Tables & Figures (aos-tables-figures)
When to trigger
- A field paper has long quotations but no exhibit showing the evidentiary base
- Experimental results lack a clean cell-means or contrast table
- A figure decorates rather than argues (or a needed process figure is missing)
- Formatting must be reconciled with Elsevier submission requirements
Exhibits by tradition — what AOS reviewers look for
Qualitative field / historical papers
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Data-inventory table: interviews (number, roles, duration, period), observations (events, hours), documents (types, spans) — the single exhibit that preempts "how much data is behind this?"
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Evidence table(s): conceptual claim or second-order theme in one column, representative field excerpts in the other, so the interpretive chain is inspectable without bloating the text.
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Coding-structure exhibit where the paper's method warrants it: first-order codes → second-order categories → aggregate concepts, showing movement from informant language to theory.
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Timeline or process figure for change studies: phases, key events, and where the accounting practice intervened.
- Anonymize consistently — pseudonyms and role labels in exhibits must match the text and betray no site identity.
Experimental / survey papers
- Cell-means table: means, SDs, n per condition; the predicted pattern visible at a glance.
- Contrast/ANOVA table plus process results (mediation with bootstrap CIs) as exhibits, not prose asides.
- An interaction figure with error bars when a moderation is the theory's signature; axis units interpretable, no truncated scales that exaggerate effects.
- Survey papers: construct table (items, sources, reliabilities) and a correlation matrix.
Archival-with-theory papers
- Descriptives, the main estimation table with clustering and fixed-effects structure stated in the notes, and magnitudes interpreted in institutional terms.
Self-containment and format
- Every exhibit readable alone: title stating what it shows, sample/period, definitions, and the meaning of any markers in the notes.
- Number tables and figures consecutively; place callouts in the text; Elsevier prefers editable source files for tables and high-resolution figure files at final stages — confirm current artwork specs in the AOS Guide for Authors before submission.
- Keep exhibits inside the double-anonymized envelope: no author names in captions, file names, or embedded metadata.
- Ration exhibits: each one must carry evidence or structure the argument; move genuinely supplementary material to an appendix or online supplement.
The one-sentence test
For every exhibit, write the sentence it proves ("Table 2 shows the interpretation rests on 74 interviews across four roles over 26 months"; "Figure 3 shows the effect reverses under high accountability"). If no sentence exists, cut the exhibit; if the sentence is central and no exhibit backs it, build one.
Checklist
Anti-patterns
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Quote dumps in tables — excerpts without the conceptual column that gives them a job.
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Decorative frameworks: boxes-and-arrows figures that restate the table of contents.
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Cell-means tables missing n or SDs, or interaction plots without uncertainty.
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Exhibit inflation: ten tables where three would carry the argument.
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Anonymity leaks through logos, letterheads, or document scans reproduced in figures.
Output format
【Exhibit list】each with its one-sentence job ...
【Data inventory (qual)】interviews / observations / documents tabulated? ...
【Process exhibits (exp)】cell means, contrasts, mediation, interaction figure ...
【Self-containment】titles, notes, definitions complete? ...
【Anonymity & format】pseudonyms consistent; Elsevier artwork specs checked ...
【Next step】aos-writing-style
