Data Visualization in R
for Biomedical Scientists

Author

Mahsoem Ali, BSc
Prof. Maarten Boers, MD MSc PhD

Published

January 3, 2027

Preface

Effective communication of scientific data is one of the most important skills of a scientist. Stated bluntly, if the intended audience does not understand the message in the data (and acts on it), the research effort is wasted. Data visualization in tables and graphs is essential to effective communication, because it can convey complex relationships in a way unmatched by simple text. However, data visualization is not really a big thing in the education of scientists, nor is it stimulated by the parties responsible for the dissemination of research results, i.e., journals and scientific societies.

Maarten Boers, Professor (em.) of Clinical Epidemiology and rheumatologist, has long had a focus on improving the above situation, and recently published the book:

Data Visualization for Biomedical Scientists: Creating Tables and Graphs That Work.

It mainly relies on GraphPad Prism for plotting data. He regularly teaches on the subject where the question was often raised: ‘can you do this in R?’ To date, the reply has been: ‘Yes, surely, but no one does it…’

Most R-users fall into the ‘template trap’ and accept the first (standard) graph that is offered. Thanks to Mahsoem Ali, a PhD student at Amsterdam UMC, this is about to change.

We proudly present this website to help apply Maarten’s insights in the R computing environment.

The website is split into several chapters. First, we will start with reviewing some general data visualization principles and introducing theme_boers(), a ggplot theme that will be used throughout the next chapters. The following chapters are divided according to plot types. Next, we present several case studies, based on frequently encountered study designs and research questions, e.g., survival analyses and prediction models.

Please note that, throughout this website, we assume familiarity with Maarten’s boek and with basic coding in R.

Important

If you use our format and coding in a publication or presentation, we would appreciate you citing our work, so others can enjoy it too.

To cite:

  • Book:
    Boers M. Data visualization for biomedical scientists: creating graphs and tables that work. Amsterdam: VU University Press; 2022.

  • Website:
    Ali M, Boers M. Data visualization in R for biomedical scientists. 2024. Accessed <enter date>, at https://data-viz.quarto.pub/data-viz-in-r/

If you have questions or comments after reading this website, or if you have any suggestions, please feel free to use this contact form.