Editorial: A Step-by-Step Guide for Creating Tables

A significant proportion of published articles contain one or more tables. For example, of the 264 articles that have been published in Research in the Schools since its inception in 1994 (Volume 1, Issue 1) through the previous issue in 2010 (Volume 17, Issue 1)—spanning 33 issues—200 (75.8%) articles have contained one or more tables. These 200 articles contained an average of 3.76 tables. As can be seen from Figure 1, with the exception of four issues (i.e., 5[2], 6[1], 9[2], and 13[1]), at least two thirds of the articles in each issue (n = 29) contained one or more tables. Even in the field of qualitative research, where tables often are underutilized (Onwuegbuzie & Dickinson, 2008), tables can still play an important role. For example, Onwuegbuzie (2011) documented that, of the 570 articles published in the excellent journal, The Qualitative Report, between its inception in 1990 (Volume 1, Issue 1) through its most current issue in 2011 at the time of writing (Volume 16, Issue 2), 154 articles (i.e., 27.02%) contained one or more tables. These 154 articles contained an average of 2.33 tables. Although all of the tables published in Research in the Schools conform to the edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) that was in effect when the article was published, many of these tables had to undergo one or more rounds of revisions before they conformed to the APA style guide. However, as demonstrated by Onwuegbuzie, Slate, Combs, and Frels (2009), the manuscripts submitted to Research in the Schools over this period that have been rejected have tended to contain tables that deviated to a greater extent than have the 264 manuscripts that ended up being published. Indeed, Onwuegbuzie et al. (2009) reported that incorrect formatting of tables (alongside figures) represented the sixth most common source of APA errors of the 60 types of APA errors that emerged, with 40.0% of the 110 manuscripts submitted to Research in the Schools over a 6-year period containing one or more formatting errors. Further, not only were APA errors associated with tables (and figures) a statistically significant predictor of whether a manuscript was rejected, but this error type was the most practically significant predictor, with manuscripts containing one or more of these errors being 4.68 times (95% confidence interval = 1.96, 11.14) more likely to be rejected by the action editor. This led Onwuegbuzie et al. (2009) to conclude that failure to construct tables and/or figures that are clear, coherent, consistent, and, above all, accurate can affect both the readability and Most manuscripts are submitted electronically by authors for consideration for publication (American Psychological Association [APA] Publication Manual, 2010). As such, understanding the design and preparation of data displays are an important component in the electronic submission process. According to the APA Publication Manual (2010) guidelines, tables are created to display specific information; however, many authors do not submit manuscripts to journal editors that include tables created through the autotable function, which can ultimately cause problems in an electronic submission, often contributing to manuscripts being rejected (Onwuegbuzie, Slate, Combs, & Frels, 2009). In this article, a step-by-step guide for creating tables in Microsoft Word 2007and an exemplar table presenting all relevant APA rules pertaining to tables is provided for authors to use when designing, creating, and displaying data in manuscripts.