A figure legend is a chunk of text that accompanies each figure in a laboratory report. Its purpose is to explain the figure clearly and thoroughly, providing readers with all the information necessary to understand the figure without returning to the main text of the lab report.
What should figure legend include?
4 Features of a Good Figure Legend:
Title: A brief title that applies to the entire figure, including all panels. Materials and methods: A description of the techniques used. Results: A statement of the results that can be gleaned from the particular figure. Definitions: An explanation of features in the figure.
How do you write a legend figure?
Tips for Writing Outstanding Scientific Figure Legends
Title– The title of a figure legend should describe the figure, clearly and succinctly. Methods– These methods are meant to be VERY brief and to describe the design of your experiment. Results– Here, you provide a single sentence on the results shown in the figure.
Where do you put figure legends?
Legends should match the width of the figures. Place them above a table, but below a figure (charts, graphs, images, etc). Legends should be left justified.
Where do you put the legend in a table?
Table legends (also called “table titles”) will almost always be quite short and be placed above the table. Any detailed information is given below the table, in the footnote. For submission, tables usually are placed at the end of the manuscript following the figure legends page, with one table per page.
What are table legends?
Legends or captions explain figures, tables, or images in the manuscript. As you know, using of figures and tables in research papers serves the purpose of providing illustrative description of the subject matter. Similarly, what legends or captions do is provide descriptive information of the figures or tables.
Do tables need legends?
Just like tables all figures need to have a clear and concise legend caption to accompany them. Images help readers visualize the information you are trying to convey.
How do you show legend in Excel chart?
Click the chart, and then click the Chart Design tab. Click Add Chart Element > Legend. To change the position of the legend, choose Right, Top, Left, or Bottom. To change the format of the legend, click More Legend Options, and then make the format changes that you want.
How do you write a figure legend for a scatter plot?
What to include in your figure legend
A title.The materials & methods involved with the presented figure.Results, though this isn’t always applicable.Any other miscellaneous details such as explaining abbreviations or image scale.
How do you caption a figure?
Here are some tips on using captions:
A figure caption is centered under the figure; a table caption is centered above the table (if a caption is more than one line, make it left justified).A Figure and its caption should appear on the same page.All captions should start with a capitalized word and end with a period.
Do figure legends need to be in italics?
The figure title belongs one double-spaced line below the figure number. The title should be in title case and italics. Color can be used in the figure if it is necessary for understanding the material. See APA 7, Section 7.26 for guidelines.
Do tables need titles?
Tables should be:
Labeled with the table number and descriptive title above the table. Labeled with column and/or row labels that describe the data, including units of measurement.
