Tables & Figures (poq-tables-figures)

Exhibits are where an expert reviewer checks whether the survey result is real. At POQ the word caps count text and notes but exclude figures, tables, references, and appendices — so exhibits do not eat your budget, but they must be honest about design-based uncertainty, weighting, and the base N behind every estimate.

When to trigger

• Designing the main results table/figure or a key descriptive/trend exhibit
• Deciding what belongs in the article vs. an appendix
• A reviewer found an exhibit unclear, mislabeled, or missing its base/weighting note
• Presenting opinion trends, subgroup differences, or experimental treatment effects

Principles

1. Self-contained. A reader should understand each exhibit from its title, labels, and note alone — state the base N (weighted/unweighted), the population, the question wording (or short form), the mode, and the uncertainty measure (CI / margin of error).
2. Show survey uncertainty. Report confidence intervals or margins of error from design-based estimates; never plot a point estimate with no uncertainty. Note if estimates are weighted.
3. Figures over dense tables for effects. Trend lines with uncertainty bands, coefficient/forest plots with design-based SEs, conjoint AMCE plots, predicted-probability plots communicate magnitude and uncertainty better than a wall of coefficients.
4. Accessible. Colorblind-safe palettes; legible in grayscale; no chartjunk, no 3D. Reviewers must parse it quickly.
5. Reproducible. Each exhibit is generated by the master script; numbers match the deposited replication package exactly (POQ re-runs it — see poq-transparency-and-data-policy).

POQ-specific exhibits

• Opinion trend lines with uncertainty bands; mark wording/mode breaks in the series.
• Weighted vs. unweighted overlays where weighting matters to the read.
• Conjoint AMCE plots; survey-experiment treatment-effect plots with design-based intervals.
• A disclosure-friendly methods table summarizing population, mode, dates, N, and response rate (links to Appendix A — see poq-survey-design-and-measurement).

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. Public Opinion Quarterly is survey methodology and public opinion; the chain serves causal/experimental claims, while survey-design and measurement contributions use their own standards (sampling, weighting, measurement error).

• 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

• A point estimate or trend line with no interval / margin of error
• Tables that omit the base N or hide whether estimates are weighted
• Exhibits that require the prose to be intelligible (not self-contained)
• Color-only encoding that fails in grayscale or for colorblind readers
• Exhibit numbers/values that don't match the deposited code output

Exhibit pass for Public Opinion Quarterly

Run this as a concrete capability pass. First lock the public-opinion construct, sampling frame, mode effects, weighting/nonresponse plan, and trend or causal interpretation; then test whether the manuscript addresses survey and public-opinion reviewers who inspect measurement, sampling, mode, nonresponse, and inference about attitudes or behavior.

• 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 Political Analysis for methods-first work, Journal of Politics for political-science theory, Communication Research for media-effects framing; 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

【Main exhibit】what it shows + why a figure/table
【Self-contained?】title + labels + note + base N + wording/mode? [Y/N]
【Uncertainty shown?】CI / MOE from design-based estimates? [Y/N]
【Weighting noted?】weighted vs unweighted clear? [Y/N]
【Accessible?】grayscale-legible + colorblind-safe? [Y/N]
【Reproducible?】generated by master script, matches package? [Y/N]
【Next】poq-writing-style

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/external_tools.md — plotting tools for trends, AMCE, and design-based intervals
• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — word-count rule (excludes figures/tables/appendices)