为提高图表的“自明性”，图表的题名应尽量准确而清楚地表述数据或资料的含义，应避免过于宽泛的表达、不完整的表达或简单地复述图表中的文字，避免不加解释地使用不常见的缩写或含义不明的公式符号。

1.总体要求

（1）尽可能简要地解释数据的采集背景或含义。如果图表由多个分图或子表组成，共同的题名内容应在主表题或主图题中统一表述，以免在分图或子表的题名中多次重复。例如：

Table 2.Patient Characteristics

建议改为：

Table 2.Baseline characteristics of 32 patients with malignant hematological disease treated with G-CSF-primed bone marrow cells

（2）尽量完整地说明数据的来源和样本的状态。例如：

Table 5.Akahori's classification for staging preoperative status

建议改为：

Table 5.Akahori's classification for staging preoperative status of hand surgery patients

（3）题名文字应简明、清楚、紧扣数据，切忌简单地重复表头或坐标轴中的文字，避免使用不常见的缩写。例如：

Table 7.Mean test scores for knowledge，recall，and satisfaction for intervention and control groups after exposure to printed，multi-media，interpersonal，or audio self-care instructions

建议改为：

Table 7.Self-care effectiveness scores for 1，472 patients receiving selfcare instructions through different modes of communication

2.常用的表达和句式

（1）有关“比较”的表达。常用表达方式有：comparison between A and B；comparison of A and B；comparison of A with B；in comparison with；compared with；等等。例如：

Table 1 Comparison between measured results and estimated values:the width of leaf

Fig.2 Pressure wave speed compared with that of Henry et al.（1991）

（2）有关“关系”的表达。表示“相互关系”、“联系”的常用结构有：relation（relationship）between（among）；A versus（vs）B；equation between...and；等等。例如：

Figure 1 Relationship between effluent chemical oxygen demand（COD）concentration and the total suspended solids（TSS）removed using PAM treatment and screening

Fig.4 Equations between pesticide residue in the leaves of tea varieties and their related factors

（3）有关“效应”或“影响”的表达。常用表达方式有：effect（s）of A on（upon）B；influence of A on（upon）B；impact（s）of A on B；等等。例如：(www.daowen.com)

Fig.1 Effect of silicate bacteria on development and accumulation of dry matter of tobacco plants

Fig.3 Influence of initial ammonia concentration on ammonia reduction efficiency

3.实例分析

例1：英国Keele大学Hartley教授曾专门著文举例说明如何清楚、具体地表述图表的题名，即：Hartley本人在投寄给New Scientist的一篇文章中包含3个表，表题分别为：

Table 1:The position of Jones'left and right fingers when skimming text

Table 2:The position of Jones'left and right fingers when reading for detail

Table 3:The position of Jones'left and right fingers when reading aloud

为准确、具体地反映表格中的数据，以避免读者过多地参照正文来理解表格，NewScientist在发表这篇论文时将这种“指示性（instructive）”的题名全部更改为“描述性（descriptive）”的题名，即：

Table 1:Data obtained by stopping Jones while he was skimming a passage in Braille.These show that he starts reading with left forefinger before his right forefinger has completed the line

Table 2:When reading for detail，there was slightly less simultaneous reading

Table 3:Even when Jones is reading aloud，his left forefinger starts to process text on the line ahead before his right forefinger finishes the previous line

作为作者，James Hartley教授十分欣赏这种修改，认为其很好地解释了表格中数据。

例2：Lebrun在其专著Scientific Writing：A Reader and Writer's Guide一书中强调指出，图题应尽量详细完整，并举例说明了如何恰当地搭配图表的题目和正文文字，以提高图表的自明性。本例证中作者原稿中图题过于简单，缩写CALB和TEM也没有定义，因此读者不得不多次往返于正文、图形和图注之间来理解整个图件。经编辑修改的图题中的文字表述更为详细，正文中的文字则简明扼要，插图本身具有很好的自明性。

作者原稿中的图题：

Figure 5.（a）TEM micrograph of CALB/MCF-C 18 from pressure-driven method，and（b）the corresponding ELS elemental mapping of N.

作者原稿中的正文文字：

Figure 5 illustrates the uniform nitrogen mapping over the CALB/C 18-MCF sample，indicating the homogeneous distribution of the nitrogen-containing enzymes within the mesoporous silica matrix.CALB/C 18-MCF also showed PAFTIR peaks at 1650 cm-1and 3300 cm-1（Figure 3c），which were associated with the amide groups of the enzymes，confirming the enzyme incorporation.

编辑改进后的图题：

Figure 5.（a）Transmission electron micrograph of the Candida Antarctica lipase B protein（CALB）immobilized by pressure in the porous matrix of hydrophobic mesocellular siliceous foam（MCF-C 18）；and（b）the corresponding electron energy loss spectroscopy map of N，the element nitrogen.N is abundant in proteins.Its detection is used as evidence of their presence.Here，N，and therefore CALB，is seen as uniformly incorporated and distributed in the porous matrix.

编辑改进后的正文文字：

Both electron energy loss spectroscopy（Figure 5b）and FT-IR spectrum of CALB/MCF-C 18（Figure 3c）confirm the incorporation of the enzyme.