{"id":1991,"date":"2014-01-31T12:07:04","date_gmt":"2014-01-31T12:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/referring-to-tables-and-figures-in-text\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T12:04:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T06:34:23","slug":"referring-to-tables-and-figures-in-text","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/referring-to-tables-and-figures-in-text","title":{"rendered":"Referring to tables and figures in text"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\">Tables and figures, although important components of many research papers, are just that\u2014components; you can publish a paper without them but you cannot publish tables or figures without a paper. And if text is supported by tables or figures, it must mention them.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\">Although tables and figures are what readers more often turn to first\u00a0once they have chosen to examine the paper in full, it is important to draw their attention to these components\u00a0<em>while they are reading the text of the paper<\/em>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\">To begin with, make sure that every table and figure is mentioned in the text. If necessary, use the \u201cfind\u201d function of your word processor to find every mention of the words<em>\u00a0figure<\/em>\u00a0and<em>table<\/em>\u00a0and match every instance with the correct table or figure as appropriate. In doing so, make sure that the search is \u201ccase insensitive,\u201d that is make sure that the option \u201cMatch case\u201d is<strong>\u00a0unchecked<\/strong>\u00a0(so that you find both table\/Table and figure\/Figure).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\">Avoid such expressions as \u201cFigure 2 shows\u201d or \u201cAs can be seen in Table\u00a03.\u201d Instead, bring in a particularly noteworthy or interesting or important value or an aspect of an image not readily apparent at a glance: thus primed, readers will know why the table or figure is relevant and can relate to it more easily. In such constructions, the table or figure goes in brackets, as in \u201cThe highest rainfall is usually received in April (Table 1).\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\">Pay particular attention to your target journal\u2019s style: is it Figure, Fig., or figure? Is the word set in italics or bold or normal? Is it followed by a colon, a full stop, or just space? And does the caption end in a full stop?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">For further reading, you can refer to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/tips-on-effective-use-of-tables-and-figures-in-research-papers\">Tips on\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/tips-on-effective-use-of-tables-and-figures-in-research-papers\">effective use of tables and figures in research papers<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tables and figures, although important components of many research papers, are just that\u2014components; you can publish a paper without them but you cannot publish tables or figures without a paper. And if text is supported by tables or figures, it must mention them. Although tables and figures are what readers more often turn to first\u00a0once [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":45218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2427,2409],"tags":[1402],"new_categories":[],"new_tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-1991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-style-format","category-tables-figures","tag-citations"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Referring to tables and figures in text | Editage Insights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tables and figures form an important part of a research manuscript. 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This article provides tips for referring to tables and figures in a scientific manuscript.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/referring-to-tables-and-figures-in-text\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Editage Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-01-31T12:07:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-16T06:34:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/ChatGPT-Image-Mar-9-2026-08_28_23-AM-1-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1536\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Yateendra Joshi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Editage\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Editage\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Yateendra Joshi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/referring-to-tables-and-figures-in-text#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/referring-to-tables-and-figures-in-text\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Yateendra Joshi\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/cddcdcb60c05f8fe00b1e54c1ebf7980\"},\"headline\":\"Referring to tables and figures in text\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-01-31T12:07:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-16T06:34:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/referring-to-tables-and-figures-in-text\"},\"wordCount\":310,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/referring-to-tables-and-figures-in-text#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/ChatGPT-Image-Mar-9-2026-08_28_23-AM-1-1.png\",\"keywords\":[\"citations\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Style &amp; Format\",\"Tables &amp; Figures\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/referring-to-tables-and-figures-in-text#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/referring-to-tables-and-figures-in-text\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/referring-to-tables-and-figures-in-text\",\"name\":\"Referring to tables and figures in text | Editage Insights\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/referring-to-tables-and-figures-in-text#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/referring-to-tables-and-figures-in-text#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/ChatGPT-Image-Mar-9-2026-08_28_23-AM-1-1.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-01-31T12:07:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-16T06:34:23+00:00\",\"description\":\"Tables and figures form an important part of a research manuscript. 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