---
name: sf-tables-figures
description: Use when building tables and figures for a Social Forces (SF) manuscript. SF imposes a hard limit of 10 tables and figure panels and a 10-page supplementary-materials cap, so exhibits must be selected and consolidated deliberately. Designs and rations exhibits; it does not run the analysis.
---

# Tables & Figures (sf-tables-figures)

At Social Forces exhibits are rationed: a manuscript **"may not contain more than 10 tables and figure
panels."** That single rule drives the whole exhibit strategy — you choose the ten that carry the
argument and move the rest into the **≤ 10-page** supplementary materials. Exhibits are also where an
expert reviewer checks whether the result is real, so each must be self-contained and clear.

## When to trigger

- Designing the main results table/figure or a key descriptive exhibit
- You have more than 10 candidate tables and figure panels and must cut
- Deciding what belongs in the article vs. the (≤ 10-page) supplementary materials
- A reviewer found an exhibit unclear, mislabeled, or non-self-contained

## Principles

1. **Count panels, not just figures.** The cap is **10 tables and figure panels combined** — a
   multi-panel figure spends several of your ten. Plan the budget before you design.
2. **Self-contained.** A reader should understand each exhibit from its title, axis/column labels, and
   note alone. State units, sample, N, and what the estimate is.
3. **Figures over dense tables for effects.** Coefficient/marginal-effects plots, event-study and
   decomposition plots, survival curves, and network diagrams communicate magnitude and uncertainty
   better than a wall of coefficients. Show intervals.
4. **Consolidate.** Combine related models into one well-labeled table; merge near-duplicate panels;
   send balance tables, full specifications, and robustness grids to the supplementary file.
5. **Accessible.** Colorblind-safe palettes; legible in grayscale; vector output (PDF/EPS); no
   chartjunk, no 3D, no decorative color.
6. **Reproducible.** Each exhibit is generated by the master script; numbers match what the data
   availability statement points to (see `sf-data-and-transparency`).

## Rationing the ten panels

| Pressure | Move |
|----------|------|
| Three robustness tables | one summary table or a coefficient plot; rest to supplement |
| A 4-panel descriptive figure | keep the 1-2 panels that carry the point |
| Balance / first-stage tables | supplementary materials (within the 10-page cap) |
| Full regression output | report key coefficients; full table to supplement |

## Anti-patterns

- Designing exhibits without counting panels, then over the limit at submission
- A multi-panel figure that quietly consumes most of the ten-panel budget
- Tables that require the prose to be intelligible (not self-contained)
- Reporting significance stars with no effect size or interval
- Color-only encoding that fails in grayscale or for colorblind readers
- Exhibit numbers/values that don't match the deposited/declared data and code

## How an SF referee reads an exhibit

At Social Forces an expert referee uses the exhibits to decide whether the result is real before reading
a word of prose. Across the journal's broad quantitative range — stratification tables, demographic
decompositions, event-history curves, network diagrams — the same gate applies:

| Exhibit choice | Passes the SF panel test when… | Wastes panels when… |
|----------------|--------------------------------|---------------------|
| Main effect | An effects plot shows magnitude + interval | A stars-only table hides effect size |
| Robustness set | Consolidated into one panel or supplement | Three near-identical tables each spend a panel |
| Descriptive figure | Only the 1-2 argument-carrying panels kept | A 4-panel grid spends the budget on context |
| First-stage / balance | Lives in the ≤10-page supplement | Occupies main-text panels |

Calibration (hedged): the cap is 10 tables and figure panels combined, counting each panel of a
multi-panel figure separately, with supplementary materials near 10 pages — verify the exact current
numbers against the journal's submission guidelines, since exhibit limits can change between regimes.

## Worked vignette (illustrative)

A motherhood-wage-penalty study has 14 candidate panels: a fixed-effects table, a 4-panel heterogeneity
figure, two robustness tables, a balance table, a first-stage table. Rationing to ten: keep one
marginal-effects plot (about 6% per child, illustrative, with 95% intervals), collapse the heterogeneity
figure to the two panels that show the gradient, fold both robustness tables into one coefficient plot,
and move balance and first-stage tables to the supplement — from 14 to roughly 7 main panels with
magnitude and uncertainty visible at a glance.

Referee fixes: "table is not self-contained" → put units, sample, N, and estimand in title and note;
"over the panel cap" → consolidate robustness into one panel and push detail to the supplement.

## Output format

```
【Panel budget】total tables + figure panels ≤ 10? [Y/N] (count)
【Main exhibit】what it shows + why a figure/table
【Self-contained?】title + labels + note + N/units present? [Y/N]
【Accessible?】grayscale-legible + colorblind-safe? [Y/N]
【Article vs supplement】split decided (supplement ≤ 10 pages)
【Reproducible?】generated by master script, matches data/code? [Y/N]
【Next】sf-writing-style
```

## Supplementary resources

- [`../../resources/external_tools.md`](../../resources/external_tools.md) — plotting/mapping/network packages
- [`../../resources/official-source-map.md`](../../resources/official-source-map.md) — the 10 tables-and-figure-panels and 10-page supplementary limits