Question

I am plotting correlation coefficients (values = 0.0:1.0) for two isotopes measured in each individual from two populations. I would like to have a fixed aspect-ratio for my scatter-plot so that the x- and y-axis are exactly the same size no matter the graphics device. Suggestions?

This is my first plot in R, any comments on refinements to my code is appreciated? Finally, is it worth investing in learning the basic plotting techniques or should I jump right to ggplot2 or lattice?

My plot script:

## Create dataset
WW_corr <-
structure(list(South_N15 = c(0.7976495, 0.1796725, 0.5338347,
0.4103769, 0.7447027, 0.5080296, 0.7566544, 0.7432026, 0.8927161
), South_C13 = c(0.76706752, 0.02320767, 0.88429902, 0.36648357,
0.73840937, 0.0523504, 0.52145159, 0.50707858, 0.51874445), North_N15 = c(0.7483608,
0.4294148, 0.9283554, 0.8831571, 0.5056481, 0.1945943, 0.8492716,
0.5759033, 0.7483608), North_C13 = c(0.08114805, 0.47268136,
0.94975596, 0.06023815, 0.33652839, 0.53055943, 0.30228833, 0.8864435,
0.08114805)), .Names = c("South_N15", "South_C13", "North_N15",
"North_C13"), row.names = c(NA, -9L), class = "data.frame")

opar <- par()

## Plot results
par(oma = c(1, 0, 0, 0), mar = c(4, 5, 2, 2))           
plot(1,1,xlim=c(0:1.0), ylim=c(0:1.0), type="n", las=1, bty="n", main = NULL,
     ylab=expression(paste("Correlation Coefficient (r) for ", delta ^{15},"N ",
                     "\u0028","\u2030","\u0029")),
     xlab=expression(paste("Correlation Coefficient (r) for ", delta ^{13},"C ",
                     "\u0028","\u2030","\u0029")))

points(WW_corr$South_N15, WW_corr$South_C13, pch = 23, cex = 1.25, 
       bg ="antiquewhite4", col = "antiquewhite4")
points(WW_corr$North_N15, WW_corr$North_C13, pch = 15, cex = 1.25,
       bg ="black")
axis(1, at = seq(0, 1.0, by = 0.1), labels = F, tick = TRUE, tck = -0.01)
axis(2, at = seq(0, 1.0, by = 0.1), labels = F, tick = TRUE, tck = -0.01)
abline(h=.86, v=.86, col = "gray60", lty = 2)
legend("topleft", c("North", "South"), pch = c(15, 23), 
       col = c("black", "antiquewhite4"), pt.bg = c("black", "antiquewhite4"),
       horiz=TRUE, bty = "n")

par(opar)

Answer 1

Using asp=1 as a parameter to plot will get interpreted by the low-level plot.window call and should give you a unitary aspect ratio. There is the potential that a call using ylim and xlim could conflict with an aspect ratio scpecification and the asp should “prevail”. That’s a very impressive first R graph, by the away. And an excellent question construction. High marks.

The one jarring note was your use of the construction xlim=c(0:1.0). Since xlim expects a two element vector, I would have expected xlim=c(0,1). Fewer keystrokes and less subject to error in the future if you changed to a different set of limits, since the “:” operator would give you unexpected results if you tried that with “0:2.5”.