Results Table and Figure Formatting Template
One document and three sheets that reformat a table or figure against the target journal's own current rules, not a remembered style.
Free download · No account needed
Formatted Tables
Same coefficient, two targets
| Field | Target 1 — APA Style | Target 2 — PLOS ONE |
|---|---|---|
| Treatment effect | B = 9.83, SE = 1.92, p < .001 | B = 9.83, SE = 1.92, p < .001, 95% CI [6.05, 13.62] |
| Table border | Three horizontal rules, no vertical lines | Full gridlines |
| Figure caption | On the image, above the chart | In the manuscript, not in the figure file |
Same source numbers throughout. The confidence interval, the border style and the caption's own location changed because the target did, each traced to a sentence on that target's own current page.
A journal's table and figure rules are not one convention with the journal's name swapped in. APA's own guidance for tables specifies horizontal rules only, above and below the column headings and at the table's foot, with no vertical lines anywhere, and puts a caption on the same page as the figure. PLOS ONE, a journal a rejected manuscript often lands at next, does the opposite on both counts: gridlines are the normal option, and a caption belongs in the manuscript, not the figure file.
The pack is one document and three sheets. Formatted Tables registers the source value behind every cell once, then holds its display string under each named target, so 9.83 reads one way under a remembered style and another under a target's own rule. Figure Specification computes a figure's pixel dimensions from its target's size band and resolution rather than a resize by eye. Caption Register tracks a caption's text and its required placement separately, since a true sentence and where it has to live are not the same question.
In the worked example, a manuscript formatted for a first, APA-style target ships with no confidence-interval column and a screen-resolution PNG figure with the caption rendered inside it. Rejected and resent to PLOS ONE, whose own regression guidance requires a confidence interval and a goodness-of-fit statistic alongside the coefficients, the same numbers gain both. The chart is rebuilt as a 300 dpi TIFF with its caption moved out. Open the pack in River and the agent reformats against whichever target you name, or download the sheets.
What's in the pack
Formatted Tables sheet
Every source value registered once, then displayed under each named target's own rules, so a coefficient and its standard error can be redisplayed for a new journal without a second trip back to the original output.
Figure Specification sheet
A figure's required file format, resolution and pixel dimensions, computed from the target's own stated size band rather than resized by eye, alongside the chart's own source data. Where the underlying analysis still needs a second look, a figure review checks whether it supports the claim at all.
Caption Register sheet
Every caption's text held once and its required placement tracked separately, since a true sentence and where it has to live are answered by different parts of a target's own guidelines.
Formatting Note
What changed and why, target by target, each line citing the specific guideline sentence that imposed it and the date it was read. Written from output that already traces to real numbers, the way a results section built from a console printout does.
A format rule traces to the target's own current page, never to memory
The standing space rule every prompt reads first. A convention as common as APA's is still the wrong answer for a target whose own pages say otherwise.
How to use it
- 1
Open in River, or download it
Open the pack in River and the agent reformats your tables and figures with you, or download the document and three CSV sheets instantly, filled in with the worked example.
- 2
Name the exact target
The journal, the article type, and whether this is a first submission or a resubmission after a rejection elsewhere. Its own current tables page and figures page get read before anything is touched.
- 3
Register the source, then format the display
Every number keeps its source value in Formatted Tables. What changes under a new target is the display string built from it, never the source itself.
- 4
Re-target without redoing the analysis
Send a new target after a rejection and the same registers regenerate against its own rules. Once the tables hold, the methods section around them is a separate, shorter pass.
Frequently asked questions
Is this template free?
Yes. Download the whole pack as a Word document and CSV sheets with no signup and no credit card. Edit with AI is a separate, optional path that has the agent reformat the tables and figures with you. The template library holds the rest of the packs.
My stats package already outputs a formatted table. Why use this?
A package's default table is formatted for reading on a screen, not for a specific journal's own rules. It will not add a confidence-interval column a target explicitly requires, will not know that target's border convention, and cannot compute the pixel dimensions a figure needs at that target's stated size band and resolution.
What format are the downloaded files?
CSV for the three sheets and a Word document for the Formatting Note, in one zip. They open in Excel, Numbers, Sheets, Word, Pages and Google Docs with nothing to convert. Inside River the same content opens as live Docs and Sheets.
How is this different from a journal's own Word template?
A journal's template fixes margins and headings. It says little about table border style, almost nothing about a figure's exact pixel dimensions at a stated resolution, and nothing about where a caption is required to live. This pack reads the journal's own tables and figures pages specifically, which most templates do not reproduce.
What happens if my target's guidelines are silent on something?
The record says so plainly rather than filling the gap with a convention borrowed from another journal, even a common one. A silent guideline is a real answer, and formatting against an assumption you cannot cite is how a rule that was never actually required gets applied anyway.
What does 'Edit with AI' actually do?
It creates a free River account and installs this exact pack as a private workspace. Send your statistical output and the exact target journal, and the agent reads that target's own current pages, reformats every table and figure against them, and flags anywhere the target needs content your output does not have yet.
My manuscript just got rejected and I have a new target. Does this help?
That is the case the pack is built around. Send the new target and the space re-reads its own current pages from zero rather than assuming the last set of rules still applies, then regenerates every table, figure and caption placement from the same source numbers already on file.
Find out what your next target actually requires
Send your output and the exact journal. The tables and figures come back matching that target's own current pages, not a remembered style.
Edit with AI