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How to Design a Winning Poster Presentation: Quick Guide with Examples & Templates

How are research posters like High School science fair projects? Quite similar, in fact.

Both are visual representations of a research project shared with peers, colleagues and academic faculty. But there’s a big difference: it’s all in professionalism and attention to detail. You can be sure that the students that thrived in science fairs are now creating fantastic research posters, but what is that extra element most people miss when designing a poster presentation?

This guide will teach tips and tricks for creating poster presentations for conferences, symposia, and more. Learn in-depth poster structure and design techniques to help create academic posters that have a lasting impact.

Let’s get started.

Table of Contents

• What is a Research Poster?

Why are Poster Presentations important?

Overall dimensions and orientation, separation into columns and sections, scientific, academic, or something else, a handout with supplemental and contact information, cohesiveness, design and readability, storytelling.

• Font Characteristics
• Color Pairing
• Data Visualization Dimensions
• Alignment, Margins, and White Space

Scientific/Academic Conference Poster Presentation

Digital research poster presentations, slidemodel poster presentation templates, how to make a research poster presentation step-by-step, considerations for printing poster presentations, how to present a research poster presentation, final words, what is a research poster .

Research posters are visual overviews of the most relevant information extracted from a research paper or analysis.   They are essential communication formats for sharing findings with peers and interested people in the field. Research posters can also effectively present material for other areas besides the sciences and STEM—for example, business and law.

You’ll be creating research posters regularly as an academic researcher, scientist, or grad student. You’ll have to present them at numerous functions and events. For example:

• Conference presentations
• Informational events
• Community centers

The research poster presentation is a comprehensive way to share data, information, and research results. Before the pandemic, the majority of research events were in person. During lockdown and beyond, virtual conferences and summits became the norm. Many researchers now create poster presentations that work in printed and digital formats.

Let’s look at why it’s crucial to spend time creating poster presentations for your research projects, research, analysis, and study papers.

Research posters represent you and your sponsor’s research 

Research papers and accompanying poster presentations are potent tools for representation and communication in your field of study. Well-performing poster presentations help scientists, researchers, and analysts grow their careers through grants and sponsorships.

When presenting a poster presentation for a sponsored research project, you’re representing the company that sponsored you. Your professionalism, demeanor, and capacity for creating impactful poster presentations call attention to other interested sponsors, spreading your impact in the field.

Research posters demonstrate expertise and growth

Presenting research posters at conferences, summits, and graduate grading events shows your expertise and knowledge in your field of study. The way your poster presentation looks and delivers, plus your performance while presenting the work, is judged by your viewers regardless of whether it’s an officially judged panel.

Recurring visitors to research conferences and symposia will see you and your poster presentations evolve. Improve your impact by creating a great poster presentation every time by paying attention to detail in the poster design and in your oral presentation. Practice your public speaking skills alongside the design techniques for even more impact.

Poster presentations create and maintain collaborations

Every time you participate in a research poster conference, you create meaningful connections with people in your field, industry or community. Not only do research posters showcase information about current data in different areas, but they also bring people together with similar interests. Countless collaboration projects between different research teams started after discussing poster details during coffee breaks.

An effective research poster template deepens your peer’s understanding of a topic by highlighting research, data, and conclusions. This information can help other researchers and analysts with their work. As a research poster presenter, you’re given the opportunity for both teaching and learning while sharing ideas with peers and colleagues.

Anatomy of a Winning Poster Presentation

Do you want your research poster to perform well?  Following the standard layout and adding a few personal touches will help attendees know how to read your poster and get the most out of your information. 

The overall size of your research poster ultimately depends on the dimensions of the provided space at the conference or research poster gallery. The poster orientation can be horizontal or vertical, with horizontal being the most common.  In general, research posters measure 48 x 36 inches or are an A0 paper size.

A virtual poster can be the same proportions as the printed research poster, but you have more leeway regarding the dimensions. Virtual research posters should fit on a screen with no need to scroll, with 1080p resolution as a standard these days. A horizontal presentation size is ideal for that.

