| 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
- 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.
- 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.
- Accessible. Colorblind-safe palettes; legible in grayscale; no chartjunk, no 3D, no needless
color. Reviewers and practitioner readers must parse it quickly.
- 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.
- 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. 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.
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
