Short Tutorial for Constructing Meaningful Tables Using AMA Style.

Abstract

Constructing meaningful tables is important for any journal publication. This short tutorial is specific to the journal Progress in Transplantation that uses the AMA Manual of Style; however, the information may be useful for any presentation, internal report, or journal publication. The information is not meant to be comprehensive but to give pointers for authors to consider when developing tables to include in a manuscript. How often have we seen large comprehensive data crushed into a single table? The question from an editor or reader becomes: Is all the information pertinent to the manuscript submitted? Burying the important information within a large multirow, multi-column table often detracts from the major findings of the study. The tendency to overwhelm the reader with an excessive amount of data that does not pertain to the study’s purpose is tempting. It is often easier to include all data collected than to decide what variables are key to show that the study’s questions were answered. Tables are planned to match the manuscript.