ResearchPlot

ResearchPlot creates Matplotlib figures at verified publication widths, explains where each venue rule came from, validates live figures, and audits exported files. It is a compliance assistant—not a guarantee that a publisher will accept a figure.

Installation

python -m pip install researchplot-venues

The PyPI distribution is named researchplot-venues; the Python package and CLI remain researchplot, so existing imports and commands do not change.

The core requires Python 3.10+ and does not require LaTeX or network access. Install the deprecated high-level plotting helpers separately:

python -m pip install "researchplot-venues[plots]"

Venue-native workflow

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import researchplot as rp

x = [0, 1, 2, 3]
y = [0, 1, 4, 9]

with rp.use("CVPR 2026", width="single") as style:
    fig, ax = style.subplots()
    ax.plot(x, y, marker="o")
    ax.set(xlabel="Input", ylabel="Output")

    report = style.validate(fig)
    print(report)
    paths = style.export(fig, "figure1", artwork="vector")

plt.close(fig)

Exact IDs are reproducible. A bare conference name such as cvpr resolves to the newest bundled verified year and warns with the resolved ID. Unknown and ambiguous names raise an error with suggestions; they never silently become IEEE.

profile = rp.resolve_venue("Nature")
print(profile.width_options)  # ('single', 'double')
print(profile.width_mm("single"))  # 89.0
print(profile.sources)  # official guidance and verification dates

Verified catalog

Every bundled rule is required, recommended, or inferred. Missing official guidance stays unspecified. Profiles include official URLs, verification dates, scope, and caveats; all runtime resolution is offline.

Validation and file auditing

report = rp.validate_figure(fig, venue="nature", width="single")
if not report.passed:
    for failure in report.failures:
        print(failure.message, failure.source_urls)

report = rp.audit_file(
    "figure1.pdf",
    venue="nature",
    width="single",
    artwork="vector",
)
print(report.to_dict())

Required violations fail; recommendations warn; inferred guidance is informational. Anything the validator cannot establish is marked skip, not passed. Strict export blocks only required failures.

The auditor supports PDF, SVG, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, and EPS. It checks applicable file format, physical dimensions, raster DPI and color mode metadata, PDF font embedding and Type 3 fonts, SVG dimensions/text presence, and EPS bounding boxes.

Command line

researchplot venues list
researchplot venues search cvpr
researchplot venues info cvpr-2026
researchplot doctor --venue nature
researchplot audit figure.pdf --venue nature --width single --artwork vector
researchplot audit figure.pdf --venue nature --width single --artwork vector --json

Exit code 0 means no required failures, 1 means compliance failures, and 2 means invalid input, an unreadable file, or a missing required capability.

Legacy plotting helpers

The original positional interfaces remain available in 0.2.x and display by default, but emit a deprecation warning. They now return (Figure, Axes) (or a Seaborn PairGrid) and accept keyword-only ax=None and show=True.

from researchplot import bar, pairplot, stacked_bar

fig, ax = bar([3, 5, 2], ["A", "B", "C"], show=False)

Supported helpers: bar, stacked_bar, scatter, line, histogram, boxplot, heatmap, confusion_matrix, accuracy_vs_epoch, loss_vs_epoch, roc_curve, precision_recall_curve, violinplot, contour_plot, pie, hexbin, pairplot, learning_curves, time_series, radar_chart, dendrogram, quiver, surface_3d, sankey, and error_band.

science, cell, springer, and pnas remain unverified legacy styles only. The generic elsevier alias also warns that a target journal can override its rules. See the migration guide for native replacements.

Limitations

• Official venue instructions can change and journal-specific rules can override a publisher profile. Always follow the linked official sources and profile caveats.
• Source date and file metadata cannot prove every visual property; unresolved checks remain visible as skipped checks.
• LaTeX is external and opt-in (rp.use(..., latex=True)). ResearchPlot never downloads fonts or templates.
• Automatic template ingestion, online profile updates, other plotting backends, and broader venue coverage are post-0.2 roadmap work.

Documentation lives in docs/. Contributions that add a profile must include traceable official sources and tests. ResearchPlot is MIT licensed.