{"id":146,"date":"2019-01-30T18:31:33","date_gmt":"2019-01-30T18:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/?p=146"},"modified":"2019-02-04T20:54:45","modified_gmt":"2019-02-04T20:54:45","slug":"data-visualization-for-academics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/30\/data-visualization-for-academics\/","title":{"rendered":"Data visualization for academics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the reasons I am excited about the rise of data journalism is that journalists are doing amazing things with visualization. At the same time, one of my frustrations with academic research is that the general quality of visualization is so poor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the problems is that most academic papers are published in grayscale, so the figures don’t use color. But most papers are read in electronic formats now; the world is safe for color!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another problem is the convention of putting figures at the end, which is an extreme form of burying the lede<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, many figures are generated by software with bad defaults: lines are too thin, text<\/g> is too small, axis and grids lines are obtrusive, and when colors are used, they tend to be saturated colors that clash. And I won’t even mention the gratuitous use of 3-D.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I think the biggest problem is the simplest: the figures in most academic papers do a poor job of communicating one point clearly<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wrote about one example a few months ago<\/a>, a paper showing that children who start school relatively young are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s the figure from the original paper<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How long does it take you to understand the point of this figure? Now here’s my representation of the same data:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I believe this figure is easier to interpret. Here’s what I changed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Instead of plotting the difference between successive months, I plotted the diagnosis rate for each month, which makes it possible to see the pattern (diagnosis rate increases month over month for the first six months, then levels), and the magnitude of the difference (from 60 to 90 diagnoses per 10,000, an increase of about 50%).<\/li>
  2. I shifted the horizontal axis to put the cutoff date (September 1) at zero.<\/li>
  3. I added a vertical line and text to distinguish and interpret the two halves of the plot.<\/li>
  4. I added a title that states the primary conclusion supported by the figure. Alternatively, I could have put this text in a caption.<\/li>
  5. I replaced the error bars with a shaded area, which looks better (in my opinion) and appropriately gives less visual weight to less important information.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    I came across a similar visualization makeover recently. In this Washington Post article<\/a>, Catherine Rampell writes, “Colleges have been under pressure to admit needier kids. It\u2019s backfiring.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Her article is based on this academic paper<\/a>; here’s the figure from the original paper:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    It’s sideways, it’s on page 29, and it fails to make its point. So Rampell designed a better figure. Here’s the figure from her article:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"\/

    <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    The title explains what the figure shows clearly: enrollment rates are highest for low-income students that qualify for Pell grants and lowest for low-income students who don’t qualify for Pell grants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To nitpick, I might have plotted this data with a line rather than a bar chart, and I might have used a less saturated color. But more importantly, this figure makes its point clearly and compellingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here’s one last example, and a challenge: this<\/g> recent paper<\/a> reports, “the number of scale points used in faculty teaching evaluations (e.g., whether instructors are rated on a scale of 6 vs. a scale of 10) substantially affects the size of the gender gap in evaluations.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To demonstrate this effect, they show eight histograms on pages 44 and 45. Here’s page 44:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    And here’s page 45:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    With some guidance from the captions, we can extract the message: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Under the 6-point system, there is no visible difference between ratings for male and female instructors.<\/li>
    2. Under the 10-point system, in the least male-dominated subject areas, there is no visible difference. <\/li>
    3. Under the 10-point system, in the most male-dominated subject areas, there is a visibly obvious difference: students are substantially less likely to give female instructors a 9 or 10.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      This is an important result \u2014 it makes me want to read the previous 43 pages. And the visualizations are not bad \u2014 they show the effect clearly, and it is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      But I still think we could do better. So let me pose this challenge to readers: Can you design a visualization<\/g> of this data that communicates the results so that<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      1. Readers can see the effect quickly and easily, and<\/li>
      2. Understand the magnitude of the effect in practical terms?<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

