18 December 2024
Alternative text (Alt-text) is used to convey the content and function of images to readers who cannot see them and those who use screen readers or other assistive technologies. The text is short and descriptive and stands alone from a figure legend.
The British Society for Rheumatology wishes to give readers the best experience possible and provide authors with the best guidance to reach a wide audience, whilst publishing in line with the highest industry standards possible.
From June 2025 onwards, it is a requirement for figures published in journals to include alt-text, supplement to a figure legend, which describes the figure in a way that can be understood without seeing the figure. This requirement has been set by the directive of the European Parliament and the Council of 17 April 2019 and requests all commercial enterprises operating in EU countries to include alt-text for figures used in products and services by June 2025.
To ensure the British Society for Rheumatology journals, Rheumatology and Rheumatology Advances in Practice, meet the requirement, we request authors to include alt-text alongside figure legends during submission of their manuscripts from January 2025. The online submission system has been updated to prompt authors to include alternative text for their figures. This gives authors time to get used to this new requirement before it becomes mandatory.
To help authors understand what good alt text looks like, we have created a guidance document, with recommendations from the publisher, Oxford University Press and with examples put together by Co-Editors and Associate Editors of Rheumatology. You can find the full guidance document here.
In short, alt-text should be concise, descriptive, and summarise the essential information conveyed by the image. Guidance from the publisher notes that it is usually best to write alt text specifically for the purpose of describing the image in a brief and clear manner, focusing on the most important aspects that need to be conveyed to someone who cannot see the image.