CHAPTER 16 How to Design Effective Tables Asaulr presentation of das fete hero, eer. te bai, ascent paper Peer Mores WHEN To USE TABLES fore proceeding tothe “how to of tables, let us Ses examine the ‘question of "whether 6." “As 4a, do not construct a table unless repetitive data rast be presented There ae two reasons for his peer . Fist it i imply fot good science orepurgitae reams of dts jst Docsuse you have them in your Isboratory notebooks; only samples and breskpoins need te sven. Second, the eae of publishing tbls canbe high compared with that of txt, and all of us inveved wit the generation and publication of scientific tertare should worry sbout the cost. you made (o ned 0 present) only afew determinations ive the aa inte text Tales I and 2 are useless, ye they at type Of many Tables that ae submited 1 ural. “Table 1s faulty because two ofthe colamns give standard condi tions, ot variables and not data, If temperate 56 4 variable in the11. Etat of sration on grow of Streptomyces coelicolor ‘Table 3. Oxygen requirement of various species of Srepomnces ‘ra Tec Nodegt——Aectinfpowthmion Gow See Teh mm ri la oN pouatymaacaypoeeee experiments ican have ts column If all experiments were done athe ‘same temperature, however, this single bit of information shoud be noted in Mates and Metbos and pesps a 3 footnote oe able, but noe ‘column in the able, The data presented in the tbl cn be presented in the text isl na form that ie eacly comprehensible tothe read, without aking up spae witha able. Very simply, thse resis wold read: “Aeration ofthe growth medium was essential for the growth of Table 2. Effect of emperaure on growth of oak (Quercus seedings Teco) Gove ith an) {Demin aane ie cm age ie ewe a ie “Soe pe tegen 0 bsg sel fom oii adie STaoer 3 : fico : an ‘Ra ria a a ee nc RY Sirepromsces coeleoon, At roma temperature (24°C), 0 grows was ‘evident in snionry (udersed) culties, where aubetenn growth (OD, 78 Ke nis) occured in aerated cultures, ‘Tale hes no columns of ideatcal readings, and ic loks tke 2 good table, Bucs i? The independen: variable column (temperate) leas reasonable enough, but the dependent variable column (growth) has a osicious momber of urs. You soold quastion any able with «large ruber of zeros (whatever he unit of metsuremet) ora large number of 10s when percentage ae used. Table 2s usees table because alt tells ws is that "The oak seedings grew at emperstues between 20 tnd 40°C; no measurable rowih oscar at temperatures below 20°C oF nove 40°C." In addon wo zeros and 100s, be suspicious of plus und minus signs, ‘Tables type that often appears in print, thought is bvinly ao very informative, All this tble tells us ie that"S. grisea, 8. cueliclor, S. evercolor, and S. reinbowonsky grew vnder aerobic conditions, wheat S.nocolor and S.greencut requived anaerobic conditions." Whenever 3 table, oe columns within a table, can be really put ino swords, doit ‘Some authors blieve dha ll namevial data mast be puta a ae, ‘uble is sad example, I ges ster hen we Jam a the end of he “eble 4. Bacteriological failure rates ‘Sasa 368 G6)footte) that the results wese not satsiclly signicant anyway (P3021), I these dass were warts publishing (which seems doubt), fone sentence in the Results would have dene the job: “The aitference ‘between the falaeres—14% (Sof 35) for nocilin and 26% (of 3) {or petasian penisilin V-—was not significant (?=021)." Is presenting numbers, give only sgnican gues, Noosignificast ‘gues may mislead the reader by erening a fle sense af pecisin: they also make comparison ofthe data more éiffcl. Unestenal data euch 2 Inbortory number, resus of simple calculations, and columns that, show no significant vations, shouldbe omits “Anoter very comnon but often useless table the word ist. Table S isan example. This information coald easly be presenied inthe txt A ‘ood eopvettr wil kil his hind of table and incorporate the dat nto the tet. Yeu, when copyedios do so (and this leads wo the next rule bout abies), they often find that much oral of the information as already inte ext. Tus, the ule: Present the dala inthe text, oi ‘able, or ina igure. Almost never present the ne daa in more han one svay- Of couse selected data can be singled oa for ieaeson in the te HOW TO ARRANGE TABULAR MATERIAL Having decided to tabulate, you ask yourself the question: "How do arrange he dua?” Since able has both lfexight and up-down dimen- sions, you tave two choices. The data can be presented either hodzonly ‘orvereilly. But car does na ean shoul the data should be orgenized ‘thatthe like clements read down, ot across. Bxamine Tables 6 and 7, They ae equivalent, except that Table 6 eas across, whereas Table 7 reads down. To use an old fishing “ble 5. Adverse foc of niklciin in 24 adult patients 5 Exo (2 Scena?) Moule ae : ia 0 et) ‘tag auen vr of ans ae ot coos mpa yet Soma ‘Toble &. Charectersis of atbietic producing Srepomyces Dawmninaion __—‘Sferkolor—‘Sigriew _Sicovivoty nao pil