        You can get the data you need from the figures, at least approximately. And your visualization doesn’t have to be fancy; you can send something hand-drawn if you want. The point of the exercise is the design, not the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        I will post submissions in a few days. If you send me something, let me know how you would like to be acknowledged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        UPDATE: We discussed this example in class today and I presented one way we could summarize and visualize the data:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \"\"
        Students in the most male-dominated fields are less likely to give female instructors top scores, but only on a 10-point scale. The effect does not appear on a 6-point scale.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

        There are definitely things to do to improve this, but I generated it using Pandas with minimal customization. All the code is in this Jupyter notebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        One of the reasons I am excited about the rise of data journalism is that journalists are doing amazing things with visualization. At the same time, one of my frustrations with academic research is that the general quality of visualization is so poor. One of the problems is that most academic papers are published in grayscale, so the figures don’t use color. But most papers are read in electronic formats now; the world is safe for color! Another problem is…<\/p>\n

        Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[4,5],"class_list":["post-146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-data-science","tag-visualization"],"yoast_head":"\nData visualization for academics - Probably Overthinking It<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/30\/data-visualization-for-academics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Data visualization for academics - Probably Overthinking It\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the reasons I am excited about the rise of data journalism is that journalists are doing amazing things with visualization. At the same time, one of my frustrations with academic research is that the general quality of visualization is so poor. One of the problems is that most academic papers are published in grayscale, so the figures don’t use color. But most papers are read in electronic formats now; the world is safe for color! Another problem is... 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I am updating my data visualization library, looking for resources to help students learn about visualization. Last week I asked Twitter to help me find resources, especially new ones.\u00a0 Here's the thread.\u00a0\u00a0Thank you to everyone who responded! I'll try to\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Screenshot-at-2019-01-18-09-56-35-300x3.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":201,"url":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/01\/local-regression-in-python\/","url_meta":{"origin":146,"position":1},"title":"Local regression in Python","author":"AllenDowney","date":"April 1, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I love data visualization make-overs (like this one I wrote a few months ago), but sometimes the tone can be too negative (like this one I wrote a few months ago). Sarah Leo, a data journalist at The Economist, has found the perfect solution: re-making your own visualizations. Here's her\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"local regression\"","block_context":{"text":"local regression","link":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/tag\/local-regression\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1097,"url":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2023\/11\/07\/we-have-a-book\/","url_meta":{"origin":146,"position":2},"title":"We Have a Book!","author":"AllenDowney","date":"November 7, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"My copy of Probably Overthinking It has arrived! If you want a copy for yourself, you can get a 30% discount if you order from the publisher and use the code UCPNEW. You can also order from Amazon or, if you want to support independent bookstores, from Bookshop.org. The official\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IMG_20231107_104338_7.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IMG_20231107_104338_7.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IMG_20231107_104338_7.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IMG_20231107_104338_7.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IMG_20231107_104338_7.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IMG_20231107_104338_7.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":865,"url":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2023\/06\/25\/go-get-the-data\/","url_meta":{"origin":146,"position":3},"title":"Go Get the Data","author":"AllenDowney","date":"June 25, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"My mantra when I was working on Probably Overthinking It was \"Go Get the Data.\" If I wanted to use a result from prior work, I would get the data whenever possible and make my own visualization. Of course, that's more work than copying and pasting a figure, but there\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/pinker452.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/pinker452.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/pinker452.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/pinker452.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1541,"url":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/06\/announcing-think-stats-3e\/","url_meta":{"origin":146,"position":4},"title":"Announcing Think Stats 3e","author":"AllenDowney","date":"April 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The third edition of Think Stats is on its way to the printer! You can preorder now from Bookshop.org and Amazon (those are affiliate links), or if you can't wait to get a paper copy, you can read the free, online version here. Here's the new cover, still featuring a\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/image-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/image-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/image-2.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/image-2.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":308,"url":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/19\/what-should-i-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":146,"position":5},"title":"What should I do?","author":"AllenDowney","date":"September 19, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I am planning to be on sabbatical from June 2020 to August 2021, so I am thinking about how to spend it. Let me tell you what I can do, and you can tell me what I should do. Data Science I consider myself a data scientist, but that means\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":167,"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions\/167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}