Using images, tables & other visual material in your work

In many cases, it won’t be immediately obvious to your reader what a figure is or why it’s relevant unless you tell them! A description or title gives your reader a short explanation of what the figure is. 

Adding a description or title

A description or title is always written in italic text, to distinguish it from other information in the caption.

A description or title should ideally only be one or two lines long at most: if you need to include extra information beyond that, it may be better to add it as a note.

Descriptions

If a figure does not have a pre-existing title, you will need to create a short description yourself. 

A description should give your readers just enough information to understand what the figure represents and how it relates to the rest of your work.

Titles 

If you are copying a figure from another source, then it will often already come with a title. If so, simply include the existing title in your caption.

It is good practice not to change or replace the title other people have given their work: this can help your reader identify the figure in its original work, and avoids potential issues with property rights. However, it may be that the existing title doesn’t include information you need to convey to your readers. In which case, add a short additional description after the title, or add a note if even more information is needed.