---
name: eursr-tables-figures
description: Use when building tables and figures for a European Sociological Review (ESR) manuscript. ESR excludes tables and figures from the ~8,000-word count but expects them to be clear, self-contained, and to carry magnitude and uncertainty for a comparative quantitative readership. Designs exhibits; it does not run the analysis.
---

# 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.
2. **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.
3. **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.
4. **Accessible.** Colorblind-safe palettes; legible in grayscale; no chartjunk or 3D.
5. **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