Creating quality graphics for IEEE papers with MATLAB
Channel: Paul Cuffe
Date: 2021-10-07

This is what I wish I knew much sooner in my research journey!

The MATLAB scripts I'm using here are available at: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16760059.v2

If you make graphics by hand in a package such as MATLAB, they'll haphazardly come out in all different sizes and shapes. When you insert them into your paper, then they'll get shrunk down to a width of 8.89 cm, which is the decreed width of a column in an IEEE paper. So, to get consistent legible text sizes, you need to construct all your graphics in a way that explicitly respects this key dimension.

Moreover, for a quick, efficient and repeatable workflow, you need to automate all the steps in the creation of your graphics. This video shows you how. A crucial point is to separate the creation and visualization of your data. The two scripts here represent these distinct phases. MATLAB's 'save' feature is so handy here: it takes everything in your workspace and packages it us as a file that you can simply reopen later to repopulate all the data structures you had been working with. It's very convenient, and a great way to subsequently share your data on a repository like Figshare. No need to mess around with .xlsx or .csv files. Python has a similar ability to 'pickle' workspace variables.

So:

- Automate your graphic creation workflow

- Respect the constraints of column width

- Save workspace variables in a timestamped way for sharable/repeatable science

Adopting this workflow will give you more attractive paper that are quicker to write and uphold open science better.