A large-format poster is a big piece of paper or image on a wall-mounted monitor featuring a short title, an introduction to your burning question, an overview of your novel experimental approach, your amazing results in graphical form, some insightful discussion of aforementioned results, a listing of previously published articles that are important to your research, and some brief acknowledgement of the tremendous assistance and financial support conned from others — if all text is kept to a minimum (500-1000 words), a person could fully read your poster in 5-10 minutes.
Below are templates that can be used to make a meeting poster. Just download, adjust the dimensions (if you need to), and start typing. You can, of course, also change background color, text box color, font, etc. The templates are just starting points that can save you a few hours of fussing over the basics.
This layout gives a lot of central, visible space to the results and demotes less important sections (Literature cited, Acknowledgements, Further information) to the bottom portion of the poster. Download (PPT file).
If you prefer a more traditional layout (just columns) but still like the big central area for results, use this Powerpoint file (or emulate the design).
This template (PPT) is just a modification to illustrate that you can rename your sections to fit your discipline and tastes. I’ve tweaked it to address two questions but you can modify it however you want.
I hate portrait layout for posters but if you’re forced to use one, here’s a template (PPT). I’ve opted for a larger central column because your results are likely to contain charts or tables, and those don’t look good when overly shrunken.
The photograph below illustrates why portrait layout is often bad for large-formate posters: a big chunk of the poster real estate is below a viewer’s field of vision so you need to stoop to fully read. If you are in charge of a poster session, please read my plea about this problem.
Below are some rough guidelines on what to include in each section of a scientific poster and how to pitch that content. The word-count guesses are for a poster that is approximately 3 x 4′, so adjust accordingly if your poster is a different size. Names of the section headings are somewhat flexible, too, especially if you’re not crafting a science poster.
Should briefly convey the interesting issue, the general experimental approach, and the system (e.g., organism); needs to be catchy in order to reel in passersby who are trying to avoid boring interactions, a real danger at conferences just like in the real world. [approximately 1-2 lines]
Do not include an abstract on a poster (a poster is an abstract of your research, so having two summaries is a waste of valuable poster space). Some meetings require an abstract, of course, and if that’s the case be as brief as possible. But if you can get away with it, just omit the section —there are rarely poster police at conferences, and they’re not going to tase you if your poster lacks an abstract.
Write this section to target an intelligent person who is not in your field. Assume they don’t know your study organism at all and assume they are predisposed to find your topic unimportant. E.g., if you’re an astronomer, imagine a visitor who has a degree in biology or mathematics. Quickly (first sentence or two) get your viewer interested in the issue or question that drove you to take up the project in the first place. Use the absolute minimum of background information, definitions, and acronyms (all of which are boring). Place your issue in the context of published, primary literature. Pitch an interesting, novel hypothesis, then describe (briefly) the experimental approach that can test your hypothesis. Please note that “X has never been studied before” or “my mentor gave me this project” are lame reasons for doing something, even if true. Also note: unlike a manuscript for a journal, the introduction of a poster is a wonderful place to display a photograph or illustration that visually communicates some aspect of your research question. A nice image can draw people in even if you look boring or have a boring poster title. Keep length to approximately 200 words.
Briefly describe experimental equipment and procedure, but not with the detail used for a manuscript. Use figures and flow charts to illustrate experimental design if possible. Include a photograph or labeled drawing of organism or setup. Mention statistical analyses that were used and how they allowed you to address hypothesis. Keep length to approximately 200 words.
First, mention whether your experiment procedure actually worked (e.g., “90% of the birds survived the brainectomy”). In same paragraph, briefly describe qualitative and descriptive results (e.g., “surviving birds appeared to be lethargic and had difficulty locating seeds”) to give a more personal tone to your poster. In second paragraph, begin presentation of data analysis that more specifically addresses your hypothesis. Refer to supporting charts or images. Provide engaging figure legends that could stand on their own (i.e., could convey some point to reader if viewer skipped all other sections, which they will do). Opt for figures over tables whenever possible. This is always the largest section (except if you have no data). Keep length to approximately 200 words (not counting figure legends).
Remind the reader, without sounding like you are reminding the reader, of the major result and quickly state whether your hypothesis was supported. Try to convince the visitor why the outcome is interesting (assume they’ve skipped the Introduction). State the relevance of your findings to other published work. Add relevance to real organisms in the real world. Add sentence on future directions of research. Keep length to approximately 200 words.