ee “0 Ey » e re) cole mestan Th coy Rel Pome Shut pois) Fholanscia Smeeeein Rhlmndey” Namen ‘oa expression, Tele 6 is “bus akward." Table 7 isthe prefered fort because iallows the rade to gragp the fafoematon more easily, nd tie ‘more compact and thus less expensive to print. The point about ease fee the reader would Seem tobe obvious, Did you ever try to add numbers thar were listed horizontally rahe than verically?) The point about redoced printing costs ofr tothe fat tat al eslumas must be wide ce Geep in the across aangement because of the diversity of elemens, ‘whereas some columas (especially those wit) numbers) ean be naow ‘without ranovers in the down arrangement, Thus, Table 7 appears to be Smaller than Table 6, altboug it contains the same information. ‘Word in column ae ined up 00 the left. Numbers are lined up on the ight (or onthe decimal poi). Table 7, for ekample, usats this point ‘Table 6 is an example of a welLconstucted table (reprinted with permission fram the Inmctons to Authors ofthe Journal of Bacter ‘logy. Ieeads down, aoe aos. Ita beading that ae clas enoagh © take the meaning ofthe det understandable without reference to the text. It has expanstory footnotes, bu they donot repeat encesive ex perimental det. Note the distinction here tis proper o provide enough Fnformation so tha the meaning ofthe datas appateat without reference Table 7. Characteristics of anibosc-podusing Srepiomyces Optima! Caocaf——Antie—shte rvsien —__provihieny CO) tenons. E fercsor =a Tm Pesan Spite * Gay Seepomseo 5 caer i fel Rokmoney® Bimoror 2 Rie Namen "he ig Sy.Table B. Inducsion of cretnine deaminase in Ces sp. sins ‘XP32 and XPS6 emcee so sin sp. scin RPS6 Tom, Une ot Ta een eis) sage ‘imni sit SS ie aie ue it an is is Crile 0 sa oso to the text, but ii improper to provide inthe rable the experimental deual that would be required to repeat the expesmen. Tae detailed msterils and methods used to deve the dita should remain inthe section with that name. [Note that thse tablet have tice herizontal rules (lines) but no ‘vertical rules. Virtually al tables are concouotd ths way. Oseasionaly, straddle rules (a8 below “sp. stain XPS2° and “ep. stain XPSG" in Table 8) are used, Vertical ries newly a a sed in tbls, EXPONENTS IN TABLE HEADINGS If possible, svoid using exponents in table headings. Confusion has re- sulted becuse some journals use psiive exponents and some we eg sive exponen fo mean the sume thing. For example, some have wed “cpm x 10 wo sefer wo thousand of counts pe minut, whereas oers have used “cpm x 10" fr the same thousands of coun It ite ot Possible to avoid such label in table headings (or in gues), i may be ‘worth state In foomote (or in the figere legen), in words tt liminate the ambiguity, what conveation Is being used. FOLLOWING THE JOURNAL'S INSTRUCTIONS Insactios to Authors sommenly include section about ables, Before Preparing your tables, check the Inseions to Authors of your target Journal. These instutions may indeste suck items us the dinension of the apace avaiable the symbole or form of letting for indeting fot est ables, and the Wort-processing costo us in preparing tables, ooking at tables inthe journal as examples also can aid in prepaing suitable ables “rationally, jourals have asked utors co subeiteach table on & searnte pies the end of he ext In adtion, some journals have sito teeny In the margin of the text the feet mation ofeach table, fr tusmple by wlting “Table 3° andceling i. This procedure halpe make Sane the the autor be ined cited each table in he tet, in mime Get als infos othe compositor atthe page makeup sage, where to breathe ext to sat the tables. Today. sore journals ask authors 0 Sisbed table in the text ner their ist mestion. To determine whether tables shou be pled within the text or at the ed andhow, ifequeste, to indicate their placement), cons the lstutons to Autos, “WTLES, FOOTNOTES, AND ABBREVIATIONS ‘The title ofthe able (othe legend of gue is ke te tle of he paper ill, That i, te tle or legend should be concise and nt dvided itd to or mare clases or sentences. Unnecessary words shouldbe omited, Give cael thought to the footnotes to your bles If abbreviations must be define, you often can giv ll or most ofthe definitions in he first table, Then later tables can cary the simple footnote: “ARbrevi- His a i Table 1" ‘Note that “ie” (Tables 1,26, a7) is used as an abbreviation for emperatur.” Besase of space limitations in bles, almast al journals eacourage abbreviation of cerain words in tables that would not be ibreviated in the ex. Captaize any suc abbreviations wed asthe fst ‘word in column Reng: do not we peiods (excep after "no." which might be misread without the period). To identify abbreviations that your target joumal considers acepable in tables, you can look at bls ‘published inthe jeural, Also, some joumals lit in their Instructions © Authors the abbreviation that can be used without definition in tes that they publish