large after compression, convert it to PDF and then export from that PDF as a compressed TIFF.

Text within Figures

Only Arial, Times, or Symbol fonts are permitted within figures, sized between 8 and 12 point.

Author names, the article title, figure numbers, and captions must not appear inside figure files. This information belongs in the manuscript document as part of the figure caption.

Text in EPS figures
To prevent fonts from rendering incorrectly or going missing during production, either embed all fonts or convert all text to outlines before submission.

In Illustrator:

Select all objects (Ctrl + A)
Convert to outlines using Shift + Control + O on PC, or Shift + Command + O on Mac

In Inkscape:

Select all objects (Ctrl + A)
Convert to paths using Shift + Ctrl + C

Multi-panel Figures

When a figure consists of multiple panels, all panels must be arranged on a single page and saved as one file before submission.

Either merge all panels into a single page, or divide them into separate numbered figures.
Update all figure numbers and in-text citations to reflect any changes.

One practical approach for assembling multi-panel figures is to use a presentation program such as Microsoft PowerPoint, OpenOffice Impress, or Keynote, and then convert the result to TIFF.

Set up the slide dimensions using the values listed in the Dimensions section.
Insert images using the Insert function rather than dragging, dropping, or pasting — the latter methods produce images at 72 dpi.
For figures that contain multiple photographs, charts, or small text elements, an output resolution of 600 dpi is recommended for best quality.

Color Mode

Figures must be submitted in RGB (8 bit per channel) or grayscale color mode only.

White Space

A narrow white space border of approximately 2 points around each figure is advisable to guard against content being clipped during layout. Any unnecessary white space beyond this should be cropped from around the image.

Orientation

Figures must be rotated to their intended publication orientation before submission.

Figures are placed into the typeset article exactly as supplied. A vertically oriented image submitted in landscape orientation will be published in landscape, not corrected to portrait.

Layers

TIFF files must be fully flattened with no separate layers. Files that contain a layer labelled "layer 1" or "layer 0" retain their layered structure and have not been properly flattened.

Alpha Channels

TIFF files must not contain any alpha channels.

Compression

LZW compression must be applied to all TIFF submissions. To apply LZW compression:

In GIMP: choose Export rather than Save As, select TIFF as the file type, and then enable LZW compression in the export options.
In Photoshop: when saving, select the LZW compression option and choose Discard Layers and Save a Copy.

Pages

Multi-page TIFF files are not supported for publication. If multiple panels need to appear within a single figure, they must be arranged on a single page. Refer to the Multi-panel Figures section for guidance.

How to Submit Figures and Captions

Each figure submission has three components: the figure file itself, a caption in the manuscript, and an in-text citation. Figure file names, caption labels, and in-text citations must all correspond to one another.

Figure files

Naming: Number files in sequence using the format Fig1.tif, Fig2.eps, and so on.
Upload: Each figure must be submitted as a standalone file, separate from the manuscript.

If the figure order changes at any point during the revision process, all figure file names, in-text citations, and captions must be updated to reflect the new numbering.

Captions

Placement: Captions should appear in the manuscript in reading order, directly after the paragraph in which the figure is first cited. They must not be embedded in figure files or submitted as a separate document.
Format: Each caption must include a figure label and a figure title. A legend is optional.
- Label: Use Arabic numerals and abbreviate "Figure" as "Fig" (e.g., Fig 1, Fig 2, Fig 3).
- Title: Keep the title brief and informative — ideally no more than 15 words.
- Legend: Place the legend immediately after the title. Any figure credits should appear in the final sentence of the legend.

Tips for writing figure legends

Keep it concise — avoid lengthy descriptions of experimental methods.
Describe the key finding or message of the figure so that it can be understood independently of the main text.
For multi-panel figures, describe each panel using its letter label, for example: (A) or (a).
Define all non-standard symbols and abbreviations used in the figure.

In-text citations

Use the citation format: Fig 1A, Fig 1B, Fig 2, Fig 3, etc.
Cite figures in ascending numerical order based on when they first appear in the manuscript, including citations within text boxes and tables.
Lettered sub-panels of a figure may be cited in any order within the text, provided the whole-figure citation has already appeared in numerical sequence.

Tools for Figure Preparation

The journal provides guidance on figure requirements but does not offer graphics preparation services. Authors are fully responsible for the quality of their submitted figures.

Automated figure checking tool

A free web-based tool called NAAS is available to assist authors in reviewing and preparing their figures before submission. It checks whether figures meet the journal's technical specifications and can also convert and resize figures to TIFF format. For NAAS to function correctly, figures must be at 300 to 600 dpi. Supporting Information figures should not be submitted through NAAS.

Software options

For figures built from vector graphics, Adobe Illustrator or the free alternative Inkscape are recommended. Vector figures must be exported to EPS format for submission.

For raster graphics, the following free programs support both editing and TIFF export:

GIMP
OpenOffice

LaTeX

Vector EPS figures produced directly from LaTeX are not accepted. Authors using LaTeX should submit figures as TIFF or EPS files generated in standard graphics software.

