Tables and figures

The examples on this page are taken from data sources such A.C. Nielsen, Passport GMID and Statistics New Zealand as well as from books, journal articles and webpages on websites.

• See Tables and Figures (APA Style website) and Chapter 7 in the APA Manual for more detailed explanations and also sample tables and figures.

Definitions

• Tables refer to numerical values or text arranged in columns and rows.
• Figures are charts, drawings, graphs, flow charts, maps, photographs or any other illustration that is not a table.

General rules

• All tables and figures should be numbered (Table 1, Table 2, Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.) in bold font. The numbering is the order they are called out (referred to) in the text.
• Each table and figure should have a brief but descriptive title, in italics and capitalised in Title Case.
• All tables and figures should be called out in the text of the paper.
• UC Library database licence agreements allow students to use images in assignments. Statistics NZ also allows this. State copyright and also write: Reprinted with permission (see below).
  • For Creative Commons licences, use the specified abbreviation (e.g. CC BY-NC, CC BY 4.0).
• If you reprint or adapt a table or figure from another source, you must have an entry in the reference list for the work in addition to the attribution in the table or figure note.
  • Thesis writers will usually need to obtain permission to reproduce or adapt a table or figure from another source – see this Copyright page.

Tables in the text

Table 1

Sales of Vitamins/Mineral and Herbal Supplements

Note. From Sales of Vitamins/Minerals & Herbal Supplements in New Zealand, 11 September 2010–11 September 2011, Nielsen Company, 2011 (https://answers.nielsen.com/). Copyright 2011 by the Nielsen Company. Reprinted with permission.

Callout in text

As shown in Table 1, vitamins, minerals and herbal supplements sales ...

Figures in the text

Figure 1

Youth Unemployment Rate vs. Total Unemployment Rate, 2006–2011

Note. Youth unemployment rate refers to the unemployed population aged 15–24 years old. Adapted from Economies and Consumers Annual Data: Youth Unemployment Rate in all Countries, Euromonitor International, 2019 (http://www.portal.euromonitor.com/). Copyright 2019 by Euromonitor International. Reprinted with permission.

Callout in text

As Figure 1 shows, youth unemployment rate has risen from 9.9% to 17.7% ...

In-text citation

... sales of apparel (Euromonitor International, 2019).

Creating your own figure or table

If you compile your own table or figure from data retrieved from another source (e.g. Stats NZ), write ‘Adapted from’ in the table notes. 

Callout in text

... the median weekly household income in Auckland (see Table 2).

Table or figure from another source

Table or figure from a journal article

Note. From “Best Management Practices by Age,” by D. Adams and B. Matthies, 2018, Journal of Management, 14(3), p. 62 (https://doi.org/10.1999/abc0000055). Copyright 2018 by the New Zealand Management Society.

Table or figure from a book

Note. From Management 101 (p. 11), by M. Adams, 2009, Cafe College Press. Copyright 2009 by Cafe College Press.

Reference list entry

Adams, M. (2009). Management 101. Cafe College Press.

Table or figure from an online newspaper article

Note. From “Twelve Things You Need to Know About Driverless Cars,” by J. Silver, January 15, 2017, The Observer (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/15/driverless-cars-12-things-you-need-to-know). Copyright 2018 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies.

Table or figure from a webpage on a website

Note. From A Butterfly Story in a Primary Classroom, by Science Learning Hub–Pokapū Akoranga Pūtaiao, February 9, 2022 (https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/2358-a-butterfly-story-in-a-primary-classroom). CC BY-SA 3.0.