Scientific Alt Text
Pubrica writes scientific alt text for publishers, journals and authors with data-heavy figures. Our accessibility writers describe Kaplan–Meier curves, forest plots, flow diagrams and multi-panel figures so that each description conveys the finding. Automated tools can describe a photograph but not a survival curve, because that requires understanding what the curve shows. You receive short alt text for each figure and a structured long description where one is needed.
- Written by specialists who understand the figure: a statistician can identify which separation matters, whereas an image model can only report two lines
- Finding first. A blind reader needs to know what the figure shows, not a list of axis labels
- Long descriptions where a sentence cannot do it, structured so a multi-panel figure is navigable rather than a wall of prose
- Tables described as tables, with the data made available rather than narrated
- To WCAG 2.2 and the publisher’s own conventions, because house conventions for alt text vary
Alt text for data figuresIncluded
Long descriptions for complex figuresIncluded
Multi-panel and composite figuresIncluded
Review of existing alt textIncluded
Automated bulk generationNot offered
Figure → read → reduced → written → described
- Written by somebody who can read the figure
- Finding first, not axis labels
- Long description where warranted
- Navigable for multi-panel figures
- To the publisher’s conventions
Service Scope
Four Components of Every Scientific Alt Text Description
Each figure has one main message, and the description must convey what the figure is included to show.
From the alt textKaplan-Meier survival curve showing two groups over 60 months with a p-value.Survival curves separate from month 6 and stay apart: at 60 months, 71% of the treatment group and 54% of controls are alive. The separation is significant (log-rank p=0.003).
From a forest plotForest plot with six studies and a diamond.Six trials. Five point estimates favour the intervention; one crosses the line of no effect. The pooled estimate is 0.81 (95% CI 0.73 to 0.90), favouring the intervention. Heterogeneity is low, I-squared 28%.
From a multi-panel figureShort alt text carrying the overall message, then a structured long description with a heading per panel. The reader can skip to panel C rather than listening through A and B.
From the reviewWhere a figure is really a table rendered as an image, we say so — because the right remediation is to rebuild it as a table, not to describe it.
Samples are illustrative and anonymised. Hover any one of them to play it again.
Compliance and Standards
Alt Text Accessibility Standards and Guidelines
Where a publisher has house conventions on alt text, those take precedence.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (level AA)
The success criteria almost every procurement requirement resolves to, whether it is cited directly or through Section 508 or EN 301 549.
Alt text decision practice (W3C guidance)
When an image is decorative, informative, functional or complex — which determines whether it needs short alt text, a long description or nothing at all.
Publishing conventions (JATS alt-text, EPUB 3.3)
How alternative text is carried in the markup, and what a reading system does with a long description.
Quality management (cert. H3CR9TCU20251212INDQM10N)
How the audit or the remediation is run, recorded and released.
Responsible Use of AI
Limitations of Automated Accessibility Checking
Automated checkers can report zero errors on content that remains inaccessible to screen-reader users. Alt text that describes a chart as “a chart”, a reading order that is technically valid but unhelpful, and tagging that passes validation can all be conformant without being usable.
Why we do not publish our own AI accuracy figures
Accuracy figures for AI tools are usually reported by the companies that sell them.
Pubrica therefore does not quote its own accuracy figures, as they would carry the same conflict of interest. Instead, we tell you which tool was used on your project, at which stage, and what a specialist changed afterwards.
Our Process
How Our Scientific Alt Text Process Works
Understanding the figure is the main part of the work. Once the specialist understands what the figure shows, the description can be written efficiently.
Figure triage
Each image classified — decorative, informative, functional or complex — because a large share need no description at all and describing them adds noise.
Read against the text
The figure read alongside the passage that cites it, so the description carries the point the figure was included to make.
Write short and long
Short alt text carrying the finding; a structured long description where the figure is genuinely complex.
Apply to the house convention
Delivered in your markup convention — JATS, EPUB, HTML or a spreadsheet keyed to figure number — and checked for consistency across the set.
Our Experts
Your Scientific Alt Text Team
Your project is handled by a named team that stays with it from scoping to delivery. Your project coordinator introduces each team member by name before work begins.
Reviews the scientific content for accuracy and confirms that each conclusion is supported by the evidence. Matched to your field rather than allocated from a rota.
Edits for clarity, grammar, structure and consistency while preserving the author voice and scientific meaning.
Checks the finished work independently against the agreed scope and the applicable checklist. Findings are logged and resolved before delivery.
Manages the timeline, keeps you informed at each stage and coordinates the team so that questions are answered and deadlines are met.
Packages
Scientific Alt Text Packages
Cost depends on figure complexity and volume. Most sets include a mix of figure types, and triage reduces the number of figures before writing begins.
Figure set
A book, an issue or a backlist batch
Quoted per projectPer figure · on complexity
Delivery By volume
- ✓Triage to remove decorative images
- ✓Short alt text carrying the finding
- ✓Long descriptions where warranted
- ✓Delivered in your markup convention
- ✓Consistency pass across the set
Triage usually removes a third of the figures from scope before writing begins.
Service Scope Request a quoteReview of existing alt text
Content that has alt text nobody trusts
Quoted per projectOn set size
Delivery By volume
- ✓Existing descriptions read against the figures
- ✓Automated or placeholder text identified
- ✓Findings list by severity
- ✓Rewrites for the descriptions that fail
- ✓House convention documented for future work
Automated alt text on scientific figures is usually easy to identify, and it is the category that most often fails an accessibility audit.
Service Scope Request a quoteSend ten figures and we will describe three free of charge. We recommend including a survival curve, a forest plot and a multi-panel figure, because these show the difference most clearly.
FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions About Scientific Alt Text
If your question is not answered here, ask an expert — no quote required.
For photographs and simple charts, often adequately. For a Kaplan–Meier curve, a forest plot or a mechanism diagram, no — because describing those usefully requires knowing what the figure means, not what it looks like.
The typical failure is a confident but inaccurate description that names the chart type and axis labels but misses the finding. It passes an automated check and fails the reader.
Short alt text should be a sentence or two carrying the finding. Where a figure genuinely needs more, that belongs in a structured long description rather than in a 200-word alt attribute.
The test is whether a reader can understand it in one pass. Longer descriptions need structure so that readers can navigate them.
We flag them. A data table rendered as an image should be rebuilt as a marked-up table with associated headers, not described in prose.
Describing the table is the wrong remediation, because it leaves the data inaccessible and the description difficult to use.
Yes, in batches, with triage first to remove decorative images and a consistency pass across the set.
We do not offer bulk automated generation, which is a different product with a different quality level and is not reliable for scientific figures.
Related services
Related Academic Editorial Services
Alt text is one part of making scientific content accessible.
1THE WIDER ACCESSIBILITY WORKsame programme
Visual and accessibility editingFigures and visual content. Accessibility complianceDocuments and media to WCAG 2.2.2WHERE THE GAPS GET RECORDEDand fixed
VPAT and conformance reportTested, evidenced, defensible. PDF remediationTagging, reading order and structure.3THE FIGURES THEMSELVESif they need work
Artwork preparationFigures to journal specification. Interpretation and visualisationFigures built from the data.Request Free Alt Text for Three Sample Figures
We recommend a survival curve, a forest plot and a multi-panel figure, because these show the difference between written and generated alt text most clearly.