Nearly all research papers contain far more than words. Most research papers have a mixture of images (pictures, drawings, tables, maps, graphs) and math (equations, symbols). This group of tips is inteded to help organize your work so that subsequent editing and possible publication or poster making can be less of an onerous chore.

• Keep the paper in its own folder. While this may sound obvious, many don't do it. With parts scattered all over your computer (or maybe multiple computers) fixing a problem can be more than a nuisance. Today's word processing software can make things a bit too simple, and we find that six revisions later we don't have a clear idea of how we started out. So, along, the way, don't use "Save" but use "Save as" and add a revision number to the work. If you use a consistent naming method and keep your drafts in th esame folder, your work will be nice, tidy, and accessible. For example:
  • Draft1
  • Draft2
  • Draft3

• Have a separate folder inside the paper's folder for images. You can wind up with drawings, tables, pictures, and so on all over the place. Again, keep an original of each and don't tinker with it. Do the Photoshop-type work (Gimp) on copies. That way, if you make a mess or don't like what you've done, you don't have to redo all th work to get a new original.

• Put all your visuals in the page with their own corresponding text. In the days of the typewriter, graphs and pictures were often collected together at the end of the text, and sadly, today some people still do that. It's annoying to the reader to flip back and forth. We have the technology today to help get your point across better. Use it.

• Numbering figures, tables, and equations. All images are called figures in a paper except tables. Traditionally, figures are captioned below as "Figure 1" etc. Tables are captioned above the table as "Table 1" etc. Usually equations are numbered to the right as "Equation 1" etc. unless there is no room for the label in which case it goes underneath the equation.

• References. There are several acceptable ways in which to do text references. MLA and APA are examples. NoddleBib on the Online Databases Page of the TJ Library web page can help. Your teacher or mentor may have a preference. By all means, consistently comply with those guidelines. References for visuals are often overlooked. YOu may or may not have taken the picture of the hydra, but it is not likely that you took the one of Timor from space or th ecranial MRI. You need to credit the source. If you intend to publish your work, you need to get written permission from the original publisher to reprint a visual.

• Vector diagrams. If you are drawing a diagram from scatch, it is easier to use a vector authoring took, instead of raster programs like Paint. Do not underestimate the power of Word's Drawing tookbar. For a more powerful ddiagramming software, we recommend Microsoft Visio or the free OpenOffice Draw. Gimp is excellent for image processing. Mature vector formats include wmf, emf, svg, eps, and ps. See if your authoring program supports "exporting" to one of these formats. In general, vector diagrams are preferred over raster diagrams because of unrestrained resizability and ease of modification.

• Use the right type of file fomat for your imagery work. Photographs should be jpg. Drawings, maps, graphs, and bits of text should NEVER be jpg as the aliasing will make crisp edges fuzzy. Use a gif or png for these types of images If you inted to publish your woprk, the size of the imagery doesn't matter as the publication staff will make the necessary adjustments.

• Drawings beyond the very simple should be made into gif or png formats. Make the drawing separately from the paper using the word processing drawing tools or Paing, or simething like Photoshop or Gimp (free), and then import/paste it in. Keep the original work in the project folder. This makes it much simpler to work with the drawing if you need to.

• tif format. If your paper is going to be published, all of the images will probably be converted to tif format. You can do that if you want, but it'll mjst make your paper bigger electronically. As a general rule, don't bother.

• Group your drawings. If you've used the word processing program's drawing tools and you've got more than two items in the sketch, group them. Grouping is important because as you add more and more pieces to the sketch, some may begin to float about and position themselves differently on different printers or monitors.

• Format images properly. In Word, "Square" or "Top and bottom" are usually best when formatting images. If you use "In line with text", which gives you black or gray squares in place of circles as corners, it will be difficult to place the image where you want it on a page. In addition, this style is not conducive to grouping.

• Compress and crop thoughtfully. There's no point in putting an image into a paper that has more lines per inch than the eye can see. Keep the original in all its detail as you might wish to blow it up or use a part of it at some poin, but there's nothing to be gained from tputting an 8 MB image in a 2 inch by 2 inch location in a paper. All that does is make the document larger electronically an dcause printing difficulties. Be careful with some automatic cropping tools. Sometimes, all they do is make part of the image invisible and have not truly cropped it so there's no saving to the document size. By the way, if you put pictures into a PowerPint presentation, be sure to compress them at 96 lines per inch. (Right click on the picture, click on "Format picture", follow the "Compress..." prompts. Also, you may want to check out how Gimp can be used). But then, don't extract a compressed picture from your PowerPoint and expand it to 12" by 15" in a poster. Go back to your save original to do that.

• Be thoughtful when using tables. If the table is very simple, the word processing program's table tooks will do the job, but if any complexity is involved, make the table in a spreadsheet program and insert the table as a picture into the paper. Of course, you'll keep the original spreadsheet in the project folder. If you merely copy and paste the table into the paper, you'll carry all the connections back to the spreadsheet program with it, and that can be undesirable.

• Be smart with graphs. Almost for sure, you made your graphs in a spreadsheet. program. Keep the spreadsheet document in you project folder. As with tables, insert/paste graphs into your paper as a picture in order not to carry connections with it. Remember, single variable graphs don't need a legend if the title makes it obvious what's being plotted. Two or more plots need a legend, of course.

• Decimals. Use a zero before decimal points: "0.25", not ".25".

• Very and fairly simple math. One line math such as 8 + 5 = 13 can be done any way you want with no problems. Do remember, however, you don't want to split up the equation at the end of a line. Split it after the equal sign or move it to the next line. Fairly simple math can be placed in the text as opposed to being on its own line. Variable's must be in italics. Vectors should be bold faced roman. Heavier math is on its own line.

• Heavier math. If you've got integral signs or capital sigmas, use Microsoft Equation Editor, Mathematica, or LaTeX. LaTeX is preferred.

• For sanity. Avoid dangling participles, such as, "Using (Eq. 1), the potential was calculated." It is not clear who or what used (1). Write instead, "The potential was calculated by using (1)", or "Using (Eq. 1), the team calculated the potential."

• Word precision. In day to day converstaion, such words as hypothesis, theory, prove, believe, and test have wide and loose interpretations. In science and technical writing, those words have precise meanings, so use them with some though. Be careful with homophones: affect : effect, discreet : discrete, principal : principle, complement : compliment. Do not confuse "imply" and "infer". Avoid euphemisms.