I'm using a two column environment, and I placed a table in the left column, as shown in the image:
Below it the latex source excerpt used to draw such a table:
\documentclass[final,5p,times,twocolumn]{elsarticle}
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\begin{document}
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Nulla et nibh enim, id faucibus enim. Nullam lobortis, arcu sed commodo semper, urna nisl imperdiet mauris, non vulputate nisl turpis eu arcu. Sed tincidunt, lorem sed posuere dictum, sapien magna euismod ante, at laoreet ligula ipsum sit amet sapien. Ut aliquam, nunc nec vehicula mattis, erat massa pharetra arcu, vel aliquam ipsum mi et nisl. Quisque dui metus, tincidunt in consequat ut, ullamcorper ac quam. Sed diam odio, placerat at gravida eu, accumsan vitae libero. Sed facilisis mi in risus luctus nec dictum ipsum placerat. Nulla facilisi. Curabitur mattis facilisis placerat. Suspendisse vel velit nec sapien posuere ultricies. Proin fringilla, libero vitae bibendum mattis, lacus ipsum interdum purus, eu cursus sapien neque at justo.
\begin{table}[!htp]
\center \footnotesize \rowcolors{2}{white}{gray!25}
\caption{List of studies.}\label{tab:studiesList}
\begin{tabular}{llcc}
\toprule
\textbf{ID} & \textbf{Reference} & \textbf{Pub. Type} & \textbf{Year} \midrule
S84 & text text fake text & C & 2010\\
S85 & fake text fake text & W & 2011\\
S86 & fake text fake text & W & 2011\\
S87 & fake text fake text & C & 2010\\
S88 & fake text fake text & C & 2011\\
S89 & fake text fake text & W & 2011\\
S90 & fake text fake text & C & 2010\\
S91 & fake text fake text & W & 2011\\
S92 & fake text fake text & C & 2011\\
S93 & fake text fake text & C & 2010\\
S94 & fake text fake text & J & 2012\\
S95 & fake text fake text & C & 2010\\
S96 & fake text fake text & C & 2011\\
S97 & fake text fake text & W & 2011\\
S98 & fake text fake text & C & 2011\\
S99 & fake text fake text & C & 2010\\
S100 & fake text fake text & C & 2011\\
S101 & fake text fake text & C & 2010\\
S102 & fake text fake text & C & 2010\\
S103 & fake text fake text & C & 2009\\
S104 & fake text fake text & C & 2010\\
S105 & fake text fake text & C & 2011\\
S106 & fake text fake text & C & 2009\\
S107 & fake text fake text & J & 2011\\
S108 & fake text fake text & C & 2009\\
S109 & fake text fake text & BC & 2010\\
S110 & fake text fake text & C & 2010\\
S111 & fake text fake text & C & 2011\\
S112 & fake text fake text & W & 2011\\
S113 & fake text fake text & C & 2010\\
S114 & fake text fake text & J & 2011\\
S115 & fake text fake text & W & 2011\\
S116 & fake text fake text & W & 2010\\
S117 & fake text fake text & J & 2011\\
S118 & fake text fake text & C & 2010\\
S119 & fake text fake text & C & 2010\\
S120 & fake text fake text & J & 2011\\
S121 & fake text fake text & J & 2011\\
S122 & fake text fake text & W & 2012\\
S123 & fake text fake text & C & 2012\\
S124 & fake text fake text & W & 2009\\
S125 & fake text fake text & C & 2010\\
S126 & fake text fake text & C & 2011\\
S127 & fake text fake text & W & 2012\\
S128 & fake text fake text & C & 2010\\
S129 & fake text fake text & W & 2011\\
S130 & fake text fake text & C & 2007\\
S131 & fake text fake text & J & 2010\\
S132 & fake text fake text & J & 2011 \bottomrule
\multicolumn{4}{l}{\textit{Legend for Publication Type:}} \\
\multicolumn{4}{l}{[J] Journal, [C]
Conference, [W] Workshop, [BC] Book Chapter} \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Suspendisse potenti. Pellentesque vel diam velit. Maecenas sagittis feugiat leo, sed lacinia neque pulvinar elementum. Phasellus non ornare velit. Nulla pretium ultrices libero, non vehicula erat semper laoreet. Pellentesque at tortor id diam ornare tincidunt at ac urna. Nulla condimentum interdum sapien. Nunc sit amet quam velit, sed bibendum dolor. Vivamus nec tortor diam, at hendrerit erat. Donec quis ante ut neque dignissim dignissim. Nam dui eros, pulvinar at laoreet sodales, luctus sed leo. Cras id leo quis nunc interdum tristique at nec dolor. Suspendisse eu elit mauris, at iaculis erat. Nunc quis tortor sed justo venenatis tempor. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Maecenas arcu lacus, condimentum nec rhoncus et, sagittis sed nisi.
