Cores of Reproducibility in Physiology: Assessing Author Compliance with Data Presentation Guidelines for Manuscript Figures.

The present study was undertaken to address the concern that author compliance with American Physiological Society (APS) journal Instructions to Authors for data presentation in manuscript figures is inadequate. Common instances of non-compliance are omitted molecular weight markers for immunoblots and bar graphs lacking individual data points. The American Journal of Physiology - Heart and Circulatory Physiology (AJP-Heart and Circ) editorial team designed a program to assess figure data presentation in submitted manuscripts. The intended outcome was to improve author compliance with APS data presentation guidelines and to improve overall rigor and reproducibility in articles published in AJP-Heart and Circ. The AJP-Heart and Circ team invited 37 peer reviewers to participate in a Figure Reviewer project (FRp). Over a period of five months, 32 first revision manuscripts were enrolled in the FRp. Each manuscript was reviewed by the original peer reviewers and an additional Figure Reviewer (FR). Post peer review, corresponding authors and FRs were surveyed for insight into their experiences. Of the 32 corresponding authors invited, 20 (63%) responded to the survey. In response to the survey, 100% of respondents stated that peer review was performed in a timely fashion, despite the additional FR. When asked if the FR experience had any effect on how one would present data in manuscript figures in future submissions, 65% of authors and 83% of FRs said yes. In addition, 63% of authors responding agreed that the overall quality of their figures was improved after revising based on FR comments. This exercise resulted in improved compliance with APS data presentation guidelines and changed attitudes among both authors and reviewers as to the need for consistent and clear data presentation in manuscript figures.