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Figure Legends

Express your data and findings using figure legends

Figures and tables are essential to any lab report and dissertation. They are a vital part of presenting your results but can also be used in other sections of your work.  Typically, table titles go above the table while figure titles go below the figure. The legend itself goes below the table/figure.

There are key things to include:

  • Always include a figure number and title which matches what is written in the main text.
  • Describe what the data presents concisely.
  • Define any acronyms used in the figure at the end of the legend.
  • If there are multiple sub-figures within the figure, always label these A-D for example if there are four sub-figures.
  • Include any units of measurements or axes labels used in the figure.

As well as some things to avoid:

  • Don’t interpret the results here, this should happen in the main text.
  • Don’t include abbreviations which aren’t defined. The figure legend should be simple to read and understand.
  • Don’t over explain. Often figure legends don’t count towards the word count of an assignment (although you should always check guidance to see if this is the case!) making it easy to fall into the trap of including extra content in your figure legend to save space in the main text. But if the content is irrelevant or unnecessary then this can impact your grade!

Unless specified by assignment guidance, the exact formatting of your figure legend (such as font size, whether to use italics or not) does not have to follow a specific guide. Below are three examples of the same title in different formats. All are correct.

  • Figure 1 – Gene expression of CDKN2A in senescent cells.
  • Figure 1 | Gene expression of CDKN2A in senescent cells.
  • Figure 1: Gene expression of CDKN2A in senescent cells.

Remaining consistent throughout your document is the key here, as inconsistencies will impact your grade if it is for a graded assignment, or you may have to re-do all of your figure legends if it is for publication

Figure Legend Exercise

Below is a figure from a published paper (Scanlan et al., 2024).  In this exercise, select the correct option in each section to build the figure legend.