Figures, pictures, tables and formulae help illustrate and liven up texts. They can be used to emphasise the crucial content of the text. When you describe a design process or do picture analyses, drawings, drafts, modellings and photos are essential parts of your report. The information contained in the figures, pictures and tables should be explained in the text as well, with reference to the figure, picture or table in question. The explanation should be an interpretation of the information in the figure, picture or table, and not a mere reiteration of its content.
Figures and pictures are consecutively numbered and given headings. They are also referenced, unless made by the author, and the source is included in the bibliography. The template style for figure and picture source references is Figure. The caption, or the number and heading of a figure or picture, is written below the figure or picture in question (Figure 1). The running numbering of figures and pictures is easiest to do with the numbering function of the word processor. Pictures and figures are also accompanied by an alternative text. The template includes instructions on the addition of figures and pictures.
The following examples show two alternative ways of text referencing a picture, a figurefigure and a table:
Colours may be used to enliven the academic text and to highlight its information content. If colours are used, the information conveyed by them must also be intelligible in black and white. Figures and tables can be framed or unframed, but the choice must be consistently applied.
Remember accessibility when preparing pictures, figures, and tables. The thesis template includes instructions on accessibility.
If the text includes lots of figures, pictures and tables, we recommended making separate lists of figures, pictures and tables on the contents page. For more information on adding tables, pictures and figures to the table of contents, see section Table of contents.
Copyright usually belongs to the author or publisher of the work. Permission to use images, figures and tables may be based on:
Citing under copyright act means that you can use a picture or a figure taken by someone else in your thesis, provided you follow certain rules:
A licence can be a Creative Commons licence (e.g. CC BY 4.0) or another licence, such as a licence requested by email from the copyright owner.
If you have taken the picture (photo) yourself and it is previously unpublished, no text citation or copyright notice is required in the caption of the picture. Pictures are NOT included in the bibliography.
However, if you like, you can add your name to a photo you have taken yourself, as follows:
Picture 2. Customer feedback was collected using different coloured cards (picture: Hanna Mäkinen).
Picture 2. Customer feedback was collected using different coloured cards (picture: Hanna Mäkinen, 2023, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
If the picture is CC-licensed, this is also indicated in the caption/title of the picture (Picture 2). Also add a mention of the CC licence, if you use Creative Commons licensing to share (Picture 2). Use the Creative Commons licence Chooser to choose a licence.
Picture 1. In the renovation, the ceilings were opened and the electricity in the apartment was replaced (Picture: Elenius, 2018).
Picture 2. Customer feedback was collected using different coloured sheets (Picture: Hanna Mäkinen, 2023, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
The caption of AI-generated images must clearly state that the content is artificially generated. The prompt should always be included in the title (caption) of the picture (Figure 3).
Picture 3. Image created using the prompt "make me a picture of a teddy bear having fun at college" (Microsoft, 2024).
Figures include e.g. line graphs, vertical bar graphs, horizontal bar graphs, pie graphs, maps and drawings.
Figures created by the student, based on, e.g., their own data, must be readable independently. The figure is named in a descriptive manner, and the figure caption is not inserted in the figure itself but in the figure title. To be an independently readable entity, the figure must also include a legend indicating, e.g., the units of measurement used and the size of the data.
Tables are normally used to present information in numerical form, although the information in tables may also be verbal. Tables are consecutively numbered and given a heading.
The table caption (heading and references) can be added using the specific function of the word processor. The table caption goes above the table. Tables are also referenced, unless made by the author. The template style for the source of a table is TableCaption. Tables, too, are accompanied by an alternative text.
| Resource | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 |
| Books | 124 341 | 117 662 | 92 636 | 90 047 |
| E-books | 70 330 | 329 501 | 328 476 | 493 656 |
| Magazines | 829 | 718 | 492 | 456 |
| E-journals | 11 061 | 10 065 | 11 580 | 13 263 |
The same information can often be illustrated using either a figure or a table. Choose carefully between them. The headings of figures and tables should be written in such a way that readers can understand their content without having to read the actual text first.
Formulae should be numbered using their own consecutive numbering from the beginning to the end of the report. Give the number of the formula in brackets on the right of the formula. Formulae and explanatory symbols are indented in such a way that all the formulae and the list of the explanatory symbols start from the same position. Formulae are written using the Formula style. The following example illustrates the positioning of a formula in the text.
The snow load of a roof (s) is defined with the following formula (Finnish Standard Association, 2015, p. 28):
(1)
where
µi is the form factor of the snow load
sk is the characteristic value of snow load on ground
Ce is the wind protection factor (1.0 or 0.8)
Ct is the heat transfer coefficient, the value of which is usually 1.0
In the text, the above formula is referred to as follows: The snow load of a roof is calculated with formula (1), where...
Chemical reactions are also presented as intented and numbered. In the numbering of reaction equations, the letter R is used in addition to the usual numbers, e.g. R1, R2, R3.