---
name: jmf-tables-figures
description: Use when building tables and figures for a Journal of Marriage and Family (JMF) manuscript so exhibits are self-contained, accessible, in modified APA style, and count toward the ~35-page (or ~25-page brief-report) limit. JMF counts tables and figures toward the page budget, so exhibits must earn their space. Designs exhibits; it does not run the analysis.
---

# Tables & Figures (jmf-tables-figures)

Exhibits are where an expert reviewer checks whether the family result is real. At JMF they also **cost
pages**: the manuscript page limit (~35 pp.; ~25 for brief reports) **includes the abstract, text,
tables, and figures**. So every exhibit must pull its weight, and many supporting tables belong in
supplementary/online materials.

## When to trigger

- Designing the main results table/figure or a key descriptive exhibit
- Deciding what belongs in the article vs. supplementary materials
- A reviewer found an exhibit unclear, mislabeled, or non-self-contained
- Trimming to the page limit by moving exhibits to supplementary files

## Principles

1. **Self-contained, modified APA.** A reader should understand each exhibit from its title, notes, and
   labels alone. Follow JMF's **modified APA** table/figure conventions: descriptive title, clear notes,
   significance and abbreviations defined, sample size and units stated.
2. **Show magnitude and uncertainty.** Report effect sizes and confidence intervals, not stars alone;
   for models, prefer marginal effects / predicted values that a family-science reader can interpret
   (e.g., predicted probability of divorce by duration).
3. **Right exhibit for the design.** Survival curves for time-to-event; growth-trajectory plots for
   panels; APIM path diagrams for dyads; family-structure and decomposition charts for demography.
4. **Accessible.** Colorblind-safe palettes; legible in grayscale; no chartjunk or needless 3D.
5. **Descriptive table first.** Family papers typically open results with a clear sample-descriptives
   table (by group/family structure) — make it informative, not a data dump.
6. **Reproducible.** Each exhibit is generated by the master script; numbers match the deposited
   materials exactly (see `jmf-transparency-and-data-policy`).

## Manage the page budget
- Keep the few exhibits that carry the argument in the article; move full model tables, robustness
  grids, balance tables, and measurement detail to **supplementary materials**.
- A reader should be able to follow the family story from the main exhibits alone.

## Anti-patterns

- Tables that require the prose to be intelligible (not self-contained)
- Significance stars with no effect size, interval, or substantive meaning
- Cramming every robustness check into the main text (blows the page budget — use supplements)
- Color-only encoding that fails in grayscale or for colorblind readers
- Exhibit numbers/values that don't match the deposited code output


## Exhibit pass for Journal of Marriage and Family

Treat this skill as an executable review pass, not a prose hint. First lock the family process, population/sample frame, measurement validity, and longitudinal or comparative leverage; then judge whether the current manuscript answers the venue's real reader: family scholars who inspect measurement, household process, longitudinal design, and implications for family theory.

- **Do the pass:** For every table or figure, state the estimand or object, sample or case base, uncertainty display, and one sentence the exhibit proves for the venue audience.
- **Return a ledger:** give `claim / evidence / risk / manuscript location` rows, so the next agent can edit rather than rediscover the issue.
- **Sibling guard:** compare against Demography for population-process emphasis, Social Forces for general sociology, Child Development for child-centered outcomes; if a sibling owns the contribution, recommend re-routing before polishing format.
- **Stop condition:** do not give submission-ready advice until the pack's `resources/official-source-map.md` has been checked for volatile rules and the manuscript has one concrete fix for the largest venue-specific risk.

## Output format

```
【Main exhibit】what it shows + why a figure/table
【Self-contained?】title + labels + notes + N/units present (modified APA)? [Y/N]
【Magnitude shown?】effect size + interval / predicted values? [Y/N]
【Accessible?】grayscale-legible + colorblind-safe? [Y/N]
【Article vs supplement】split decided, page-budget impact noted
【Reproducible?】generated by master script, matches package? [Y/N]
【Next】jmf-writing-style
```

## Supplementary resources

- [`../../resources/external_tools.md`](../../resources/external_tools.md) — plotting packages for survival, growth, dyadic, and demographic exhibits
- [`../../resources/official-source-map.md`](../../resources/official-source-map.md) — page-limit rule and modified-APA style