A research poster presentation has a standard layout of 2–5 columns with 2–3 sections each. Typical structures say to separate the content into four sections; 1. A horizontal header 2. Introduction column, 3. Research/Work/Data column, and 4. Conclusion column. Each unit includes topics that relate to your poster’s objective.  Here’s a generalized outline for a poster presentation:

• Condensed Abstract 
• Objectives/Purpose
• Methodology
• Recommendations
• Implications
• Acknowledgments
• Contact Information 

The overview content you include in the units depends on your poster presentations’ theme, topic, industry, or field of research. A scientific or academic poster will include sections like hypothesis, methodology, and materials. A marketing analysis poster will include performance metrics and competitor analysis results.

There’s no way a poster can hold all the information included in your research paper or analysis report. The poster is an overview that invites the audience to want to find out more. That’s where supplement material comes in. Create a printed PDF handout or card with a QR code (created using a QR code generator ). Send the audience to the best online location for reading or downloading the complete paper.

What Makes a Poster Presentation Good and Effective? 

For your poster presentation to be effective and well-received, it needs to cover all the bases and be inviting to find out more. Stick to the standard layout suggestions and give it a unique look and feel. We’ve put together some of the most critical research poster-creation tips in the list below. Your poster presentation will perform as long as you check all the boxes.

The information you choose to include in the sections of your poster presentation needs to be cohesive. Train your editing eye and do a few revisions before presenting. The best way to look at it is to think of The Big Picture. Don’t get stuck on the details; your attendees won’t always know the background behind your research topic or why it’s important.

Be cohesive in how you word the titles, the length of the sections, the highlighting of the most important data, and how your oral presentation complements the printed—or virtual—poster.

The most important characteristic of your poster presentation is its readability and clarity. You need a poster presentation with a balanced design that’s easy to read at a distance of 1.5 meters or 4 feet. The font size and spacing must be clear and neat. All the content must suggest a visual flow for the viewer to follow.

That said, you don’t need to be a designer to add something special to your poster presentation. Once you have the standard—and recognized—columns and sections, add your special touch. These can be anything from colorful boxes for the section titles to an interesting but subtle background, images that catch the eye, and charts that inspire a more extended look. 

Storytelling is a presenting technique involving writing techniques to make information flow. Firstly, storytelling helps give your poster presentation a great introduction and an impactful conclusion. 

Think of storytelling as the invitation to listen or read more, as the glue that connects sections, making them flow from one to another. Storytelling is using stories in the oral presentation, for example, what your lab partner said when you discovered something interesting. If it makes your audience smile and nod, you’ve hit the mark. Storytelling is like giving a research presentation a dose of your personality, and it can help turning your data into opening stories .

Design Tips For Creating an Effective Research Poster Presentation

The section above briefly mentioned how important design is to your poster presentation’s effectiveness. We’ll look deeper into what you need to know when designing a poster presentation.

1. Font Characteristics

The typeface and size you choose are of great importance. Not only does the text need to be readable from two meters away, but it also needs to look and sit well on the poster. Stay away from calligraphic script typefaces, novelty typefaces, or typefaces with uniquely shaped letters.

Stick to the classics like a sans serif Helvetica, Lato, Open Sans, or Verdana. Avoid serif typefaces as they can be difficult to read from far away. Here are some standard text sizes to have on hand.

• Title: 85 pt
• Authors: 65 pt
• Headings: 36 pt
• Body Text: 24 pt
• Captions: 18 pt

If you feel too prone to use serif typefaces, work with a font pairing tool that helps you find a suitable solution – and intend those serif fonts for heading sections only. As a rule, never use more than 3 different typefaces in your design. To make it more dynamic, you can work with the same font using light, bold, and italic weights to put emphasis on the required areas.

2. Color Pairing

Using colors in your poster presentation design is a great way to grab the viewer’s attention. A color’s purpose is to help the viewer follow the data flow in your presentation, not distract. Don’t let the color take more importance than the information on your poster.

Choose one main color for the title and headlines and a similar color for the data visualizations. If you want to use more than one color, don’t create too much contrast between them. Try different tonalities of the same color and keep things balanced visually. Your color palette should have at most one main color and two accent colors.

Black text over a white background is standard practice for printed poster presentations, but for virtual presentations, try a very light gray instead of white and a very dark gray instead of black. Additionally, use variations of light color backgrounds and dark color text. Make sure it’s easy to read from two meters away or on a screen, depending on the context. We recommend ditching full white or full black tone usage as it hurts eyesight in the long term due to its intense contrast difference with the light ambiance.