Donec sed mi sem. Suspendisse adipiscing, lectus ut egestas vulputate, magna nunc mollis augue, a venenatis dui sapien at mi. Morbi consectetur tincidunt mi id hendrerit. Sed in pellentesque ante. Cras erat orci, fringilla in hendrerit nec, placerat vitae metus. Phasellus vel elit quis est facilisis pellentesque sit amet et nisl. Aliquam placerat libero sed lacus rutrum sodales non vulputate risus. Curabitur condimentum elit ultricies justo iaculis tristique pretium ligula lacinia. Donec convallis mi nec lectus convallis suscipit. Nullam nisi nisl, tempus in condimentum eget, tristique ut mi. Sed in mi nibh. Donec ligula, sagittis vel facilisis a, rhoncus eget lectus. Quisque consectetur libero sit amet sapien commodo ornare. Integer et convallis dolor. Nunc dignissim commodo ultricies. Nam a ante dictum justo laoreet pellentesque.
Integer nulla sapien, viverra at vehicula ac, accumsan sed risus. Praesent nec ante sem, vitae scelerisque massa. Praesent at posuere ipsum. Morbi sed purus a massa bibendum luctus a vitae justo. Integer pretium auctor lacus vitae tincidunt. Suspendisse viverra pretium ante sed luctus. Suspendisse potenti. Cras ullamcorper adipiscing orci, ut pretium nunc pretium at. In vitae augue vel sapien dictum euismod pretium quis erat.
Vestibulum luctus adipiscing orci, ac sagittis purus placerat consectetur. Duis a bibendum sem. Vivamus non sem vel augue blandit rhoncus eget sed lectus. Nulla facilisi. Fusce tellus odio, faucibus et fringilla et, venenatis suscipit risus. Aenean aliquet tempor ligula auctor condimentum. Nulla accumsan est quis nisl fringilla varius. Morbi aliquam dictum magna in commodo.
Donec sed mi sem. Suspendisse adipiscing, lectus ut egestas vulputate, magna nunc mollis augue, a venenatis dui sapien at mi. Morbi consectetur tincidunt mi id hendrerit. Sed in pellentesque ante. Cras erat orci, fringilla in hendrerit nec, placerat vitae metus. Phasellus vel elit quis est facilisis pellentesque sit amet et nisl. Aliquam placerat libero sed lacus rutrum sodales non vulputate risus. Curabitur condimentum elit ultricies justo iaculis tristique pretium ligula lacinia. Donec convallis mi nec lectus convallis suscipit. Nullam nisi nisl, tempus in condimentum eget, tristique ut mi. Sed in mi nibh. Donec ligula ligula, sagittis vel facilisis a, rhoncus eget lectus. Quisque consectetur libero sit amet sapien commodo ornare. Integer et convallis dolor. Nunc dignissim commodo ultricies. Nam a ante dictum justo laoreet pellentesque.
\end{document}
There is notably some space that could be used before and after the table. How can I force the use of such spaces, so that the text could be something like the following picture.
I reach a similar "unexpected" result when I use an image, instead of a table. Especially when I use the command \begin{figure*}[!htp], when I try to enlarge the image a little bit, so that I fits the entire page width, it doesn't place the text in the same page, but rather it forces the text to the next page, as shown in the following pictures.
[p]float because it was too big to fit in a text area. You could use\begin{table}[!tp]to tell it to ignore the constraints or you could tune the parameters. See Frank's description of the float parameters tex.stackexchange.com/questions/39017/…\\[5in]etc so you don't need so many actual rows.:)