You may have noticed that supplementary information is sometimes provided along with a
scientific article. But what is supplementary information and how is it prepared?
Hi. I'm Karen McKee and in this video we'll take a look at supplementary information
and go through some best practices for preparing it for submission along with your main article.
Supplementary information is additional material that is submitted with a manuscript
in the form of text, data, summary tables, figures, photographs, video, or computer code.
Supplemental material is not essential to the understanding of the main
article but provides useful information to a reader interested in the topic.
Supplementary information is provided as a downloadable file or files. Here is an example of
an article with what this journal calls supporting information. There are two supplemental figures,
which you can see listed here with links to the downloadable files. Clicking on the link will
download the file to the reader s computer. These files are not usually part of the pdf of the main
article. In this paper, the journal added a comment after the references section that
there is additional information in the online version of the article.
Start by checking author instructions for your target journal because each
journal has its own standards. What you need to know is what types of material
are acceptable and what file types you should use to submit your information.
This journal tells authors to put important but ancillary information in supporting information
files and that the materials should be original and not published elsewhere.
As we scroll down, there is more information on how to label the files and what size and
format to use. Scrutinize the material you've collected for your paper and decide what
needs to be in the main article and what might go into supplemental files. But don't go overboard
and submit loads of irrelevant material. Select only important data, figures, or other information
to submit as supplementary information. Depending on journal requirements, determine how you will
package your supplementary information. As individual files or as one package.
Then prepare the files in the format required by the journal.
You also need to consider how to reference supplementary information
in the main article. In this paper, for example, we referred to supplemental figures as Figure S1
and Figure S2. Doing so distinguishes them from the figures in the main article
and alerts the reader that there is additional information in supplementary files. Check
author instructions for the accepted naming convention used by your target journal.
If your supplemental material contains citations, such as in this table, you need to provide a
list of supplementary references. Don t make the mistake of assuming that no one will ever
look at supplemental files and just throw them together at the last minute.
Supplementary information is provided to reviewers who will assess it along with the
manuscript. Also, many readers are interested in details that allow them to replicate your work
or in using your data in a meta-analysis. So, in preparing your supplemental material, check
carefully for accuracy and legibility of text, data, and graphics, because many journals do not
proofread supplementary information and publish it as provided by the author. As always, take a look
at other papers in your target journal to see how the authors made use of supplementary material.
You may be wondering why you should make the effort to prepare
supplementary information. For one thing, it makes your paper more discoverable by providing
an extra online link to your article. Someone searching for information about a topic
may see a supplemental figure or table posted online and be led to your paper. Putting text,
images, tables and other supplemental material in a separate file can save space in your main
article. For example, some methods details might be shifted to supplementary information.
You can also avoid charges for color images by making them available only in an online
supplemental file. Your manuscript will be more streamlined by shifting some details
to supplemental files. People can follow the main storyline more easily and if interested can
later scrutinize details in the supplementary information. Supplementary information allows
inclusion of multimedia files such as video that would not be possible in a print-only medium.
Supplemental material in the form of detailed methods, an image of lab setups,
or a video of technical procedures can aid in reproducibility of the work.
Supplementary information in the form of raw data allows reuse of your work in subsequent reviews
or meta-analyses. Supplementary information can preserve and archive data and other materials,
protecting them in the event the author s files are lost.
Finally, supplementary information helps scientists writing proposals
by showing that past data collection practices meet funding agency requirements. So, if you are
preparing to write a scientific paper, it's a good idea to see if some material can be provided in
supplementary information and plan for it before starting to write. Thanks for watching and please
don't forget to like my video or subscribe if you found this information helpful.