popdevr-tables-figures

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Show uncertainty. Confidence bands on rates, life-expectancy contributions, hazard/survival curves, decomposition components, and projection scenarios — not bare lines or point estimates.
5. Accessible. Colorblind-safe palettes; legible in grayscale; no chartjunk, no 3D. Reviewers and a broad readership must parse it quickly.
6. 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.
7. Reproducible. Each exhibit is generated by the master script; numbers match the deposited materials (see popdevr-transparency-and-data).

Distinctive demographic and comparative exhibits

• Population pyramids for age-sex structure and its change over time (and across development levels).
• Age schedules of fertility (ASFR), mortality (mx/qx), and migration; tempo-adjusted curves.
• Survival and hazard curves (Kaplan-Meier, cumulative-incidence for competing risks).
• Decomposition bar/stacked plots showing component contributions that sum to the total.
• Projection fans / scenario plots tied to policy or development futures, with uncertainty.
• 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.

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.

• 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.
• Decision ledger: return claim / evidence / blocker / next edit rows so the next pass can patch the manuscript directly.
• 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.
• 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

• ../../resources/external_tools.md — plotting, life-table, projection, and mapping packages
• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — exhibit and supporting-information expectations