chart-type-guide.md

Chart Type Guide — Index

Reference index for the SSCI-Plots chart catalog. 55 charts are organized across 5 chart-family reference files; this Index points to each section by canonical anchor.

Colors, sizes, helpers are defined in scripts/ssci_style.py (SSOT). Never copy HEX, DPI, or figure-size values across files — always reference by name (e.g. get_palette(n), FIGURE_SIZES['scatter'], NEUTRAL['axis'], apply_style(journal='nejm')).

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Table of Contents

By Chart Family

Core distribution & relationship — §1-§7

• §1 Grouped Bar Chart
• §2 Error Bar / Mean Comparison
• §3 Line Chart / Trend Plot | §3.1 Annotated Time Series
• §4 Scatter Plot with Regression | §4.1 Scatter with Marginal Histogram
• §5 Box Plot
• §6 Violin Plot
• §7 Correlation Heatmap

Statistical model output — §8-§12, §17-§19, §32-§33

• §8 Forest Plot | §8.1 Coefficient / Dot-Whisker
• §9 Path Diagram / SEM | §9.1 IV Diagram
• §10 Mediation Diagram | §10.1 Serial | §10.2 Parallel
• §11 Interaction / Moderation | §11.1 Categorical Moderator | §11.2 Continuous Marginal Effect
• §12 Simple Slopes Plot
• §17 Scree Plot + Parallel Analysis
• §18 Profile Plot (LPA/LCA)
• §19 Growth Curve Plot
• §32 Specification Curve / Multiverse Plot
• §33 Causal DAG

Causal inference / econometrics — §22-§26, §38

• §22 Event-Study Coefficient Plot
• §23 DID Parallel Trends
• §24 Regression Discontinuity (RD) Plot
• §25 Binned Scatter (Binscatter)
• §26 Coefficient Plot (Multi-Model Facet)
• §38 IV Diagram (variant of §9 — co-located with the path/SEM family)

Applied / specialty — §14, §16, §20-§21, §27-§31

• §14 Raincloud Plot
• §16 Funnel Plot
• §20 Kaplan-Meier Survival Curve
• §21 Bland-Altman Plot
• §27 Ridgeline / Joy Plot
• §28 Choropleth Map
• §29 ROC + Calibration
• §30 Mobility Transition Matrix
• §31 Marginal Effects Plot

Quick Reference (P3) — §15.1-§15.11

• §15.1 Histogram | §15.2 Density (KDE) | §15.3 Swarm / Beeswarm
• §15.4 Factor Loading | §15.5 Johnson-Neyman | §15.6 CONSORT Flow
• §15.7 Lollipop | §15.8 Slope/Bump | §15.9 Dumbbell
• §15.10 Population Pyramid | §15.11 Tornado/Butterfly

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By Discipline (decision shortcut)

Discipline	Primary file(s)
Psychology — descriptive distribution	chart-types-core.md
Psychology — modeling (SEM / mediation / forest)	chart-types-models.md
Economics / Political science — causal	chart-types-causal-econ.md
Medicine / Public health (KM / ROC / funnel / Bland-Altman)	chart-types-applied.md
Sociology — flow / cross-tab (mobility, ridgeline)	chart-types-applied.md
Geography (choropleth)	chart-types-applied.md
Methodology — robustness (spec curve, DAG, parallel analysis)	chart-types-models.md

Multi-panel and shared concepts

• See multi-panel.md for compose_grid / small_multiples / add_inset / add_shared_legend / add_shared_colorbar
• See color-system.md for palette selection and the 21 categorical + 3 diverging + 5 sequential maps
• See apa-figure-standards.md for APA 7 conventions, including §11 Mediation Diagram Conventions
• See statistical-annotations.md for inline stats, significance brackets, and effect-size labels
• See journal-presets.md for the 12 journal presets accepted by apply_style(journal=...)

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Y-axis Baseline Rule (Cross-Cutting)

Bar charts (§1) require a zero baseline (APA 7 §7.27; Weissgerber et al., 2015, PLOS Biology). Distribution displays (§5 box, §6 violin, §14 raincloud) and continuous trends (§3 line, §4 scatter) start at the data range with sensible padding. ROC and calibration plots (§29) span 0-1 naturally. Bar length encodes value → baseline must be zero; non-bar encodings do not.

Within individual sections we no longer repeat this rule. If your chart uses bar-area encoding and you find yourself reaching for a non-zero baseline, that is the cue to switch to a dot-and-whisker variant (§2) or a lollipop (§15.7) instead.

Cross-Reference for §10 Mediation

Mediation diagrams use a straight c' in the triangular (§10) and parallel (§10.2) layouts; serial chains (§10.1) use a curved c' to avoid passing through the M nodes — this is a geometric (collision- avoidance) choice, not a semantic one. SEM convention treats curved and straight single-headed arrows as identical regression paths; only double-headed curves denote covariance.

See apa-figure-standards.md §11 ("Mediation Diagram Conventions") for full SEM notation rules and the references that anchor this convention (Baron & Kenny, 1986; Hayes, 2018; Kline, 2023).

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Legacy Anchor Compatibility

If you reach this file via a link like chart-type-guide.md#10-mediation-diagram from an older document or screenshot, the section now lives in chart-types-models.md#10-mediation-diagram. All historical anchors map to canonical sub-file slugs as follows:

Legacy anchor	Current location
#1-grouped-bar-chart	chart-types-core.md#1-grouped-bar-chart
#2-error-bar--mean-comparison-plot	chart-types-core.md#2-error-bar--mean-comparison-plot
#3-line-chart--trend-plot	chart-types-core.md#3-line-chart--trend-plot
#4-scatter-plot-with-regression	chart-types-core.md#4-scatter-plot-with-regression
#5-box-plot	chart-types-core.md#5-box-plot
#6-violin-plot	chart-types-core.md#6-violin-plot
#7-correlation-heatmap	chart-types-core.md#7-correlation-heatmap
#8-forest-plot	chart-types-models.md#8-forest-plot
#9-path-diagram--sem	chart-types-models.md#9-path-diagram--sem
#10-mediation-diagram	chart-types-models.md#10-mediation-diagram
#11-interaction--moderation-plot	chart-types-models.md#11-interaction--moderation-plot
#12-simple-slopes-plot	chart-types-models.md#12-simple-slopes-plot
#13-multi-panel-figure	multi-panel.md#13-multi-panel-figure
#14-raincloud-plot	chart-types-applied.md#14-raincloud-plot
#15-additional-chart-types-p2-p3-quick-reference	chart-types-quick-reference.md

Within each sub-file the canonical slug is preserved unchanged, so any existing #10-mediation-diagram link resolves to the same heading content it always did, only now in chart-types-models.md.