Tables

Abstract

The purpose of a table is to advance the readers’ understanding of the topic. To serve its purpose, a table must present a coherent set of results (or raw data) accurately, in a form that will engage the readers and increase their comprehension of the topic. Some tables do not advance the readers’ understanding, despite the readers’ efforts to look at the table, because the table contains unimportant information, lacks thematic coherence, is poorly organized, is typographically confusing, or various other reasons. Tables that do not advance the readers’ understanding, despite the readers’ efforts to review the table, do not serve the purpose that a table is meant to serve. They should be revised or fixed until they are able to fulfill their purpose. A table that most readers refuse to even look at – because it contains too much information, lacks relevance, is confusingly arranged, or any other reason – serves no purpose at all. If most readers are not going to even look at a particular table, then that table should be either replaced with a table that most readers will look at or just deleted altogether. (If some subgroup of readers would make good use of that table, it could be dumped to a supplemental online-only file.) Some tables mislead the readers into a false or confused misunderstanding – because they contain miscalculated numbers, numbers that are inconsistent with the same results in the Abstract or Discussion, numbers that are based on inappropriate statistical tests, or other erroneous information. These kinds of confusing or misleading tables negate the goal of scientific research, which is to improve our understanding of the world. Every table should be double-checked to verify that its contents are accurate and consistent with the rest of the paper, so the readers will not become confused or misinformed. Tables that would mislead the readers into a false or confused misunderstanding should be corrected, replaced, or deleted. Tables accomplish their purpose by presenting accurate results (or raw data) in a form that enables the readers to review those results (or data) efficiently yet precisely. Tables accomplish their purpose even better by engaging the readers to discover more information in the table than is actually printed on the page, by making comparisons of the basic information within the table.