Converting a LaTeX-generated EPS figure to TIFF

Compile the LaTeX project into a PDF.
Open the resulting PDF in Photoshop, GIMP, or another application capable of exporting TIFF files.
Crop the figure to its correct boundaries and export as TIFF.

Creating Source Images with Specialized Software

The journal is unable to provide direct support for the software listed in this section. The settings below represent the recommended configurations for producing images that satisfy the figure requirements.

SigmaPlot

Setting up a graph for submission

Create and save your graph in SigmaPlot format.
Open Tools > Options, navigate to the Page tab, set units to Millimeters, and ensure the Graph Objects > Resize with Graph option is unchecked. Click OK.
Open File > Page Setup, go to the Margins tab, set all margins to 0.0 mm, and click Apply.
On the Page Size tab, set the Width to 190.5 mm (or 132.0 mm for a text-column-wide figure) and the Height to 222.3 mm. Click OK.
Set all text to 8 pt and all line widths to 0.2 mm.
Resize the graph to occupy the full available page width.

Exporting in PDF format

Go to File > Print. In the print dialogue, choose Adobe PDF as the printer and open Properties.
Set the Default Settings to Press Quality. Uncheck the View Adobe PDF results option if you do not want Acrobat to open automatically.
Click OK twice, specify the save location, and click Save.
Open the saved PDF in NAAS, Photoshop, or GIMP to convert it to TIFF format.

RStudio

Export figures from RStudio as EPS. If a TIFF file is preferred, use NAAS to convert the EPS and achieve 300 dpi — TIFF files exported directly from RStudio are limited to 72 dpi.

Image format: EPS
Minimum width: 789 pixels
Enable "Maintain aspect ratio"
Submit the EPS directly, or use NAAS to convert it to TIFF

Software	Recommended Settings and Export Procedure
Matlab	Determine the target image size in inches and dpi, then calculate the corresponding pixel dimensions. For example, a 1.5-column figure at maximum height (4.86 × 9.19 inches) at 300 dpi equates to 1458 × 2757 pixels. Adjust the image to these dimensions, then save as a TIFF at 300 dpi.
Prism	File format: TIFF Resolution: 300 dpi Color Mode: RGB Width: 7.5 inches Enable compression
Stata	Stata renders at screen resolution (72 dpi). To achieve half-page width, export at 39.52 cm; for full-page width, export at 79.25 cm.
ChemDraw	Export to SVG (Windows only). SVG is a vector format similar to PDF or EPS and can be opened and edited in Photoshop or GIMP.
PyMol	For a 300 dpi PNG at 4.92 × 9.25 inches: Ray-traced: Ray 1458,2757 / Pnghires_ray.pdb, dpi=300 OpenGL: Draw 1458,2757 / Pnghires_ogl.pdb, dpi=300
SPSS	Export the output as a PDF, then open that PDF in Photoshop or GIMP for further processing and TIFF conversion.
GeneSpring	Export as Image Unit: cm Print Width: 19.05 cm, Lock Aspect Ratio Image Resolution: 600 dpi
Minitab	Use Save Graph As with the following settings: File type: TIF Color: RGB Custom Resolution: 600

Maps

All published content carries a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. When including a map in a figure, authors must verify that the source material is compatible with CC BY terms. The following sources offer maps that may be used under this license:

USGS: All maps produced by the US Geological Survey are in the public domain.
SEDAC: Many maps from the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center are available under an Open Access license.
World of Maps: May include maps available in the public domain.
OpenStreetMap: Map tiles are freely usable provided the following attribution is included: "Base map and data from OpenStreetMap and OpenStreetMap Foundation."

Important: A map that is freely downloadable is not necessarily free to republish. Maps from Google, Mapquest, and similar commercial providers are copyrighted and must not be used in submitted figures.

Policies

All submitted figures must comply with the journal's policies on human subject depictions and on intellectual property rights.

Figures depicting human subjects

Manuscripts that contain identifying or potentially identifying imagery of individuals must satisfy the journal's informed consent requirements. Information that could identify a person includes, but is not limited to:

Clinical or documentary photographs
Radiographic images
Family pedigrees
Geospatial maps detailed enough to identify a specific address or residence

The Lena image

Submissions that include the depiction or analysis of the widely circulated "Lena" image will not be considered for publication, as its use is inconsistent with the journal's values. Authors should substitute an alternative image before submitting.

Licensing and copyright

Figures, tables, and images in published articles are covered by the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.

Do not submit any figure, photograph, table, or other visual material that is protected by copyright or that contains proprietary data, unless you hold written authorisation from the rights holder permitting its use. This restriction covers:

Maps and satellite imagery
Slogans and logos
Content taken from social media platforms

Contact

Authors with outstanding questions about figure preparation are welcome to contact the editorial office for assistance.

Editorial Office — SAFE Journal of One Health
Published by The SAFE Society Publishing
Email: editor@thesafesociety.com
Website: https://journal.thesafesociety.com