3. Data Visualization Dimensions

Just like the text, your charts, graphs, and data visualizations must be easy to read and understand. Generally, if a person is interested in your research and has already read some of the text from two meters away, they’ll come closer to look at the charts and graphs. 

Fit data visualizations inside columns or let them span over two columns. Remove any unnecessary borders, lines, or labels to make them easier to read at a glance. Use a flat design without shadows or 3D characteristics. The text in legends and captions should stay within the chart size and not overflow into the margins. Use a unified text size of 18px for all your data visualizations.

4. Alignment, Margins, and White Space

Finally, the last design tip for creating an impressive and memorable poster presentation is to be mindful of the layout’s alignment, margins, and white space. Create text boxes to help keep everything aligned. They allow you to resize, adapt, and align the content along a margin or grid.

Take advantage of the white space created by borders and margins between sections. Don’t crowd them with a busy background or unattractive color.

Calculate margins considering a print format. It is a good practice in case the poster presentation ends up becoming in physical format, as you won’t need to downscale your entire design (affecting text readability in the process) to preserve information.

There are different tools that you can use to make a poster presentation. Presenters who are familiar with Microsoft Office prefer to use PowerPoint. You can learn how to make a poster in PowerPoint here.

Poster Presentation Examples

Before you start creating a poster presentation, look at some examples of real research posters. Get inspired and get creative.

Research poster presentations printed and mounted on a board look like the one in the image below. The presenter stands to the side, ready to share the information with visitors as they walk up to the panels.

With more and more conferences staying virtual or hybrid, the digital poster presentation is here to stay. Take a look at examples from a poster session at the OHSU School of Medicine .

Use SlideModel templates to help you create a winning poster presentation with PowerPoint and Google Slides. These poster PPT templates will get you off on the right foot. Mix and match tables and data visualizations from other poster slide templates to create your ideal layout according to the standard guidelines.

If you need a quick method to create a presentation deck to talk about your research poster at conferences, check out our Slides AI presentation maker. A tool in which you add the topic, curate the outline, select a design, and let AI do the work for you.

1. One-pager Scientific Poster Template for PowerPoint

A PowerPoint template tailored to make your poster presentations an easy-to-craft process. Meet our One-Pager Scientific Poster Slide Template, entirely editable to your preferences and with ample room to accommodate graphs, data charts, and much more.

Use This Template

2. Eisenhower Matrix Slides Template for PowerPoint

An Eisenhower Matrix is a powerful tool to represent priorities, classifying work according to urgency and importance. Presenters can use this 2×2 matrix in poster presentations to expose the effort required for the research process, as it also helps to communicate strategy planning.

3. OSMG Framework PowerPoint Template

Finally, we recommend presenters check our OSMG Framework PowerPoint template, as it is an ideal tool for representing a business plan: its goals, strategies, and measures for success. Expose complex processes in a simplified manner by adding this template to your poster presentation.

Remember these three words when making your research poster presentation: develop, design, and present. These are the three main actions toward a successful poster presentation. 

The section below will take you on a step-by-step journey to create your next poster presentation.

Step 1: Define the purpose and audience of your poster presentation

Before making a poster presentation design, you’ll need to plan first. Here are some questions to answer at this point:

• Are they in your field? 
• Do they know about your research topic? 
• What can they get from your research?
• Will you print it?
• Is it for a virtual conference?

Step 2: Make an outline

With a clear purpose and strategy, it’s time to collect the most important information from your research paper, analysis, or documentation. Make a content dump and then select the most interesting information. Use the content to draft an outline.

Outlines help formulate the overall structure better than going straight into designing the poster. Mimic the standard poster structure in your outline using section headlines as separators. Go further and separate the content into the columns they’ll be placed in.

Step 3: Write the content

Write or rewrite the content for the sections in your poster presentation. Use the text in your research paper as a base, but summarize it to be more succinct in what you share. 

Don’t forget to write a catchy title that presents the problem and your findings in a clear way. Likewise, craft the headlines for the sections in a similar tone as the title, creating consistency in the message. Include subtle transitions between sections to help follow the flow of information in order.

Avoid copying/pasting entire sections of the research paper on which the poster is based. Opt for the storytelling approach, so the delivered message results are interesting for your audience. 

Step 4: Put it all together visually

This entire guide on how to design a research poster presentation is the perfect resource to help you with this step. Follow all the tips and guidelines and have an unforgettable poster presentation.

