Over the course of your research, you might end up generating a lot of data. When someone is seeing your research for the first time, this data can be very tedious for them to dig through and understand. Figures and tables are an excellent way to effectively present your data in a manner that it is easy to understand. A visually pleasing, well-organized figure or table can help the reader understand the research and its key points better, faster and more easily.

Should I use a figure or table?
The first question to ask yourself is this—is your data better presented as a figure or a table? Figures are always more eye-catching. But if your data has many different readings, components or parameters, then it is not always possible to show it simply in a figure. Moreover, if the exact numerical values of your data are an important finding, it might be better to show it as a table. Now that you have decided how to present your data, let us look at how your tables can be presented in an attractive manner.

1. The data itself