The data acquired during research experiments is the evidence supporting the findings being presented. Effective presentation of data aids the abilities of other readers, particularly peer-reviewers, to consider what is being reported, the thought processes involved, and whether the presented evidence supports the reported findings.

In preparing data for dissemination, this also provides an opportunity to carefully consider and review the data. For instance, when reporting the synthesis of a compound, carefully working through all the acquired analytical data through full assignment helps to ensure that the data does reflect the compound being reported. The processing and presentation steps are also a pre-requisite ahead of producing experimental data listings.

When presenting data, there is likely to be many items to process and present, for example data for a number of different compounds. The presentation of data with a consistent approach greatly aids any readers, and also provides confidence that a methodical approach has been taken. Preparing templates which are used consistently in the presentation of data greatly aids the output.

When working as part of a team, agreeing a consistent approach to data presentation is particularly important. It is not desirable to have reports prepared with multiple different styles appearing due to differing approaches from individual team members.

A good approach when learning to present data is to prepare a small amount of data initially, for example a set of data for a single compound, and carefully consider and obtain feedback from peers on the approach taken. It is much easier to refine the process for data presentation early in the process, than it is to retrospectively change lots of data processing decisions later in the process.

Irrespective of the type of data being presented, there are a number of common considerations to have when presenting data.

• Provision of a meaningful title which describes the type of data being presented (e.g. ¹H NMR spectrum, IR(ATR) spectrum etc), along with information on the data (e.g. compound name) and any key technique information (e.g. NMR frequency, solvent(s), concentrations etc) which may be relevant.

• Inclusion of a chemical structure or reaction scheme.

• Ensuring that any axes are appropriately labelled, including units. Generally these should follow IUPAC conventions, i.e. "axes label / unit".

• Checking that all text included is of sufficent font size to be readable.

Examples of processed and presented data can also be found in the example compounds section of the website.