conbio-figures-and-tables

Figures, Tables & Maps (conbio-figures-and-tables)

Exhibits are where an expert reviewer checks whether the result is real, and in Conservation Biology

they are also rationed: the Style Guide asks for roughly **one supporting element (table or figure)

per four pages of text** from the Abstract through Literature Cited. So every exhibit must earn its

space. (Word counts exclude tables and figure legends, but exhibit count is constrained.)

When to trigger

• Designing the main results figure/table, a study-area map, or a key descriptive exhibit
• Deciding what belongs in the article vs. Supporting Information
• A reviewer found an exhibit unclear, mislabeled, or non-self-contained
• Trimming to the exhibit budget by moving material online

Principles

1. Self-contained. A reader should understand each exhibit from its title/caption, axis and column

labels, and note alone — without hunting through the text. State units, sample, N, and what the

estimate is.

1. Figures over dense tables for effects. Effect/forest plots, predicted-probability and

partial-dependence plots, occupancy/abundance and survival curves communicate magnitude and

uncertainty better than a wall of coefficients. Show intervals.

1. Maps done right. Study-area and result maps need a scale bar, north arrow, stated projection,

and a locator/inset. Don't let a map decorate without informing.

1. Accessible. Colorblind-safe palettes; legible in grayscale; no chartjunk, no 3D, no needless

color. Reviewers and readers must parse it quickly.

1. Article vs. Supporting Information. Keep the few exhibits that carry the argument in the article;

move balance tables, full model output, and robustness grids to Supporting Information.

1. Reproducible. Each exhibit is generated by the master script; values match the deposited

data/code package exactly (see conbio-reporting-and-data-policy).

Sensitive-data caution (distinctive to conservation)

• Mask or coarsen precise locations of threatened, exploited, or trafficked taxa, nests, dens, or

roosts so a map cannot aid poaching or disturbance. State in the caption that locations were masked.

Anti-patterns

• Tables that require the prose to be intelligible (not self-contained)
• Significance stars with no effect size or interval
• Cramming every robustness check into the main text (blows the exhibit budget — use SI)
• Maps with no scale bar/projection, or that expose sensitive locations
• Color-only encoding that fails in grayscale or for colorblind readers
• Exhibit numbers/values that don't match the deposited code output

Figure pass for Conservation Biology

Use this as a second-pass capability check. First lock the species/system threat, conservation decision, and uncertainty relevant to action; then test whether the manuscript addresses conservation-science reviewers who ask whether evidence changes biodiversity, management, or policy action.

• Primary move: Make each figure prove one claim: object, contrast, uncertainty, and failure case must be legible without relying on caption-only interpretation.
• Decision ledger: return claim / evidence / blocker / next edit rows so the next pass can patch the manuscript directly.
• Neighbor test: compare against Biological Conservation for applied conservation breadth, Global Change Biology for climate/ecosystem process, Ecology Letters for theory-forward ecology; if the neighboring outlet has the stronger audience claim, recommend re-routing before polishing.
• Submission-ready gate: before final advice, re-open resources/official-source-map.md for upload-week rules and name the one live-check item that could change the recommendation.

Output format

【Main exhibit】what it shows + why a figure/table/map
【Self-contained?】title + labels + note + N/units present? [Y/N]
【Accessible?】grayscale-legible + colorblind-safe? [Y/N]
【Sensitive locations masked?】[Y/N/NA]
【Article vs SI】split decided, exhibit-budget impact noted
【Reproducible?】generated by master script, matches package? [Y/N]
【Next】conbio-reporting-and-data-policy

Supplementary resources

• [../../resources/external_tools.md](../../resources/external_tools.md) — plotting, mapping, and spatial packages
• [../../resources/official-source-map.md](../../resources/official-source-map.md) — exhibit budget and word-count rule