How to write and publish a scientific paper - Barbara Gastel, Robert A. Day 2022

Color
How to prepare effective photographs
Preparing the tables and figures

Until fairly recently, journals seldom published color photographs and other color illustrations, because of the high cost of printing them. Today, however, color printing has become more affordable. And for articles online, color does not increase cost at all. Thus, more color illustrations are appearing, and the use of color has become relatively common in some fields and journals. If you have the option of including color, consider whether doing so will improve your scientific paper. Would color help to tell your story? Or would it be merely decorative, or even distracting? Have you made sure, as discussed near the end of chapter 17, that readers who are colorblind would be able to understand the images?

If you are considering using color, see the instructions to authors of your target journal for specifications regarding color illustrations and for information on any charges for color. If color illustrations are to appear in print, authors commonly must pay a fee. Some journals, however, do not charge for color. For example, the author guidelines for American Chemical Society journals state: “Color may be used to enhance the clarity of complex structures, figures, spectra, and schemes, etc., and color reproduction of graphics is provided at no cost to the author.”