Follow format described by your main society exactly. Grammar and typography police at conferences will find even minor infractions.
Thank individuals for specific contributions (equipment donation, statistical advice, laboratory assistance, comments on earlier versions of the poster). Mention who has provided funding. Do not list people’s titles (e.g., write Colin Purrington not Dr Purrington). Also include in this section disclosures for any conflicts of interest and conflicts of commitment (more info). If you have a lot of conflicts, put them all in a Conflicts section. Keep length to approximately 40 words.
If you haven’t botched the content and tone, some visitors will want to know more about your research, so provide your e-mail address, your web site address, or perhaps a URL where they can download a PDF version of the poster or relevant data. If you provide a URL, format it so it’s not blued or underlined. Full disclosure: I made up this section, so if your mentor thinks it’s silly, that’s why. Keep length to approximately 20 words.
Below are some tips to avoid producing a terrible poster. Please see this post for an example of a terrible poster.
Your poster is yours, so you should feel free to add objects to increase the effectiveness of your message. Doing so will dramatically increase the number of people visiting and remembering you and your poster.
If you have information that only some viewers might find interesting, use a hidden panel approach. Just print your interesting extras onto your poster, then cover the area with a hinged piece of poster board onto which you have glued something else. Zoos and museums do this a lot.
If you have three dimensional data or complex molecular structures (examples; more examples), make 3D images. There are software programs that can generate stereoscopic images that are viewable with cheap 3-D glasses. Here are directions on making your own stereoscopic setup for about $19.98 (before taxes) using Legos and two novelty key-chain cameras. Have a pouch near the figure so that viewers can help themselves to glasses even when you have abandoned your poster. Attach glasses with string if you think somebody will walk off with them.
If your topic is related to a thing or object, attach it. E.g., if you study sexual dimorphism in freakishly large beetles, glue the beetles onto the poster so people can appreciate them. It’s so much better than a photograph. If your thing is fragile, just put it into clear protective container and then attach the container. Use 3M removable tape if you want to minimize damage to underlying poster paper. Neodymium magnets are even slicker — just attach a magnet to your thing and affix a second magnet on the poster. Note that researchers of large things can always use miniaturized version made by a 3D printer (example). Attaching an object will increase visitor traffic by at least 20% (I’m making that up, but I’m sure it’s measurable).
Use removable tape to add a transparency sheet over a graph or photograph if you want to make non-permanent doodles with Dry-Erase markers. You can then doodle on critical parts of your poster, then erase.
If you wish to show movies or photographs, attach an iPad (below; another example). Here’s a video showing how to attach. If the movies and photographs look OK on smaller screens, use an old iPod or iPhone. You can also buy cheap digital photo frames at Targét. Note: provide headphones if audio is banned in session room (common). And if your media presentation is critical to the poster, put it online and then provide the QR code (for URL) on the spot underneath the iPad so that viewers can still see the movie even when you remove the iPad (so people don’t steal it when you’re away from your poster).
If your topic is related to sound, attach a sound device that contains your sound (bird calls, engine rattle, etc.). A cheap “sound postcard” will often do the trick if you don’t want to risk your iPad. Just fill the picture frame with an illustration of the sound-generating organ or machine, and indicate where on the photograph the viewer should press to activate the sound.
Add virtual-reality content (and VR goggles) if you need a way to enhance the poster-viewing experience in some way.
If your topic is related to olfaction, try to get the odor onto your poster somehow. Microencapsulation is one way to make scratch-n-sniff areas, but if you work on a common odor there might be a scented ink that you can just buy. E.g., you might go for the smell of fresh cut grass if your poster is on effects of grazing. Gimmicky, but then you’d be famous. You can also buy odor sample bags to trap smells for later use (just attach them to your poster with instructions on how to extract a whiff).
Before you print a poster, print to a PDF first and confirm — at 100% magnification — that colors, fonts, and images look perfect. If you’ve never printed to a PDF before, it’s easy: on Windows machines, select, “Save As”, and on Macs, “Print To.” If the PDF looks awful, go back and fix your source file. One trick is to upload the PDF to http://pdf-analyser.edpsciences.org/, which will give you a listing of the resolutions of all images contained, plus will flag any fonts you’ve used but weren’t embedded in the PDF. If you own Adobe Acrobat Pro, you can get the same information by running a preflight diagnostic.
