Improving the quality of figures and tables in research papers is essential to effectively communicate your results and enhancing the overall readability and understanding of your work. Here are some key guidelines and best practices for improving their quality.

Figures

1. Clarity and Simplicity: Visual appeal often comes from simple and clear designs. Ensure that your figures are easy to understand at a glance. Avoid clutter and unnecessary details. Remove unnecessary information. Only include elements that add to the interpretation of the data. Avoid 3D effects or unnecessary decorations that detract from the message.

2. Choose Right Design: Choose the right type of graph or chart that best represents your data (e.g., bar charts for comparisons, line graphs for trends, scatter plots for relationships).

3. Labels and Legends: Include clear and concise labels and legends. Make sure all text is readable and not too small. Every axis, curve, and bar should be clearly labelled. Axis titles should describe the quantity being measured and its units.

4. Provide Informative Captions: Each figure should have a caption that fully explains what the reader is seeing without having to refer to the main text.

5. Legends Should Be Clear: Include clear and concise labels and legends. Make sure all text is readable and not too small. Every axis, curve, and bar should be clearly labelled. Axis titles should describe the quantity being measured and its units. Place the legend either directly in the figure or close to it for easy reference.

6. Use High-Resolution Graphics: Use high-resolution images and graphs (above 300 dpi or more) to ensure clarity when printed, viewed on different devices or when converted to PDFs.

7. Colour and Contrast: Colour can enhance understanding, but avoid overusing it. Use colours effectively to highlight important data points. Stick to a limited colour palette that differentiates data without causing confusion. Ensure there is enough contrast between data points, bars, or lines and the background. Make sure that the colours are colour-blind friendly.

8. Legible Font Sizes: Ensure all text in figures (labels, legends, axis titles) is large enough to be legible when printed or viewed at the final size. A minimum of 8-10 pt for figure text is often recommended.

9. Consistent Style: Use consistent fonts, and colours across all figures for a cohesive presentation.

10. Test Figures in Black and White: Some journals print in black and white or grayscale. Check how your figures look when converted to grayscale to ensure all distinctions remain clear (e.g., different lines, colours).

11. Use of Software and Tools: Use pertinent software, or specialized scientific graphing tools to create high-quality figures.Tools like Photoshop or GIMP can help enhance the quality of images and diagrams.

12. Follow Submission Guidelines: Each journal has its own requirements for figure sizes, resolution, and acceptable file formats (e.g., TIFF, EPS, JPG, PDF). Adhere strictly to these rules to avoid problems during submission. Check the size (length, breadth) of the figure to withstand a reduction of about 4-times. The journal submission platforms often have some limit for the file size, so check that because of the figures, the file is not unable to be uploaded.

Tables

1. Clarity and Simplicity: Ensure that your tables are easy to understand at a glance. Avoid clutter and unnecessary details. Only include elements that add to the interpretation of the data.

2. Consistent Style: Use consistent fonts, colours, and line styles across all tables for a cohesive presentation.

3. Data Presentation: Present data in a way that is easy to compare. Align numbers properly and use consistent decimal places.

4. Provide Informative Captions: Each table should have a caption that fully explains what the reader is seeing without having to refer to the main text.

5. Organize Data Logically: Group related data together in the table, using headers and sub-headers to clearly define different sections.

6. Use Alignment Properly: Numbers should be aligned right, while text can be aligned left or centre for easier readability. Ensure rows and columns are evenly spaced.

7. Minimalist Approach: Use as few borders as necessary. Gridlines should not overwhelm the data. Thin horizontal lines between sections are often enough.

8. Include Units: Always indicate units of measurement in tables, either in the header row or next to the relevant data points.

9. Footnotes and Annotations: Use footnotes to explain any abbreviations or special terms used in the table.

10. Orientation of tables: Orient tables vertically as far as possible. Avoid horizontal orientation of tables except in case when it is unavoidable. The data in vertical tables can easily be understood at a glance as compared to horizontal tables.