Graphics Guide

This guide provides general instructions for the figures that accompany a submission.

Germinate welcomes a variety of visual material not limited to images only.

There is no cap for color images.

As you prepare your submissions and figures, please keep in mind that you are responsible for  providing sufficiently high-resolution versions of images, securing permissions for publication, and supplying figure captions and alt text for the images and are due at the time of final article submission.

Unless all of these things are in order, production will be delayed.

Steps to publishing images

Step 1: Permissions

  • Every image must have an accompanying permission. The only exceptions are public domain images and/or those produced by the author.
  • For public domain images, please ensure you indicate that in the caption. Please note that the public domain status rules vary by country, so please be as specific as possible.
  • If the image you are planning to use requires a fee to publish, you are responsible for these.

Step 2: Image Formatting and Resolution

  • As a general rule, your images must be at least 300 dpi.
  • When in doubt, please zoom into the image, if it continues to be sharp it is probably okay. If it does not, then it may not work.
  • When saving images, please ensure they are the highest resolution possible, ideally as a .tiff or .eps.
  • Please do not submit images as .png files, .pdfs, or Word or PowerPoint documents.

Labeling your images, please do so sequentially: YourLastNameFigX.

  • If you are using combined images, please append letters to the file name, starting with “a”.

For artwork include YouTube, visualizations like Flourish, please make sure you include a shareable URL and inform the editors.

Step 3: Uploading Images and Providing Callouts in the Manuscript

  • Even if you have images in your word doc, please upload them separately as images as well.
  • If you are unable to upload all the images you need to, please get in touch with the editors and/or share a folder through filesharing.
  • Please make sure you indicate where you want images and/or artwork to appear in the text appropriately using tags, i.e. <<Figure 1 about here>> (sequentially and in bold).
  • Please include image callouts in the text of your piece.

Step 4: Captions and Alt Text

  • For each image and table, you will also need to provide a caption.
  • You can choose to include all your aggregated captions in one place at the end of your document.
  • Please also provide alt text that describes each image.