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Graphing Inline: Understanding Word-scale Graphics Use in Scientific Papers

Siyu Lu, Yanhan Liu, Shiyu Xu, Ruishi Zou, Chen Ye

TL;DR

A framework is proposed that characterizes where, why, and how authors apply word-scale graphics in scientific papers and reveals that word-scale graphics are rarely used, that icons dominate visual representation, and that visual representation connects with communicative function.

Abstract

Graphics (e.g., figures and charts) are ubiquitous in scientific papers, yet separating graphics from text increases cognitive load in understanding text-graphic connections. Research has found that word-scale graphics, or visual embellishments at typographic size, can augment original text, making it more expressive and easier to understand. However, whether, if so, how scientific papers adopt word-scale graphics for scholarly communication remains unclear. To address this gap, we conducted a corpus study reviewing 909 word-scale graphics extracted from 126,797 scientific papers. Through analysis, we propose a framework that characterizes where (positioning), why (communicative function), and how (visual representation) authors apply word-scale graphics in scientific papers. Our findings reveal that word-scale graphics are rarely used, that icons dominate visual representation, and that visual representation connects with communicative function (e.g., using quantitative graphs for data annotation). We further discuss opportunities to enhance scholarly communication with word-scale graphics through technical and administrative innovations.

Graphing Inline: Understanding Word-scale Graphics Use in Scientific Papers

TL;DR

A framework is proposed that characterizes where, why, and how authors apply word-scale graphics in scientific papers and reveals that word-scale graphics are rarely used, that icons dominate visual representation, and that visual representation connects with communicative function.

Abstract

Graphics (e.g., figures and charts) are ubiquitous in scientific papers, yet separating graphics from text increases cognitive load in understanding text-graphic connections. Research has found that word-scale graphics, or visual embellishments at typographic size, can augment original text, making it more expressive and easier to understand. However, whether, if so, how scientific papers adopt word-scale graphics for scholarly communication remains unclear. To address this gap, we conducted a corpus study reviewing 909 word-scale graphics extracted from 126,797 scientific papers. Through analysis, we propose a framework that characterizes where (positioning), why (communicative function), and how (visual representation) authors apply word-scale graphics in scientific papers. Our findings reveal that word-scale graphics are rarely used, that icons dominate visual representation, and that visual representation connects with communicative function (e.g., using quantitative graphs for data annotation). We further discuss opportunities to enhance scholarly communication with word-scale graphics through technical and administrative innovations.
Paper Structure (20 sections, 1 figure)

This paper contains 20 sections, 1 figure.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Method
  3. S1: Preparation.
  4. S2: Automatic Candidate Extraction.
  5. S3: Coding and Analysis.
  6. S4: Validation.
  7. Results
  8. Overview of the Framework
  9. Where: Positioning of Word-scale Graphics
  10. Why: Communicative Function
  11. How: Visual Representation
  12. Correlation Analysis
  13. Association
  14. Dominant usage patterns.
  15. Discussion
  16. ...and 5 more sections

Figures (1)

  • Figure 1: The four-stage study pipeline. We 1) prepared retrieval rules based on 103 IEEE VIS papers; 2) extracted 5,006 candidates from 125,577 arXiv papers; 3) annotated 585 valid papers to derive the where (positioning), why (communicative function), and how (visual representation) framework; and 4) validated the framework on 140 papers from beck2017WordSized.