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Cited by 710

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 18 of the 18 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Beyond Bar and Line Graphs: Time for a New Data Presentation Paradigm

Open access
Weissgerber, Tracey L., Milic, Natasa M., Winham, Stacey J., Garovic, Vesna D.·2015·PLOS Biology

Abstract

Figures in scientific publications are critically important because they often show the data supporting key findings. Our systematic review of research articles published in top physiology journals (n = 703) suggests that, as scientists, we urgently need to change our practices for presenting continuous data in small sample size studies. Papers rarely included scatterplots, box plots, and histograms that allow readers to critically evaluate continuous data. Most papers presented continuous data in bar and line graphs. This is problematic, as many different data distributions can lead to the same bar or line graph. The full data may suggest different conclusions from the summary statistics. We recommend training investigators in data presentation, encouraging a more complete presentation of data, and changing journal editorial policies. Investigators can quickly make univariate scatterplots for small sample size studies using our Excel templates.

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Crossref · 10.1371/journal.pbio.1002128

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Metadata

Authors
Weissgerber, T. L., Milic, N. M., Winham, S. J., & Garovic, V. D.
Venue
PLOS Biology
Published
2015-04-22
Volume
13
Issue
4
Pages
e1002128
ISSN
  • 1544-9173 (ISSN-L)
  • 1545-7885
OpenAlex
W2039272248
Cited by
710
References
18
FWCI
54.01
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
gold

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Beyond Bar and Line Graphs: Time for a New Data Presentation Paradigm. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002128
The paper
Weissgerber, T. L., Milic, N. M., Winham, S. J., & Garovic, V. D. (2015). Beyond Bar and Line Graphs: Time for a New Data Presentation Paradigm. PLOS Biology. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002128

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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.