brycewang-stanford Tables & Figures (jais-tables-figures)
When to trigger
- Exhibits are cluttered, off APA style, or do not answer the question a reader brings to them
- You are relying on multimedia, links, or external files to carry evidence the body should hold
- Your SEM paper has no correlation/covariance matrix exhibit yet
- A theory/framework paper has no diagram, or a diagram that does not match the prose
- A reviewer says a table "buries the result" or a figure "is unreadable in print"
The JAIS-specific constraint: the body must stand alone
JAIS instructs that the article body may include "text, tables, and figures only" and that "the body should function as a standalone document"; complex materials go in separate files, and links and multimedia belong in appendices (检索于 2026-06；以官网为准). This is a real design constraint: every claim a reviewer needs to evaluate must be readable inside the body, on paper, without clicking out. Design exhibits that work in static, printed form.
The theory figure earns its place at JAIS
Because JAIS foregrounds theory, the framework or research-model figure is often the most-read exhibit in the paper — sometimes more than the results table. Make it carry real meaning: show the constructs, the directional relationships, the moderators/mediators, and the boundary, and ensure it matches the propositions in the text exactly. A diagram that adds a path the prose never theorizes, or omits one the prose argues, reads as a drafting error and undermines the theoretical contribution. For Theory and Foundational papers especially, invest in a figure that a reader could reconstruct the argument from.
Make each exhibit answer one question
A JAIS exhibit should have a single job a reader can state in a sentence. A results table answers "what is the estimated relationship and how precise is it?"; a measurement table answers "are the constructs reliable and distinct?"; a theory figure answers "what is the mechanism?" Title and note each exhibit so it is self-contained — readable without hunting through the text.
Exhibit kit by tradition
| Tradition | Core exhibits | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Behavioral / SEM | measurement model (loadings, AVE, CR), discriminant-validity table, structural path diagram with effect sizes, correlation/covariance matrix + descriptives | the matrix is required in an appendix — do not omit it |
| Economics of IS | main estimates with clustered SEs, event-study/pre-trends plot, robustness table | report magnitudes; avoid stars-only tables |
| Design science | architecture/artifact figure, evaluation-vs-baseline table, ablation table | tie each row back to a design proposition |
| Theory / conceptual | the framework diagram, a propositions table | the diagram and the prose must say the same thing |
| Qualitative | data-structure figure (codes → themes → dimensions), representative-quotation table | show the path from data to constructs |
Keep exhibits anonymized for double-blind review
Tables and figures are a common place double-blind anonymity leaks: a screenshot showing an institutional logo or URL, a dataset name that identifies the field site, a figure caption thanking a named funder, or file metadata carrying the author's name. Before submission, scrub every exhibit and its source file — mask identifying screenshots, neutralize site/dataset names, and strip embedded metadata. An exhibit that de-anonymizes the authors triggers the same administrative return as a self-identifying citation, regardless of how strong the evidence is.
Style and reporting norms
- APA 6th edition governs table/figure formatting and notes (JAIS's required reference style) (检索于 2026-06；以官网为准).
- Report effect sizes / magnitudes, not significance stars alone; precision (SEs, CIs) belongs in the exhibit.
- Keep figures legible in grayscale print; do not rely on color or interactivity to convey meaning.
- Number and reference every exhibit in the text; an exhibit the prose never points to is noise.
The required SEM matrix is an exhibit, not an afterthought
For SEM studies JAIS requires "a full correlation matrix or covariation matrix as a part of articles (appendix)," plus descriptives (检索于 2026-06；以官网为准). Treat this as a first-class exhibit you design now: label the constructs clearly, report means, standard deviations, and the inter-construct correlations (with reliabilities on the diagonal where conventional), and place it in the appendix the body points to. Reviewers and Senior Editors use it to re-check discriminant validity and to spot multicollinearity the path diagram hides; an SEM paper that omits it invites an administrative or first-round return.
Mind the length budget through exhibits
Bloated exhibits push the manuscript toward the ~15,000-word extra-scrutiny zone and the 65-page hard ceiling. Consolidate redundant tables, move secondary robustness exhibits to an appendix file (while keeping the body self-contained for the main claims), and prefer one clear figure over three partial ones.
Execution bridge (StatsPAI / Stata MCP)
Generate exhibits from the fitted result, not by retyping numbers (the usual source of
body-vs-appendix drift). Full map: execution-with-mcp. JAIS spans empirical and design-science IS; apply the chain below to its causal / econometric papers and note when work is design-science or conceptual.
- Tables:
etable(multi-model columns) ordid_summary_to_latexstraight from theresult_id. - Figures:
plot_from_result/enhanced_event_study_plot/event_study_table— axis units and the SE/clustering note baked in. - Every note names the estimator + clustering and states the effect size in interpretable units.
See a full fitted-result → exhibit chain in the JF execution walkthrough.
Checklist
- The body is self-contained: all main-claim evidence is in text/tables/figures, not behind links
- Each exhibit answers one stated question and is readable standalone (title + note)
- SEM paper includes the required correlation/covariance matrix + descriptives (appendix)
- Theory figure and propositions table agree with the prose
- Magnitudes/effect sizes reported with precision, not stars alone
- APA 6th formatting; legible in grayscale; every exhibit referenced in text
- Exhibits trimmed so the manuscript stays within the length budget
Worked vignette: the figure that breaks the standalone rule (illustrative)
A design-science team showcases its artifact with an interactive dashboard hosted on a personal site and a video walkthrough, and the results "figure" in the body is a screenshot pointing readers to the live demo for the real evidence. At JAIS this fails the standalone-body requirement: a reviewer reading the printed manuscript cannot evaluate the artifact's utility without clicking out, and the live link risks de-anonymizing the authors. The fix is to bring the load-bearing evidence into the body as static, grayscale-legible exhibits — an architecture figure, an evaluation-vs-baseline table tied to each design proposition, and an ablation table — while the interactive demo and video move to clearly labeled appendix files. The body must carry the argument on paper; the multimedia is supplementary, not primary.
Anti-patterns
- Putting load-bearing evidence in a clickable link or multimedia file, breaking the standalone body.
- Omitting the correlation/covariance matrix from an SEM submission.
- A framework diagram that contradicts or outruns the prose.
- Significance-stars tables with no effect sizes or confidence intervals.
- Figures that only work in color, illegible once printed in grayscale.
Output format
【Journal】Journal of the Association for Information Systems (JAIS)
【Body standalone?】all main evidence in text/tables/figures: yes/fix
【Exhibit inventory】measurement / results / event-study / artifact / framework / data-structure
【SEM matrix】correlation/covariance + descriptives present: yes/fix
【Reporting】effect sizes + precision (not stars only): yes/fix
【Style】APA 6th; grayscale-legible; all referenced: pass/fix
【Length impact】within ~15k words / 65pp: yes/trim
【Next skill】jais-writing-style