SCICAP: Generating Captions for Scientific Figures

Ting Yao Hsu, C. Lee Giles, Ting Hao Huang

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

49 Scopus citations

Abstract

Researchers use figures to communicate rich, complex information in scientific papers. The captions of these figures are critical to conveying effective messages. However, low-quality figure captions commonly occur in scientific articles and may decrease understanding. In this paper, we propose an end-to-end neural framework to automatically generate informative, high-quality captions for scientific figures. To this end, we introduce SCICAP,1a largescale figure-caption dataset based on computer science arXiv papers published between 2010 and 2020. After pre-processing - including figure-type classification, sub-figure identification, text normalization, and caption text selection - SCICAP contained more than two million figures extracted from over 290,000 papers. We then established baseline models that caption graph plots, the dominant (19.2%) figure type. The experimental results showed both opportunities and steep challenges of generating captions for scientific figures.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationFindings of the Association for Computational Linguistics, Findings of ACL
Subtitle of host publicationEMNLP 2021
EditorsMarie-Francine Moens, Xuanjing Huang, Lucia Specia, Scott Wen-Tau Yih
PublisherAssociation for Computational Linguistics (ACL)
Pages3258-3264
Number of pages7
ISBN (Electronic)9781955917100
DOIs
StatePublished - 2021
Event2021 Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics, Findings of ACL: EMNLP 2021 - Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
Duration: Nov 7 2021Nov 11 2021

Publication series

NameFindings of the Association for Computational Linguistics, Findings of ACL: EMNLP 2021

Conference

Conference2021 Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics, Findings of ACL: EMNLP 2021
Country/TerritoryDominican Republic
CityPunta Cana
Period11/7/2111/11/21

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Language and Linguistics
  • Linguistics and Language

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