Abstract
Analogies play an important role in scientific reasoning, as they often offer significant heuristic devices in the context of theory and model construction. In this paper, I argue that analogies are similarly important in the process of empirical data generation. With a proper understanding of scientific analogies, in terms of partial-structure preservation, I articulate an account of the role played by analogies in scientific imaging. In this way, it is not only in theoretical contexts, but also in the examination of empirical domains that analogies are central to scientific practice.