Big Impact: A Senior Research Assistant on Why Clear Scientific Figures Matter in Academia
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We spoke to Amina Tucak-Smajić, a Senior Teaching and Research Assistant at the University of Sarajevo - Faculty of Pharmacy, about her career and how she uses figures and illustrations to effectively communicate her research. Here’s what she had to say.
What do you hope to achieve in your scientific career, short term and long term?
In the short term, I hope to obtain my PhD in the next several months. I’m now in the final phase — my thesis is written, I published a paper, and I’m just waiting for the defense. Also, I’m planning to publish two more papers related to my research in these months.
When it comes to long-term goals, we have a different structure at the University of Sarajevo compared to most other European universities. After getting a PhD, we tend to stay on the faculty. So after graduation, I’ll be a Senior Teaching and Research Assistant with a PhD, and in about two years, I’ll move up to Assistant Professor.
My plan is to establish a nanotechnology lab by applying for research grants and obtaining the critical infrastructure for working with nanoparticles and nanotechnology, together with my colleagues from the Department of Pharmaceutical Technology.
Why is effective science communication important in your career?
When you’re working in academia — both in teaching and in research — figures are very effective in visualizing something you’re trying to explain. So when I’m teaching my students, I always try to have presentations that are visually clear and easy to understand. A figure can speak 1,000 words. This kind of science communication has a huge impact when working in academia.
What about ineffective scientific figures? What are the hallmarks and are there any consequences with using them?
When I started my PhD, 80 percent of the figures I saw were not prepared well or were not self-explanatory. Many figures were too crowded and lacked negative space — they tried to communicate too much information. Because of that, you don't know where to look or how to understand what's happening.
Even now, I see illustrations where irrelevant shapes are used to represent things (like stars for proteins, for example) or even use unrelated shapes to represent the same element (like using stars, rectangles, and circles for the same metabolic products). Sometimes the problem is with proportions, for example, not using the zoom/callout option effectively. I also see a lot of different fonts being used in the same figure or incompatible, strong colors. All of these things make it difficult to understand the message or distract from the point.
In academia, we don’t have subjects or courses that are related to scientific communication. So when preparing the figures, you often don’t know how to start and how to end — or how to communicate your research well. In the beginning, I made the same mistakes because I tried to put a lot of information in one figure or I didn’t know which font to use.
With time, you might see good images and learn how to properly align figures, use consistent fonts, or effectively add negative space. I also watch BioRender webinars to learn tips and tricks and how to use tools effectively and how to deliver information effectively.
Tell us about your experience using BioRender.
I’ve been using BioRender for five years. When I started to explore tools for drawing a long time ago, the first tool I came across was Adobe Illustrator. I was struggling for months learning how to create a figure and watching tutorials. PowerPoint or Paint wasn’t better.
I’m now proficient in Illustrator but what I like about BioRender is that you don’t just have a blank canvas — you always have a good starting point to base your ideas off with templates. Even if you’re starting from zero, you always have icons you can use. It’s also good to see that BioRender now offers graphs and statistical analysis — it’s not just a tool for drawing images.
I now need just 30 minutes to an hour to create the same illustration that would take days to make in other tools. I think in the next few years, it will be more and more important for scientists and students to use tools like that.
How have you used the figures you created to communicate your research?
All of my figures in the introduction part of my PhD thesis are made in BioRender and some of my papers will be published soon.
I also use my figures in presentations for students. Because I teach an “Industrial Pharmacy” course, we don’t always have the machines I want to show in our lab. I use BioRender to show diagrams of how the machines or processes work. If I didn’t use them, I’m not sure my students would catch everything I’m saying, but it's easier to follow when I have the figure of that process.
(Get the template here)
If you have a presentation that’s clear and easy to follow, another benefit is that the audience will often be more interested in approaching you to ask questions and other scientists will share their experience regarding your field.
Do you have a scientific figure that you’re most proud of?
I have a lot of figures that I’m proud of! But there’s one figure I made for high-pressure homogenization that comes to mind.
(Get the template here)
There’s also another on SARS-CoV-2 that won a BioRender People’s Choice award!
(Get the updated template here)
What advice would you give to fellow scientists about effective visual communication of their research?
Every scientist needs to spend more time preparing their figures (and learning how to prepare their figures) for proposals, publications, and presentations and organize their figures following best design practices. I think that’s crucial. A figure speaks 1,000 words — if it works. Sometimes you don’t even need to explain in the text. Creating good figures is as important as learning how to do referencing or writing methodology or the manuscript itself.
Want to be like Amina? Try BioRender free to start communicating more clearly today.
About the SciComm Champion
Amina Tucak-Smajić is a Senior Teaching and Research Assistant at the University of Sarajevo - Faculty of Pharmacy, where she’s also studying to get her PhD, in conjunction with the University of Graz. Amina is focused on combining nanotechnology and miRNA-based therapy in the treatment and prevention of obesity. Outside of the lab, she likes cooking for her friends and family and is an accomplished poet, having published two books before the age of 18. She cites Rosalind Franklin as her inspiration to pursue a career in life sciences, given her profound impact on our understanding of genetics and molecular biology.
