eursr-tables-figures

Tables & Figures (eursr-tables-figures)

Exhibits are where a double-blind reviewer checks whether the comparative or longitudinal result is

real. ESR excludes tables and figures from the ~8,000-word count (endnotes and references count) —

so a clear exhibit costs nothing against length, but it must earn its place and stand on its own.

When to trigger

• Designing the main results table/figure or a key descriptive/cross-national exhibit
• Deciding what belongs in the article vs. the (supplementary) appendix
• A reviewer found an exhibit unclear, mislabeled, or not self-contained
• Presenting a cross-level interaction or country-level pattern visually

Principles

1. Self-contained. Title, row/column labels, and a complete note make each exhibit intelligible

alone. State the data source (ESS/EU-SILC/SOEP/EVS or register), sample, N (and number of countries),

units, weighting, estimator, and what the estimate is.

1. Show magnitude and uncertainty. Effect sizes and intervals — not stars alone. **Predicted-

probability and marginal-effects plots** usually beat dense coefficient walls for a comparative

reader, and coefficient/forest plots convey cross-country variation better than tables.

1. Comparative & longitudinal exhibits. Country forest plots / caterpillar plots of random effects;

interaction plots showing the cross-level moderation; mobility/transition tables; survival curves and

cumulative-incidence plots for event history; growth-trajectory plots for panels.

1. Accessible. Colorblind-safe palettes; legible in grayscale; no chartjunk or 3D.
2. Reproducible. Generated by the master script so numbers match the deposited replication package

(see eursr-transparency-and-data).

Format

• Follow OUP/ESR table and figure conventions; concise notes carrying all interpretive detail.
• Keep identifying information out of exhibits (double-blind review).
• Tables and figures are excluded from the ~8,000-word limit but must still be necessary and clear.

Exhibit conventions a double-blind ESR reviewer expects

| Result type | Workhorse exhibit | The note must state |

|-------------|-------------------|----------------------|

| Cross-national effect | country forest/caterpillar plot | data, N, # countries, estimator |

| Cross-level interaction | predicted-margins interaction plot | what is held constant, CI basis |

| Mobility / attainment | transition / mobility table | origin–destination coding, N |

| Event history | survival / cumulative-incidence curve | risk set, time scale, censoring |

| Panel / growth | trajectory plot with CIs | within vs. between, attrition handling |

Worked micro-example (illustrative)

A main results table for a 24-country scarring study is redesigned for ESR.

Before: 6 columns of multilevel coefficients, stars only, no note → reviewer can't tell magnitude,
  sample, or number of countries
After: (1) a marginal-effects interaction plot — scar shrinks as activation spending rises (CI band);
  (2) a country caterpillar plot of random slopes showing where the effect is strong/weak
Self-contained note (illustrative): "Predicted within-person wage penalty from a two-level model,
  N = 86,000 in 24 countries, survey-weighted; bands are 95% CIs (wild cluster bootstrap);
  reproduces from master.R, seed = 2026."

The redesign stands alone, leads with the substantive magnitude and the cross-national variation, and

ties the numbers to the deposited script.

Referee pushback → ESR-specific fix

• "I can't read this table without the text." → Add a complete note (source, N, # countries, units,

weighting, estimator) so it is intelligible alone.

• "Stars don't tell me if this matters." → Replace with marginal effects and intervals; for a

comparative claim, show the country-level spread with a forest/caterpillar plot.

• "Where is the cross-level interaction?" → Plot predicted margins across the macro variable rather

than reporting a bare interaction coefficient.

• "Your figure dies in grayscale." → Re-encode with colorblind-safe, grayscale-legible channels.

Calibration anchors

• Exhibits are excluded from the word cap — use the room. ESR counts endnotes and references but not

tables/figures, so a clear, self-contained exhibit costs nothing against length.

• Show the comparison. A country forest/caterpillar plot communicates cross-national variation a

generalist can grasp far better than a coefficient column.

• Numbers must match the replication package. Exhibit values that disagree with the deposited code

read as a credibility failure under ESR's replication mandate.

Execution bridge (StatsPAI / Stata MCP)

Generate exhibits from the fitted result, not by retyping numbers (the usual source of

body-vs-supplement drift). Full map: [execution-with-mcp](../../../shared-resources/empirical-methods/execution-with-mcp.md). ESR is comparative quantitative sociology; cross-country panels with confounded institutions — foreground fixed effects and clustering.

• Tables: etable (multi-model columns) or did_summary_to_latex straight from the

result_id.

• Figures: plot_from_result / enhanced_event_study_plot / event_study_table —

axis units and the SE/clustering note baked in.

• Every note names the estimator + clustering and states the effect size in

interpretable units.

See a full fitted-result → exhibit chain in the [JF execution walkthrough](../../../Journal-of-Finance-Skills/resources/worked-examples/02-execution-walkthrough.md).

Anti-patterns

• Tables that require the prose to be intelligible (not self-contained)
• Significance stars with no effect size or interval
• Reporting a bare cross-level interaction coefficient with no predicted-margins plot
• Color-only encoding that fails in grayscale or for colorblind readers
• Exhibit values that don't match the analysis script / replication package

Output format

【Main exhibit】what it shows + why a table/figure
【Self-contained?】title + labels + note + source/N/# countries/weights present? [Y/N]
【Magnitude + uncertainty shown?】[Y/N]
【Comparative variation shown?】(forest/interaction plot where relevant) [Y/N]
【Reproducible?】matches master script / replication package? [Y/N]
【Next】eursr-writing-style

Supplementary resources

• [../../resources/external_tools.md](../../resources/external_tools.md) — plotting, multilevel, and survival-curve visualization tools
• [../../resources/code/](../../resources/code/) — event-study / margins plotting templates
• [../../resources/official-source-map.md](../../resources/official-source-map.md) — word-count rule (tables/figures excluded) and OUP style