Statistician heal thyself: have we lost the plot?

Abstract

In 1984, Cleveland suggested that statisticians have an important role in changing the use of graphics in science for the better. Thirty years later, we compared graphs published in top-rated applied science and statistics journals, evaluated for overall quality and against five principles of graphical excellence. Nearly 40% of the 97 graphs we sampled were rated as poor, with no striking differences between the applied science and statistics graphs. Better use of graphs requires better definition of variables, units of measurement, scales, groups, and other graphical elements, and more routine use of grid lines on a “standard” set of graphical forms. Progress over the next 30 years needs to..