Tables & Figures (popdevr-tables-figures)
Exhibits are where an expert reader checks whether the result is real — and, at PDR, where a broad
readership grasps both the population pattern and its development meaning. A figure must carry the
population-and-development point to an economist or environmental scholar, not only a demographer. Keep
the set tight: every exhibit must earn its place and the prose should not need it explained.
When to trigger
- Designing the main results table/figure or a key descriptive exhibit
- Deciding what belongs in the article vs. the supporting information
- A reviewer found an exhibit unclear, mislabeled, or non-self-contained
- Trimming an exhibit set that has grown past what the argument needs
Principles
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Self-contained. A reader should understand each exhibit from its title, axis/column labels, and
note alone. State the population, period, age range, source/vintage, units, and N or exposure.
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Carry the development point. Title and note should make the population-and-development meaning
legible, not just the demographic quantity — a reader outside demography must see the takeaway.
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Use the right demographic graphic for the quantity. Don't default to a bar chart when the data
call for an age schedule, a population pyramid, a survival curve, or a projection fan.
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Show uncertainty. Confidence bands on rates, life-expectancy contributions, hazard/survival
curves, decomposition components, and projection scenarios — not bare lines or point estimates.
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Accessible. Colorblind-safe palettes; legible in grayscale; no chartjunk, no 3D. Reviewers and a
broad readership must parse it quickly.
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Main text vs. supporting information. Keep the few exhibits that carry the argument in the
article; move full life tables, sensitivity grids, and supplementary detail to the supporting
information.
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Reproducible. Each exhibit is generated by the master script; numbers match the deposited
materials (see
popdevr-transparency-and-data).
Distinctive demographic and comparative exhibits
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Population pyramids for age-sex structure and its change over time (and across development levels).
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Age schedules of fertility (ASFR), mortality (mx/qx), and migration; tempo-adjusted curves.
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Survival and hazard curves (Kaplan-Meier, cumulative-incidence for competing risks).
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Decomposition bar/stacked plots showing component contributions that sum to the total.
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Projection fans / scenario plots tied to policy or development futures, with uncertainty.
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Cross-country scatter / small-multiples linking a population quantity to a development indicator —
with comparability caveats in the note.
- Small-multiple maps for spatial demographic variation.
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. PDR is population studies blending quantitative and policy work; apply the chain to its empirical-causal papers.
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Tables:
etable (multi-model columns) or did_summary_to_latex straight from the
result_id.
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Figures:
plot_from_result / enhanced_event_study_plot / event_study_table —
axis units and the SE/clustering note baked in.
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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
- Tables that require the prose to be intelligible (not self-contained)
- A generic bar chart where an age schedule, pyramid, or projection fan would reveal the pattern
- Rates, e0 contributions, or projections plotted with no uncertainty
- A cross-country scatter read as a development effect with no comparability caveat
- Exhibit numbers/values that don't match the deposited code output
Exhibit pass for PDR
Run this as a concrete capability pass. First lock the population process, the development/policy
linkage, the data and time scale, the selection/measurement issue, and the uncertainty; then test
whether the manuscript addresses PDR's broad audience who inspect both the population evidence and its
development meaning.
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Primary move: For every table or figure, state the object, sample/case base, uncertainty display,
and one sentence the exhibit proves about population and development for this venue.
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Decision ledger: return
claim / evidence / blocker / next edit rows so the next pass can patch
the manuscript directly.
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Sibling comparison: compare against Demography and Population Studies (methods-forward),
Population Research and Policy Review (applied policy), and Studies in Family Planning (programs);
if a neighbor has the stronger audience claim, recommend re-routing before polishing.
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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
【Main exhibit】what it shows + which graphic + the population-and-development point
【Self-contained?】title + labels + note + population/period/source/N present? [Y/N]
【Uncertainty shown?】bands/intervals on rates/curves/components/projections? [Y/N]
【Accessible?】grayscale-legible + colorblind-safe? [Y/N]
【Article vs SI】split decided, set kept tight?
【Reproducible?】generated by master script, matches package? [Y/N]
【Next】popdevr-writing-style
Supplementary resources
