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I know this question might be a long shot here, but what types of data visualization and charts/graphs are exclusive for use in scientific fields as opposed to any other discipline like business and finance?

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    $\begingroup$ None, graphs need to be designed according to the type of data, the intended audience and the "message" you'd like to impart. ("none" is a slight exaggeration. There are some specific plots common in some scientific and engineering fields, which you need to learn to understand and which were tailor-made for a specific type of data. However, these plots might not be common in other fields but could potentially also be used in some of them.) $\endgroup$
    – Roland
    Commented Oct 10, 2016 at 8:08
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    $\begingroup$ you might get a better answer if you explain why you are asking $\endgroup$
    – seanv507
    Commented Oct 10, 2016 at 11:53
  • $\begingroup$ Peter Flom: Thank you, much appreciated. @seanv507: Thank you. It is for a poster I'm designing for a workshop that focuses on data visualization in science, so I am trying to learn more about their different types and their usage in different fields. $\endgroup$
    – omar.may
    Commented Oct 10, 2016 at 14:36
  • $\begingroup$ You might get a better answer if your question were directed to specific experts in visualization, e.g., Hadley Wickham or Kaiser Fung's JunkCharts.com, to name only two. $\endgroup$
    – user78229
    Commented Oct 10, 2016 at 15:15

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While some graphs are more common in science than in business, I don't think there are any that are used exclusively by scientists. The closest would probably be some highly specialized graph that is used almost exclusively by scientists in a particular specialty. However, even these might be used by businesses in the same industry.

For example, here is a chart used to map the temperature of the sun. This is probably used almost exclusively by people in that field. But I would not bet that some business somewhere doesn't use it.

Graphs ought to be chosen to represent the data and the model and so on, and are not specific to fields.

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I have not seen most common charts from spectroscopy in business and finance. For instance, the following two plots are quite common in the field: enter image description here enter image description here

I think the reason why are these plots do not show up in other fields is because there are no sharp lines in economics or business. If you measures the spectra of an atom its lines don't move day to day or ever. Natrium line is going to be there no matter how many times you measure in which lab, as long as you got you experiment set up properly. In contrast depending on how you "measure" natural rate of unemployment it'll be a different number every time you look at it, because it's a bogus concept unmeasurable concept, much like "positive energy".

Also, I haven;t seen Feynmann diagrams in business. There were attempts in the fringes of econophysics to apply quantum mechanics to finance, but they're mostly amusing that useful. enter image description here

Neither did I see the bubble chamber scattering diagrams like this little pion: enter image description here

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I understand Western Blots to be ubiquitous in biology, but I've never seen anything like it in finance.

You don't run bonds out on a gel to measure the face value of the bond. :P

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