govern-tables-figures

Tables & Figures (govern-tables-figures)

In a Governance paper the exhibits are where a comparative reviewer checks whether the institutional claim actually travels. A single-country result dressed up as a wall of coefficients reads as parochial; a clean cross-national table or a coefficient plot that shows where the effect holds and where it does not reads as a contribution to how the state governs. With a working cap of ≤ 9,000 words excluding citations/bibliography (检索于 2026-06；以官网为准), every exhibit must earn its place, and the heavy robustness grids belong in the supplementary file, not the article.

When to trigger

• Designing the main results table/figure or the key descriptive comparative exhibit
• Showing cross-country / cross-institution variation (a map, a small-multiples panel, a forest plot)
• Deciding what stays in the article vs. moves to supplementary material
• A reviewer found an exhibit unclear, single-country-parochial, or not self-contained

Principles

1. Self-contained. A reader understands each exhibit from its caption, column/axis labels, and note alone — units, sample, time window, country/case set, N, and what the estimate is. State the estimand, not just "Model 3."
2. Make the comparison visible. The point of a Governance exhibit is usually the contrast across countries, regimes, policy domains, or institutional types. Order rows/panels by the institutional logic (e.g., by state capacity, by Westminster vs. consensus), not alphabetically, so the pattern reads off the page.
3. Figures over dense tables for effects. Coefficient/forest plots, marginal-effects and predicted-probability plots, and event-study plots communicate magnitude and uncertainty better than a coefficient dump. Always show intervals, never stars alone.
4. Three-line regression tables. Booktabs style — top rule, header rule, bottom rule, no vertical rules. SEs in parentheses under coefficients; report N, the FE/clustering structure, and the estimator; define every abbreviation in the note.
5. Accessible. Colorblind-safe palette, legible in grayscale, no chartjunk, no 3D. Distinguish series by shape/linetype as well as color so the print and the PDF both work.
6. Reproducible. Each exhibit is generated by the master script; the printed numbers match the replication materials cited in the Data Availability Statement exactly (see govern-transparency-and-data).

Comparative-governance exhibit menu

• Cross-national descriptive table — countries/cases in rows, institutional variables in columns; group by regime type or region; flag missing data honestly rather than blanking cells.
• Coefficient / forest plot — one estimate per country or per institutional subgroup with CIs; ideal for showing where a mechanism holds and where scope conditions bite.
• Event-study plot — for a reform or a staggered policy adoption across units; pre-trend periods on the left of zero, effect periods on the right, reference period marked.
• Maps — for geographic or cross-country variation (subnational governance, diffusion of a reform); use a sequential colorblind-safe ramp, classed not continuous, with the breaks justified in the note.
• Small multiples — one panel per country/case showing the same relationship; the comparison is the argument.
• Case / process exhibits — for qualitative or comparative-historical work: timelines, sequence diagrams, and evidence tables linking each claim to its source (pairs with QDR-style documentation).

Checklist

• Each exhibit is self-contained: caption + labels + note give units, sample, time window, case set, N
• The comparison (across countries/institutions/domains) is visible in the ordering and layout
• Effects shown with intervals; no significance stars without an effect size
• Regression tables are three-line (booktabs); estimator, FE, and clustering stated in the note
• Colorblind-safe and grayscale-legible; series distinguished by shape/linetype, not color alone
• Maps use a justified classed ramp; projection and source noted
• Main text holds only the few exhibits that carry the argument; robustness grids → supplementary
• Every printed number matches the master-script output behind the Data Availability Statement

Anti-patterns

• A wall of country coefficients with no plot showing where the effect travels and where it stops
• Tables that require the prose to be intelligible (not self-contained)
• Significance stars with no effect size or confidence interval
• Alphabetical country ordering that hides the institutional pattern the paper is about
• Color-only encoding that collapses in grayscale or for colorblind readers
• Cramming every robustness check into the main text and blowing the 9,000-word cap
• Exhibit values that do not match the deposited replication output

Output format

【Main exhibit】what it shows + why this form (table/plot/map)
【Comparison visible?】cross-country/institutional contrast reads off the page? [Y/N]
【Self-contained?】caption + labels + note + units/N/case-set present? [Y/N]
【Accessible?】grayscale-legible + colorblind-safe? [Y/N]
【Article vs supplementary】split decided; 9,000-word impact noted
【Reproducible?】generated by master script, matches materials? [Y/N]
【Next】govern-writing-style

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/external_tools.md — plotting/mapping packages and comparative-governance data sources
• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — word cap, figure/format guidelines, supplementary-material policy