What are scientific poster presentations1?
Scientific poster presentations are commonly used in the academic community to provide visual summaries of a research study or project. Scientific poster presentations are the most suitable format to showcase the various elements of your research at conferences, because of how concise the displayed content is, considering the time constraints for both the presenter as well as the audience. Often, these scientific poster presentations are organized before the manuscript is published, so they also serve as a form of preliminary marketing for the study.
Scientific conference posters usually include infographics, with a combination of text, tables, graphs, and images. The usual content of posters includes the title, author names, abstract, introduction, methods, results, conclusions, acknowledgements, and references. This format is compact and precise and helps convey the information without the audience having to read a lot of text. All the information included in the research paper is not included in posters. Only few important details are incorporated and the remaining information is supplemented as talking points by the presenter. However, the poster should also be independent of the main research paper and should be self-explanatory even without a presenter.
Characteristics of a good scientific research poster
Here are some must-have components of a scientific poster presentation:
- Short and catchy title that aptly conveys the research focus
- Short sentences, preferably as bulleted or numbered lists
- Appropriate use of graphics, colors, font size and type
- Neat, column-wise layout
- Structured; gives all important and relevant information
- Adheres to guidelines, if provided
Importance of compelling scientific poster presentations
If you’re planning to present your research at a conference, you must ensure that your scientific poster presentation is an apt illustrative summary of your study and presents the highlights convincingly. A good scientific poster presentation at conferences can be an excellent opportunity for networking with academicians with similar research interests. There is a two-way information exchange where the audience can ask questions about the research unlike in a published scientific paper, which is only a one-way interaction. In addition, you could also receive constructive feedback from your peers in academia, which could be helpful for your future research. The poster format is especially beneficial to early- and mid-career researchers because their new research work can be disseminated effectively as this also acts as an advertising opportunity.2 Scientific poster presentations at conferences can also help you in demonstrating your expertise in the subject, which could open new opportunities for future collaborations.
Scientific poster presentation tips for your next conference1,3
Listed below are a few tips that could get you started in planning your next scientific poster presentation:
- Know your audience: A general idea of the conference attendees could help in deciding the information to be included.
- Read the guidelines, if any, and adhere to them.
- List the most important or interesting findings or features of your research and rank them in order of importance or relevance. The first 3-4 (considering the amount of space available) points should be included in the poster. The remaining could be a part of the presenter’s talking points.
- Decide on the format that would be most suitable for your data—charts, tables, images, bulleted lists, running text?
- Do you have all the resources (licenses, software, data) to begin? If not, make a note to obtain them.
In addition, you could use the following tools to make your poster more attractive:
- Online scientific poster presentation makers like Mind the Graph that offer templates to help you create attractive and informative posters in just a few clicks
- MS PowerPoint: The most popular choice; but has comparatively fewer features
- Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign: Have many features and high-resolution images, but may be expensive
- Open-source options: OpenOffice, Inkscape, and Gimp (alternatives to MS Office and Adobe products, respectively); and Gliffy or Lovely Charts for charts and diagrams
Things to avoid while making scientific poster presentations:
- Don’t use many different font types and sizes (not more than three) because this becomes too jarring to the eye
- Don’t use too many animations if creating a PowerPoint presentation
- Don’t clutter the layout with a lot of data; some blank space (at least 30-40%) needs to be present to ensure neatness
- Don’t use too many or too bright colors; if required, try to maintain a color scheme, and use only related colors. The colors shouldn’t distract the audience, they should instead complement the content.
These are some of the tips and tricks to keep in mind while preparing for your scientific poster presentation. When people look at posters, the things that attract their attention initially are the title, graphs, and images, so focus on these. Remember that you have only a few minutes to impress the readers or the audience and you must make sure that your poster conveys the crux of your research in those few minutes, with or without your supplementing the presentation with some talking points.
We hope that this article has helped you in understanding the importance and use of creating compelling scientific poster presentations.
References
- How to create a research poster. NYU Libraries. Accessed October 24, 2022. https://guides.nyu.edu/posters
- Weaver E, Shaul KA, Griffy H, Lower BH. Scientific posters. In: Scientific Posters: A Learner’s Guide. Accessed October 25, 2022. https://ohiostate.pressbooks.pub/scientificposterguide/chapter/scientific-posters/
- Designing communications for a poster fair. The Pennsylvania State University. Accessed October 26, 2022. http://www.personal.psu.edu/drs18/postershow/
