Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42101148›Full record

ArticlemBio2026

"Showing the data" in published biology research.

Benjamin G Freeman, Marina E Haldopoulos, Sidharth Srinivasan, Taylor L Cooper, Soobin An, Miharu Yasumuro, Aiswarya Venkata Suresh Kumar, Melody Modarressi, Xinyu Zhang, Akul Chopra

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in mBio, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors.

Benjamin G FreemanSchool of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-6131-6832
Marina E HaldopoulosSchool of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Sidharth SrinivasanSchool of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Taylor L CooperSchool of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Soobin AnSchool of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Miharu YasumuroWallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Aiswarya Venkata Suresh KumarWallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Melody ModarressiSchool of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Xinyu ZhangSchool of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Akul ChopraSchool of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Showing the data is the first rule of effective figures, yet this mandate is often ignored. Perhaps the signature offender is the "dynamite plot"-a bar graph showing mean and error. Here, we evaluate recent trends in the use of dynamite plots by analyzing 8,834 figures from 2,930 studies published between 2021 and 2025 in 18 journals from five fields of biology. We find that dynamite plots constitute ~25% of figures and are especially common in microbiology journals. However, the use of dynamite plots has declined substantially across fields and journals from 30% of figures in 2021 to 18% in 2025-evidence that biologists increasingly show the data in their figures. We advocate for authors, reviewers, and editors to continue this trend, suggest simple dot plots as an effective replacement for dynamite plots, and describe other options when space or sample size makes dot plots less feasible.

Indexed as

BiologyData VisualizationPeriodicals as Topicdata visualizationfiguregraphic

Identifiers

PMID42101148
PMCPMC13251453

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.