---
name: brycewang-stanford/ajps-tables-figures
source: https://app.decimal.ai/s/brycewang-stanford-ajps-tables-figures@1/SKILL.md
source_sha256: d7881094a9b8
---

# Tables & Figures (ajps-tables-figures)

Exhibits are where an expert reviewer checks whether the result is real — and at AJPS they carry two
extra constraints. First, the **headers and notes of tables and figures count toward the word limit**
(the body, notes, and printed captions are all in scope; references and online SI are not). Second,
every exhibit must be **regenerated by the deposited code**, because a third-party verifier re-runs it
against the main-text numbers. So each exhibit must earn its words *and* its reproducibility.

## When to trigger

- Designing the main results table/figure or a key descriptive exhibit
- Deciding what belongs in the article vs. the online Supporting Information (SI, <= 25 pages for original submissions)
- A reviewer found an exhibit unclear, mislabeled, or not self-contained
- Trimming to the word cap by moving exhibits to the SI

## Principles

1. **Self-contained.** A reader understands each exhibit from its title, axis/column labels, and note
   alone — state units, sample, N, and what the estimate is. (Keep notes tight: they count as words.)
2. **Figures over dense tables for effects.** Coefficient/forest plots, marginal-effects and
   predicted-probability plots, event-study and RD plots show magnitude and uncertainty better than a
   wall of coefficients. Show intervals.
3. **Accessible.** Colorblind-safe palettes; legible in grayscale; no chartjunk, no 3D. Reviewers must
   parse it fast.
4. **Main text vs. SI.** Keep the few exhibits that carry the argument in the article; move balance
   tables, full specifications, and robustness grids to the **Supporting Information** (<= 25 pages for original submissions,
   uploaded as "Appendix"). This is also how you fit under 10,000 / 4,000 words.
5. **Reproducible and labeled to the code.** Each exhibit is generated by the master script; numbers
   match the deposited package exactly (the verifier re-runs it — see
   `ajps-replication-and-verification`). Name code by exhibit ("Files to Reproduce Table 1").

## Discipline-specific exhibits
- Maps for geographic/spatial variation; network diagrams where structure is the point.
- Conjoint AMCE plots; survey-experiment treatment-effect plots.
- For qualitative/multi-method work: timelines, causal-process diagrams, evidence tables linking claims
  to sources.

## Exhibit-routing table (what AJPS referees expect to find where)

| Exhibit | Lives in | Why AJPS treats it this way |
|---------|----------|------------------------------|
| Headline causal estimate (coef/marginal-effects plot) | Main text | The result the verifier re-runs first; show magnitude + interval |
| Balance table; full specification grid; robustness battery | SI (<= 25 pp for original submissions) | Only the breaking specs belong in the article |
| Density test (RD), first-stage F (IV), event-study leads | Main text or SI | Identification evidence a quantitative referee will demand |

## Worked micro-example (illustrative numbers)

A regression-discontinuity study of incumbency advantage reports the RD estimate in one coefficient plot:
incumbent vote share jumps **6.2 points (95% CI 2.1-10.3)** at the bare-win threshold *(illustrative)*.
The first draft buried this in a six-column bandwidth table. The AJPS-aligned fix: promote one **RD plot**
(binned means, local-linear fit, CI band); move the bandwidth grid, density test, and donut-hole checks to
the SI. The note states the running variable, bandwidth, N near the cutoff, and estimator — self-contained,
with every number traceable to one block of the master script the verifier re-runs.

## Referee-pushback patterns and the venue-specific fix

- *"Stars but no sense of magnitude."* -> Replace the coefficient wall with a predicted-probability or
  marginal-effects plot; report the effect on the outcome's natural scale in the note.
- *"Unreadable in grayscale / for colorblind readers."* -> Colorblind-safe palette, vary line type and
  marker shape, confirm it parses in black and white.
- *"Exhibit values do not match the deposited code."* -> A guaranteed AJPS verification failure; regenerate
  every exhibit from the master script and name code by exhibit ("Files to Reproduce Table 1").

Calibration anchor: AJPS verification checks exhibit numbers against re-run code, not the eye, and the cap
counts headers and notes — confirm the exact counting rule against the journal's current guidelines.

## 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). AJPS prizes credible identification across American / comparative / IR subfields; DiD/IV/RDD for observational claims, randomization inference for experiments.

- **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 need the prose to be intelligible (not self-contained)
- Significance stars with no effect size or interval
- Bloated exhibit notes that quietly eat the word budget
- Cramming every robustness check into the main text instead of the SI
- Exhibit values that the deposited code cannot regenerate (verification fails)

## Output format

```
【Main exhibit】what it shows + why a figure/table
【Self-contained?】title + labels + note + N/units present? [Y/N]
【Word-budget】caption/notes counted toward the limit? [Y/N]
【Accessible?】grayscale-legible + colorblind-safe? [Y/N]
【Article vs SI】split decided (SI <= 25 pp for original submissions)
【Reproducible?】generated by master script, matches package? [Y/N]
【Next】ajps-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) — word-count rule (includes table/figure headers and notes) and 20-page SI limit