General guidelines for how to include a figure in a scientific paper? I am supervising a project by a group of students
who are quite new to academic/scientific writing.
I have now read a draft of their report,
and noticed the following errors in regards to how they use figures:


The meaning of the y-axis is shown in the title,
rather than as a y-axis label.
The x-axis label is shown on the right of the x-axis tick values.
The legend contains information that should be in the y-axis label,
e.g., Policy 1 inventory level, Policy 2 inventory level.
The figures are placed in the middle of the text
without a figure number and a caption.


My question is:
Is there is a good reference or set of guidelines
which I could pass to the students
to help them to learn how to properly include figures in their report?
Though the question refers to "including" graphs, the issues seem to be matters of labelling and presentation, which are part of graph design as a whole. The following are "the principles of graph construction" from William S. Cleveland's excellent if dated "The Elements of Graphing Data" (Wadsworth, 1985).

CLEAR VISION:


Make the data stand out. Avoid superfluity.
Use visually prominent graphical elements to show the data.
Use a pair of scale lines for each variable. Make the data region the interior of the rectangle formed by the scale lines. Put tick marks outside the data region.
Do not clutter the data region.
Do not overdo the number of tick marks.
Use a reference line when there is an important value that must be seen across the entire graph, but do not let the line interfere with the data.
Do not allow data labels in the data region to interfere with the quantitative data or to clutter the graph.
Avoid putting notes, keys, and markers in the data region. Put keys and markers just outside the data region and put notes in the legend or in the text.
Overlapping plotting symbols must be visually distinguishable.
Superposed data sets must be readily visually discriminated.
Visual clarity must be preserved under reduction and reproduction.


CLEAR UNDERSTANDING:


Put major conclusions into graphical form. Make legends comprehensive and informative.
Error bars should be clearly explained.
When logarithms of a variable are graphed, the scale label should correspond to the tick mark labels.
Proofread graphs.
Strive for clarity.


SCALES:


Choose the range of the tick marks to include or nearly include the range of the data.
Subject to the constraints that scales have, choose the scales so that the data fill up as much of the data region as possible.
It is sometimes helpful to use the pair of scale lines for a variable to show two different scales.
Choose appropriate scales when graphs are compared.
Do not insist that zero always be included on a scale showing magnitude.
Showing data on a logarithmic scale can improve resolution.
Use a scale break only when necessary. If a break cannot be avoided, use a full scale break. Do not connect numerical values on two sides of a break.


GENERAL STRATEGY:


A large amount of quantitative information can be packed into a small region.
Graphing data should be an iterative, experimental process.
Graph data two or more times when it is needed.
Many useful graphs require careful, detailed study.