Matching the figures mentioned in a manuscript with those attached to it

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Published research papers often include figures (illustrations) and tables to support the text. Electronic publishing also allows for supplementary or archived figures and tables, which do not appear in the printed paper but are available for viewing or downloading.

However, the journey of an approved manuscript - approved for publication by the reviewers, that is - from being a group of files (the text of the paper as one file and each of the accompanying figures and tables as separate files) to its final published form is often delayed because of simple oversight: the author mentions, say, four figures in the text but attaches fewer or more.

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The copy editor therefore has to go back to the author for clarification, either requesting for the missing figure or figures or asking how to account for the extra figures: do they need to be mentioned in the text (if the author meant to include them but forgot to mention them) or should they be simply deleted (if the author sent them by mistake).

A common reason for such mismatches is extensive revision, usually prompted by reviewers. The reviewers may have suggested that parts of the manuscript be removed, which may involve removing the corresponding figures as well and renumbering the rest if required.

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On the other hand, the reviewers' comments may require the author to add more matter, with additional figures, which the author may inadvertently forget to include along with the revised text of the paper.

Good housekeeping is therefore necessary. It is best to re-check the final version looking for such oversight: use the ‘find' feature of the word-processing package to look for "figure" and "table" - or Figure or Fig. or any other form - to locate every mention and highlight such mention with a bright colour.

Look at the corresponding figure or table to make sure that it is the right one. If submitting a printout, include a line of text, saying something like "Insert Figure/Table here" in the printout.

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While using the "Find" feature, make the search case insensitive (which ensures that both Figure and figure or Fig. and fig. are found) and search for the whole word (which excludes such words as figuring, figuratively, and figurine). Incidentally, make sure that your usage of these words is not only consistent but also matches the style used by your target journal.

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