---
name: pubar-tables-figures
description: Use when building tables and figures for a Public Administration Review (PAR) manuscript so exhibits are self-contained, accessible, and communicate effect magnitude to scholars and practitioners alike. PAR excludes tables/figures/appendices from the 8,000-word count, but exhibits still must earn their space. Designs exhibits; it does not run the analysis.
---

# Tables & Figures (pubar-tables-figures)

Exhibits are where an expert reviewer checks whether the result is real — and where a practitioner
reads the magnitude that drives your **Evidence for Practice**. At PAR the word count *excludes* tables,
figures, charts, and appendices (检索于 2026-06；以官网为准), so the constraint is clarity, not word
budget: every exhibit must communicate a magnitude with its uncertainty, fast.

## When to trigger

- Designing the main results table/figure or a key descriptive exhibit
- Deciding what belongs in the article vs. an online appendix/supplement
- A reviewer found an exhibit unclear, mislabeled, or non-self-contained
- Translating a coefficient into something a public manager can read

## Principles

1. **Self-contained.** A reader should understand each exhibit from its title, axis/column labels, and
   note alone. State units, sample, N, the estimator, and what the estimate is.
2. **Figures over dense tables for effects.** Coefficient/forest plots, marginal-effects and
   predicted-probability plots, event-study and RD plots communicate magnitude and uncertainty better
   than a wall of coefficients. Show intervals — a practitioner needs the effect size, not stars.
3. **Accessible.** Colorblind-safe palettes; legible in grayscale; no chartjunk, no 3D, no needless
   color. Reviewers and practitioner readers must parse it quickly.
4. **Main text vs. supplement.** Keep the few exhibits that carry the argument in the article; move
   balance tables, full specifications, and robustness grids to the **online supplement**.
5. **Reproducible.** Each exhibit is generated by the master script; numbers match the deposited
   materials exactly (TOP transparency — see `pubar-transparency-and-data`).

## PA-specific exhibits
- **Event-study plots around a reform** to show pre-trends and dynamics of an administrative change.
- **Predicted-probability / marginal-effects plots** translating a model into managerial terms
  ("an agency at the 75th percentile of red tape is X points less likely to…").
- Maps for cross-jurisdiction variation; network diagrams for collaborative-governance structure.
- For qualitative/mixed work: process timelines, evidence tables linking claims to sources.

## Execution bridge (StatsPAI / Stata MCP)

Generate exhibits from the fitted result, not by retyping numbers. Full map:
[`execution-with-mcp`](../../../shared-resources/empirical-methods/execution-with-mcp.md). PAR is public administration — survey/observational and some experimental work; identification + clustered/multilevel inference, magnitude for practice.

- **Tables:** `etable` (multi-model) 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 magnitude 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)
- Reporting significance stars with no effect size or interval (practitioners can't act on it)
- Cramming every robustness check into the main text (use the supplement)
- Color-only encoding that fails in grayscale or for colorblind readers
- Exhibit numbers/values that don't match the deposited code output

## Output format

```
【Main exhibit】what it shows + why a figure/table
【Self-contained?】title + labels + note + N/units/estimator present? [Y/N]
【Magnitude legible to a manager?】effect size + interval shown? [Y/N]
【Accessible?】grayscale-legible + colorblind-safe? [Y/N]
【Article vs supplement】split decided
【Reproducible?】generated by master script, matches package? [Y/N]
【Next】pubar-writing-style
```

## Referee-pushback patterns and the PAR fix

- *"I can't read the magnitude — the table is all stars."* → Replace stars-only cells with effect sizes
  and intervals; add a marginal-effects or predicted-probability plot so a practitioner sees the size.
- *"The exhibit isn't self-contained."* → Put the sample, N, units, estimator, and what the estimate is
  into the title and note, so the figure stands alone without the prose.
- *"This figure fails in grayscale / for colorblind readers."* → Switch to a colorblind-safe palette and
  encode with shape/linetype, not color alone; check the grayscale print.
- *"The main text is buried under robustness tables."* → Keep the few exhibits that carry the argument in
  the article and move balance/robustness grids to the online supplement.
- *"Numbers don't match the deposited code."* → Regenerate every exhibit from the master script so the
  printed values and the deposited materials are identical (see `pubar-transparency-and-data`).

## Calibration anchors (hedged)

- A PAR exhibit serves **two readers**: an expert checking whether the result is real, and a practitioner
  reading the magnitude that drives the Evidence for Practice. Design for both.
- Because the word count **excludes** tables, figures, charts, and appendices (检索于 2026-06；以官网为准),
  use the supplement freely for secondary exhibits — but keep the main argument to a few decisive ones.
- Confirm the current figure/table formatting and file-type requirements on the journal's author page;
  Wiley production specs evolve.

## Supplementary resources

- [`../../resources/external_tools.md`](../../resources/external_tools.md) — plotting/mapping/network packages
- [`../../resources/official-source-map.md`](../../resources/official-source-map.md) — word-count rule (excludes tables/figures/appendices)