Tables & Figures (jmr-tables-figures)
When to trigger
- Tables are cluttered, off AMA style, or not self-explanatory
- You must decide what stays in the print paper vs. the Web Appendix
- Statistics in exhibits use thresholds/asterisks instead of exact values
- Interaction or mediation results need a clear plot
The 50-page split is the first decision
JMR's 50-page limit is all-inclusive of title, abstract, keywords, text, footnotes, references, tables, and figures. The Web Appendix does not count toward it. So every exhibit is a budget decision:
-
Main text: the exhibits a reader needs to follow the core argument — the key result table(s), the main interaction/mediation figure, the model summary, the design figure.
-
Web Appendix: everything supplementary — full descriptive tables, robustness, additional studies, estimation details, full stimuli. Label these with a 'W' prefix: "Table W1", "Figure W1" — a JMR/AMA-specific convention. The Web Appendix is a single separate PDF.
Push analyses to the Web Appendix to protect the 50-page budget; do not pad the print paper.
Exact-statistics conventions inside exhibits
Every table must obey the journal-level reporting rules:
- Report standard errors for parameter estimates (typically in parentheses below the estimate).
- Report exact p-values to three digits where p-values appear — no asterisk legends, no "p < .05".
-
No leading zero before the decimal; no more than three decimals.
- Report or enable effect sizes (e.g., cell means with SDs, eta-squared, standardized coefficients).
Build exhibits by genre
-
Behavioral: a table of cell means (SDs, n) per condition; an interaction plot with error bars; a mediation figure or table with bootstrapped indirect effects and bias-corrected CIs; simple-slopes plots for moderation.
-
Modeling / econometric: a regression/structural table with coefficients and SEs; first-stage / identification diagnostics; a counterfactual or fit figure where the contribution depends on it.
House-style essentials
- Each exhibit is self-contained: a descriptive title, defined variables, units, sample size, and a note explaining estimator and SE type.
- Reference every table/figure in the text in order; keep numbering consistent across text, main exhibits, and Web Appendix.
- Follow AMA author-year style in notes and captions.
Execution bridge (StatsPAI / Stata MCP)
Generate exhibits from the fitted result, not by retyping numbers (the usual source of
body-vs-appendix drift). Full map: execution-with-mcp. JMR mixes experiments, structural models, and quasi-experiments; the chain below serves the experimental and reduced-form lanes, while structural demand estimation uses its own toolkit.
-
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.
Anti-patterns
- Asterisk-and-threshold tables instead of exact p-values and SEs.
- Overstuffing the print paper and blowing the 50-page budget.
- Web Appendix exhibits not labeled with the 'W' prefix, or scattered across files instead of one PDF.
- Tables that cannot be read without the body text.
Exhibit pass for Journal of Marketing Research
Run this as a concrete capability pass. First lock the marketing construct, data or study design, inference threat, and managerial or consumer implication; then test whether the manuscript addresses marketing reviewers who expect measurement, experiments, consumer behavior, or empirical strategy to answer a marketing question.
-
Primary move: For every table or figure, state the object, sample/case base, uncertainty display, and one sentence the exhibit proves for this venue.
-
Decision ledger: return
claim / evidence / blocker / next edit rows so the next pass can patch the manuscript directly.
-
Sibling comparison: compare against Marketing Science for quantitative modeling, Journal of Marketing for strategic managerial contribution, Journal of Consumer Research for consumer-theory depth; if the neighboring outlet has the stronger audience claim, recommend re-routing before polishing.
-
Verification floor: before submission-ready advice, re-open
resources/official-source-map.md for volatile rules and name the one unresolved fact that could change the recommendation.
Output format
[Target] JMR
[Main-text exhibits] list (within 50pp)
[Web Appendix exhibits] W-prefixed, single PDF
[Exact stats in tables] SEs / 3-digit p / effect sizes: pass/fix
[AMA number style] no leading zero, <=3 decimals: pass/fix
[Self-contained & numbered] pass/fix
[Next skill] jmr-writing-style
Resources