Once you have a PDF that you’re pleased with, send it to your campus poster printer, a local media business (Office Max, Staples, Kinko’s, etc.), or to a poster printing service that prints academic posters. If you opt for an online service, they’ll mail it to you (in a tube), even to your meeting location if you so desire. I’ve use PhD Posters in the past because their locations are run by people with science PhDs who value good design and know about academic conferences (plus they haven’t plagiarized my site like other companies). In many cases, conference organizers have arrangements with online poster printers that offer a discount, so check with the people in charge. Ideally, do all the above in time that you can re-print if you discover a problem. You might have made a $100 mistake, but if you’re trying to impress people, and you probably are, it might be worth the do-over.
These days, there are lots of options on paper thickness and gloss, plus even the option to print on various types of fabric that can be folded. One huge advantage of fabric posters is that you can store the poster in your briefcase/backpack, and thus minimize the chance you’ll inadvertently leave the poster behind at the airport (when your poster is in tube, this happens). Another huge advantage of cloth posters is that when you are done presenting you can make geeky clothes.
Of course, many conferences these days feature posters on monitors. But you should also print your poster so that you have something to hang in your hallway when you return.
Note that if you receive your poster and the images look pixelated or the colors displease you, just print out high-resolution replacements and attach them with tape to cover the bad versions.
To see people presenting posters, there are thousands of YouTube videos. Tips below will help you get the most out of the experience.
The best general advice I can give a first-time poster constructor is to describe the circumstances in which a poster will eventually be viewed: a hot, loud, congested room with really bad lighting. And meeting organizers will invariably situate your poster next to something more catchy such as “Teaching house cats to perform cold fusion.” Your poster needs to be interesting and visually slick if you hope to attract viewers.
If you’re crafty, a handmade poster is far superior to anything that you could make with a poster printer. Plus you’d be the highlight of a meeting. E.g., Jason McDermott’s poster.
The most important part of producing a great poster is to embrace the rough draft process. You’ll want to get honest feedback from people in your laboratory and from smart strangers who might not really care about your topic. Perhaps the easiest way to get feedback is to print a miniature version of your poster on 8 1/2 x 11″ paper. If people can’t read the text (especially on the figures), that’s a sign that your font size is too small. Another way to get feedback is to use a projector to display your poster on a large screen or monitor, then ask people to verbally critique. You want an audience that can walk up to the screen like it’s a poster at a meeting.
Ideally, print a draft poster at least a month before the meeting and get people to critique your poster when you are not present. I.e., hang it in a hallway with a huge sign that pleads and begs for honest feedback about layout, word count, spelling, font, color, content, etc. Tell them to leave comments on Post-It notes (so provide these in container, with pens). And, again, don’t be present for this. If you are lurking like a proud parent, people will say, “Looks beautiful!” out of politeness and a desire to get away fast. If your hallway is populated with slackers, motivate them by providing food rewards in a box attached near poster. Attach sign to box: “Please tell me how to make my poster better. Mini candy bars are my pathetic thanks.”
Although the vast majority conference posters on the planet are produced with Microsoft Powerpoint, you’ll end up with a better-looking poster if you use a page-layout application such as QuarkXPress, InDesign (great poster instructions), LaTeX (templates; instructions; example), or Scribus (instructions). These programs allow control of text wrapping around images, automatic text flow among associated text blocks, and much more. You can also make posters with graphics software such as Illustrator, CorelDRAW, Freehand, Omnigraffle, and Inkscape. I’ve also heard great things about Canva. There’s also PosterGenius for those who need a program that will make a lot of the design decisions for you.
Although you could communicate research via a 15-minute talk at the same meeting, presenting a poster allows you to more personally interact with the people who are interested in your topic, and lets you reach people who might not be in your esoteric but no doubt fascinating sub-field. And, it turns out, posters sessions are not all about you: research has demonstrated that people who are standing are more engaged learners than people sitting in chairs (at talks). Posters are also handy because they can still be viewed even when you’re not present. And after the conference ends, you can hang the poster in the hallway of your department for people to admire. Finally, presenting a poster is especially recommended if you are bad at public speaking or can’t comfortably speak a particular language (the reason poster sessions were invented).
If you want a shorter version of all these tips (likely), please see my poster that have poster tips — it’s printable and makes a great handouts if you’re a teacher.
My terrible poster example is here. I also have a page of tips for folks in charge of organizing a poster session.
COPYRIGHT 2019 COLIN PURRINGTON
This is a blog with nature photography, biology-related projects, & geeky tips. All posts by Colin Purrington.
