eer-tables-figures

Tables & Figures (eer-tables-figures)

When to trigger

• Tables are dense, over-decorated with significance stars, or missing SEs
• Figures are cluttered, lack uncertainty bands, or are not self-explanatory
• A referee said an exhibit is "unreadable" or "buries the result"
• Preparing final editable source files for Elsevier production

The EER exhibits bar

EER follows Elsevier economics house style: a paper is read through its main tables and a few clean figures, each self-contained (legible without the text). The discipline norm is to report standard errors (and, increasingly, confidence intervals) and to let the magnitude carry the result rather than a wall of asterisks. Figures and tables can be embedded for review and are supplied as editable source files at final stage. Aim for fewer, sharper exhibits: the headline result should be findable in one table and one figure.

Table design rules

• One headline table carries the main result; supporting tables are secondary.
• Report SEs (in parentheses) under every coefficient; report N, R²/pseudo-R², and the FE/cluster structure in the notes.
• Magnitudes legible: scale coefficients to interpretable units; add a sentence-ready effect size.
• Significance: report SEs/CIs; if stars are used, do not let them replace the SE or the magnitude — EER norms emphasize the standard error, not the star.
• Notes are complete: sample, period, clustering level, estimator, and what each column varies.
• No redundant digits: 2–3 significant figures; align decimals.

Figure design rules

• Event-study plots with leads/lags and confidence bands are the EER-standard causal exhibit.
• Model-fit overlays (data vs. model moments) for quantitative/structural work.
• Counterfactual / policy curves with uncertainty bands.
• Self-contained captions: a reader should grasp the figure from the caption alone.
• Vector output (.eps/.pdf) or high-resolution .tif/.jpg; legible fonts; colorblind-safe palettes; avoid chartjunk and 3-D effects.

Checklist

• One headline table; the main result is findable there
• Standard errors (and/or CIs) under every estimate; N and structure in notes
• Stars (if any) do not substitute for SEs/magnitudes
• Coefficients in interpretable units with a stated effect size
• Event-study/causal figure has leads/lags + confidence bands
• Every exhibit is self-contained (caption + notes legible alone)
• Final figures supplied as editable/vector source at acceptance
• No chartjunk; colorblind-safe; 2–3 significant figures

Anti-patterns

• A table whose only signal is the number of asterisks (no SEs, no magnitude)
• Twelve nearly-identical regression columns where two would do
• Figures with no uncertainty bands or no axis labels
• Captions that require the body text to interpret the exhibit
• Raster screenshots of tables instead of editable source
• Reporting six decimal places of false precision
• Color encodings that fail in grayscale or for colorblind readers
• An appendix figure carrying the headline result the main text never shows

Worked vignette (illustrative)

A labor paper's first draft has a 10-column table dense with stars and no SEs. The EER revision: one headline table (4 columns: baseline, +controls, modern DiD, IV) with SEs in parentheses, clustering noted, and effect sizes spelled out ("a 1 SD increase raises wages 2.3%, s.e. 0.6"); plus one event-study figure with flat leads and a shaded 95% band. The remaining specifications move to the Supplementary material. The result is now findable in ten seconds.

Output format

【Headline table】columns + what each varies; SEs present? [Y/N]
【Reporting】SEs/CIs under estimates; stars not load-bearing? [Y/N]
【Key figure】event-study / fit-overlay / counterfactual + uncertainty bands? [Y/N]
【Self-contained】captions+notes legible alone? [Y/N]
【Final files】editable/vector source ready? [Y/N]
【Next step】eer-writing-style (weave exhibits into the narrative)