Fixing overlapping error bars in ggplot

Question

I am trying to fix error bars so that they are actually readable on my chart. The only thing causing the problems is the 2013 data. How should I do it? I have seen some jitter or dodge reports, but I'm not sure how to apply this to fix my problem.

Here is the code I'm trying to change:

YearlyDensity <- read.table(header=T, text='
Station Year       mean           se
   M-25 2013   8944.444     3636.871
   M-25 2008       4212         2371
   M-25 2004        963          291
   M-45 2013   8495.169     2111.072
   M-45 2008      13023         1347
   M-45 2004       8748         1740
    X-2 2013  12345.411     1166.905
')    

library(ggplot2)
ggplot(YearlyDensity, aes(x=Year, y=mean, colour=Station,group=Station)) +
  geom_errorbar(aes(ymin=mean-se, ymax=mean+se), colour="black", width=.2) +
  geom_line(size=.8) +
  geom_point(size=4, shape=18) +
  coord_cartesian(ylim = c(0, 16000)) +
  scale_y_continuous(breaks=seq(0,16000,2000)) +
  xlab("Sampling Year") +
  ylab("Mean Density") +
  labs(fill="") +
  theme_bw() +
    theme(legend.justification=c(1,0), legend.position=c(1,0))

Answer 1

You need dodgeall of you geomwith the same amount, i.e. add position = position_dodge(width = the-desired-width)to each of them.

# set desired dodge width
pd <- position_dodge(width = 0.4)

ggplot(YearlyDensity, aes(x = Year, y = mean, colour = Station, group = Station)) +
  geom_errorbar(aes(ymin = mean-se, ymax = mean+se),
                colour = "black", width = 0.2, position = pd) +
  geom_line(size = .8, position = pd) +
  geom_point(size = 4, shape = 18, position = pd) +
  coord_cartesian(ylim = c(0, 16000)) +
  scale_y_continuous(breaks = seq(0, 16000, 2000)) +
  xlab("Sampling Year") +
  ylab("Mean Density") +
  labs(fill = "") +
  theme_bw() +
  theme(legend.justification = c(1, 0), legend.position = c(1, 0))