More than Just Figures: Structural and Visual Complexity in Soil Science Articles

The structure of a scientific article is crucial for clearly conveying research findings. Modern scientific publications combine text with various elements—such as tables, graphs, images, diagrams, and maps—that support the narrative and aid data interpretation. Understanding how these components influence a publication’s reception and scientific impact is essential. This study analyzes differences among 15 soil science journals (indexed in the Web of Science) in terms of visual elements, tables, number of authors, and article length. The journals had a 5-year Impact Factor (2023) ranging from 0.9 (Soil and Environment) to 10.4 (Soil Biology and Biochemistry). The Kruskal–Wallis test and Bonferroni-adjusted Dunn’s post hoc tests revealed statistically significant differences across all variables (p < 0.05). The relationships were further assessed using Pearson’s correlation, based on the median number of authors and article length, as well as the percentage of articles that include at least one element of a given type (e.g., table, graph, image, diagram, or map). Key findings show that journals with a higher impact factor tend to publish articles with more authors (r = 0.62, p = 0.014), use diagrams more frequently (r = 0.69, p = 0.004), and include fewer tables (r = –0.85, p < 0.001). These results suggest that journals with a higher 5-year IF tend to include articles with a greater number of authors and a higher frequency of diagram use, while relying less on tables.