Lesson 21 of 30 · Figures, tables & the visual story

Tables and the reporting a reviewer expects

Tables are where reporting standards get checked, and where papers quietly lose points. A results table that omits effect sizes, confidence intervals, or sample sizes reads as either an oversight or an evasion.

Report the numbers your field asks for (many fields have a formal checklist), give exact values rather than only significance stars, and make sure every number in a table matches the same number in the text. Reviewers do check, and a mismatch between a table and the text is one of the fastest ways to lose their trust in everything else you wrote.

Your move

Take your main results table and check three things: every column a reader needs to judge the result is present, every value is exact rather than only a star, and each number matches the text that cites it. Fix any mismatch now, because a reviewer will find it later.

Why: A clean, complete table signals a careful author. A table with gaps, or numbers that do not match the text, signals the opposite, and reviewers generalise from it to the rest of the paper.

Worked example

A results table that reports only p-values, with no effect size or interval, is now a standard reviewer complaint. Statistical significance without magnitude tells the reader almost nothing about whether the result actually matters.

The pattern that loses papers here

A number in a table that does not match the same number in the text. It is usually an honest copy error, but it reads as carelessness and makes the reviewer re-check everything else.

Check it against your draft

Effect sizes and intervals, not just p-values
Exact values, not only significance stars
Every table number matches the text and the field's reporting checklist

Write your answer and keep it

Reading is free and always will be. An account is what lets you write your own answer to this move, get it read back to you, and keep everything you build as you go.