At Social Forces exhibits are rationed: a manuscript "may not contain more than 10 tables and figure panels." That single rule drives the whole exhibit strategy — you choose the ten that carry the argument and move the rest into the ≤ 10-page supplementary materials. Exhibits are also where an expert reviewer checks whether the result is real, so each must be self-contained and clear.
sf-data-and-transparency).| Pressure | Move |
|---|---|
| Three robustness tables | one summary table or a coefficient plot; rest to supplement |
| A 4-panel descriptive figure | keep the 1-2 panels that carry the point |
| Balance / first-stage tables | supplementary materials (within the 10-page cap) |
| Full regression output | report key coefficients; full table to supplement |
Generate exhibits from the fitted result, not by retyping numbers (the usual source of
body-vs-supplement drift). Full map: execution-with-mcp. Social Forces is quantitative sociology — survey and administrative panels; emphasize identification, decomposition, and multilevel inference.
etable (multi-model columns) or did_summary_to_latex straight from the
result_id.plot_from_result / enhanced_event_study_plot / event_study_table —
axis units and the SE/clustering note baked in.See a full fitted-result → exhibit chain in the JF execution walkthrough.
At Social Forces an expert referee uses the exhibits to decide whether the result is real before reading a word of prose. Across the journal's broad quantitative range — stratification tables, demographic decompositions, event-history curves, network diagrams — the same gate applies:
| Exhibit choice | Passes the SF panel test when… | Wastes panels when… |
|---|---|---|
| Main effect | An effects plot shows magnitude + interval | A stars-only table hides effect size |
| Robustness set | Consolidated into one panel or supplement | Three near-identical tables each spend a panel |
| Descriptive figure | Only the 1-2 argument-carrying panels kept | A 4-panel grid spends the budget on context |
| First-stage / balance | Lives in the ≤10-page supplement | Occupies main-text panels |
Calibration (hedged): the cap is 10 tables and figure panels combined, counting each panel of a multi-panel figure separately, with supplementary materials near 10 pages — verify the exact current numbers against the journal's submission guidelines, since exhibit limits can change between regimes.
A motherhood-wage-penalty study has 14 candidate panels: a fixed-effects table, a 4-panel heterogeneity figure, two robustness tables, a balance table, a first-stage table. Rationing to ten: keep one marginal-effects plot (about 6% per child, illustrative, with 95% intervals), collapse the heterogeneity figure to the two panels that show the gradient, fold both robustness tables into one coefficient plot, and move balance and first-stage tables to the supplement — from 14 to roughly 7 main panels with magnitude and uncertainty visible at a glance.
Referee fixes: "table is not self-contained" → put units, sample, N, and estimand in title and note; "over the panel cap" → consolidate robustness into one panel and push detail to the supplement.
【Panel budget】total tables + figure panels ≤ 10? [Y/N] (count)
【Main exhibit】what it shows + why a figure/table
【Self-contained?】title + labels + note + N/units present? [Y/N]
【Accessible?】grayscale-legible + colorblind-safe? [Y/N]
【Article vs supplement】split decided (supplement ≤ 10 pages)
【Reproducible?】generated by master script, matches data/code? [Y/N]
【Next】sf-writing-style
../../resources/external_tools.md — plotting/mapping/network packages../../resources/official-source-map.md — the 10 tables-and-figure-panels and 10-page supplementary limits