Appendix 1.
Scientific illustration techniques for
publication and communication
2.0 higher education credits, part time
Approval
Purpose
The course is aimed at scientific personnel who wish to become more proficient in
illustration tools, illustration concepts and visual communication techniques. The
focus lies on preparation of illustrations, photos and montages for publication and/or
for presentations but also covers aspects on visual and verbal communication
strategies.
The course focuses around tools and techniques suitable for generation of high
quality scientific illustrations. Examples are conducted using Illustrator, InDesign and
Acrobat Professional, but the principles and tips will be broadly applicable. No prior
experience in these specific software tools is required.
The course will contain a mix of lectures and case studies, but also personal hands
on work.
Stage
The course is given as an elective course at the research and post-doctoral level
course.
Entry requirements
1. Graduate students and Post-doctoral fellows affiliated with LU NeuroScience
Graduate school and & Lund Research School in Stem Cell Biology or
associated graduate schools, strategic research areas and Linnaeus
environments.
2. Graduate students & Post-doctoral fellows
Learning outcomes
After completion of the course, the students will have gained knowledge in:
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How a digital image is constructed and differences between file formats
How and when to use Illustrator and InDesign in generation of illustrations and
data/photo montages
How a vector-based illustration is constructed and how to preserve the quality
throughout the workflow
How to prepare your illustrations for on line submission to a journal to improve
the final quality
How to work with PDF files for data import into Illustrator and for utilization in
scientific communication
Appendix 1.
Assessments
The course will be examined in the form of submitted illustration assignments and
active participation in the joint dicussion of the submitted assignments. The student
will have to attend at lease 75% of the lectures and have successfully completed the
two assignments to receive the grade Pass.
Course content
Lectures with live demonstrations and case studies
Introduction & Imaging fundamentals:Color space and resolution | Vector graphics,
fundamental principles | File formats, compression and compatibility
Adobe Creative Suite and your workflow: The right application for the job | Bézier
curves | Geometric primitives and the pathfinder
Digging deeper into Illustrator and InDesign part I: The alignment and transformation
toolboxes | Case study: Generating a multi-panel photo/graphics montage |
Managing Transparency in Illustrator | Case study: Generating a new illustration from
scratch
Digging deeper into Illustrator part II: Case study: Preparing figures for a presentation
| Case study: Getting your scientific data into Illustrator
Practical computer session
Two practical assignmens: The assignments for the course are meant to help the
student get started with Illustrator and InDesign, applying the techniques on their own
data.Each student shall prepare two figures; One should be an illustration that they
prepare from scratch, aiming to be a descriptive overview illustration of any aspect
that they may need to describe their research in a review article, presentation or
equivalent. The second figure should be a scientific presentation of research data
aimed at publication in a peer-reviewed journal. This should contain graphs or other
plotting data that they should import from any other software (using the techniques
that we will cover in the course), cleaned up and formatted in illustration and then
merged with a photo montage in InDesign.
Discussion with a graphics professional on the execusion of the illustration
assignments
In addition, the course will contain two guest lectures from a scientific graphics
professional as well as a screening of a graphics documentary
Learning activities
The course is based on active participation of the students. A variety of methods,
including interactive lectures/discussions, laboratory computer session and individual
illustration assignments will be utilized for the purpose of achieving the course
objectives.
Grading system
Pass (G) or Fail (U),
Appendix 1.
Reading list
Preparing Scientific Illustrations: A Guide to Better Posters, Presentations, and
Publications, Author: Mary Helen Briscoe, Springer 1996
Bench philosophy (14): Preparing figures, Effective scientific illustrations, LabTimes,
(5), 2008, p52
Miniseries: Illustrating the Machinery of Life: Neuromuscular Synapse BAMBED, Vol.
37, No. 4, pp. 204–210, 2009
The Machinery of Life By David S. Goodsell, Springer Science 2009
Course evaluation
The course will be continually evaluated through reflection and feedback from the
student regarding course content and implementation. At the end of the course the
students will have an opportunity to give an individual, written evaluation to express
their views about the course based on the course aims and objectives and how these
have been realized. The results from the evaluations will be summarized and
presented to the students orally and in a protocol.