Mean value of specific SFR (derived from the SED fitting, sSFR^sed and color coded as indicated) in the NUVrK diagram for the entire COSMOS spectroscopic sample with 0.2 ≤ z ≤ 1.3. The density contours (thin black lines) are logarithmically spaced by 0.2 dex. The heavy black lines delineate the region of passive galaxies. The shaded area defines the “intermediate” zone where the SFR estimates disagree between the different methods (UV+IR, NRK and SED fitting) as discussed in Sect. 4.2. We show the attenuation vectors for starburst (SB) and SMC attenuation curves assuming E(B − V) = 0.4 and the vector NRK_ssfr perpendicular to the starburst attenuation (see Sect. 4.3, note the different dynamic ranges in x and y-axis warping the angles).