How to Make Volcano Plot

Volcano plots combine effect size and statistical significance, making them common in RNA-seq, proteomics, and screening studies.

Prepare your columns

Use gene or feature names, log2 fold change, adjusted p-value, and optional pathway or category annotations.

Set thresholds

Add vertical fold-change cutoffs and a horizontal significance cutoff. Explain the thresholds in the caption.

Label top features

Label the most important genes, not every significant point. Use color for upregulated, downregulated, and non-significant groups.

Common mistakes

Do not use raw p-values when adjusted p-values are expected. Avoid labels that overlap or hide dense regions.

Try it in SciFigure AI

Open the Volcano Plot Generator and upload differential expression results.