Moving on, here’s how to design a research poster presentation with PowerPoint Templates . Open a new project and size it to the standard 48 x 36 inches. Using the outline, map out the sections on the empty canvas. Add a text box for each title, headline, and body text. Piece by piece, add the content into their corresponding text box.

Transform the text information visually, make bullet points, and place the content in tables and timelines. Make your text visual to avoid chunky text blocks that no one will have time to read. Make sure all text sizes are coherent for all headings, body texts, image captions, etc. Double-check for spacing and text box formatting.

Next, add or create data visualizations, images, or diagrams. Align everything into columns and sections, making sure there’s no overflow. Add captions and legends to the visualizations, and check the color contrast with colleagues and friends. Ask for feedback and progress to the last step.

Step 5: Last touches

Time to check the final touches on your poster presentation design. Here’s a checklist to help finalize your research poster before sending it to printers or the virtual summit rep.

• Check the resolution of all visual elements in your poster design. Zoom to 100 or 200% to see if the images pixelate. Avoid this problem by using vector design elements and high-resolution images.
• Ensure that charts and graphs are easy to read and don’t look crowded.
• Analyze the visual hierarchy. Is there a visual flow through the title, introduction, data, and conclusion?
• Take a step back and check if it’s legible from a distance. Is there enough white space for the content to breathe?
• Does the design look inviting and interesting?

An often neglected topic arises when we need to print our designs for any exhibition purpose. Since A0 is a hard-to-manage format for most printers, these poster presentations result in heftier charges for the user. Instead, you can opt to work your design in two A1 sheets, which also becomes more manageable for transportation. Create seamless borders for the section on which the poster sheets should meet, or work with a white background.

Paper weight options should be over 200 gsm to avoid unwanted damage during the printing process due to heavy ink usage. If possible, laminate your print or stick it to photographic paper – this shall protect your work from spills.

Finally, always run a test print. Gray tints may not be printed as clearly as you see them on screen (this is due to the RGB to CMYK conversion process). Other differences can be appreciated when working with ink jet plotters vs. laser printers. Give yourself enough room to maneuver last-minute design changes.

Presenting a research poster is a big step in the poster presentation cycle. Your poster presentation might or might not be judged by faculty or peers. But knowing what judges look for will help you prepare for the design and oral presentation, regardless of whether you receive a grade for your work or if it’s business related. Likewise, the same principles apply when presenting at an in-person or virtual summit.

The opening statement

Part of presenting a research poster is welcoming the viewer to your small personal area in the sea of poster presentations. You’ll need an opening statement to pitch your research poster and get the viewers’ attention.

Draft a 2 to 3-sentence pitch that covers the most important points:

• What the research is
• Why was it conducted
• What the results say

From that opening statement, you’re ready to continue with the oral presentation for the benefit of your attendees.

The oral presentation

During the oral presentation, share the information on the poster while conversing with the interested public. Practice many times before the event. Structure the oral presentation as conversation points, and use the poster’s visual flow as support. Make eye contact with your audience as you speak, but don’t make them uncomfortable.

Pro Tip: In a conference or summit, if people show up to your poster area after you’ve started presenting it to another group, finish and then address the new visitors.

QA Sessions 

When you’ve finished the oral presentation, offer the audience a chance to ask questions. You can tell them before starting the presentation that you’ll be holding a QA session at the end. Doing so will prevent interruptions as you’re speaking.

If presenting to one or two people, be flexible and answer questions as you review all the sections on your poster.

Supplemental Material

If your audience is interested in learning more, you can offer another content type, further imprinting the information in their minds. Some ideas include; printed copies of your research paper, links to a website, a digital experience of your poster, a thesis PDF, or data spreadsheets.

Your audience will want to contact you for further conversations; include contact details in your supplemental material. If you don’t offer anything else, at least have business cards.

Even though conferences have changed, the research poster’s importance hasn’t diminished. Now, instead of simply creating a printed poster presentation, you can also make it for digital platforms. The final output will depend on the conference and its requirements.

This guide covered all the essential information you need to know for creating impactful poster presentations, from design, structure and layout tips to oral presentation techniques to engage your audience better . 

Before your next poster session, bookmark and review this guide to help you design a winning poster presentation every time. 

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How to Create a Research Poster

• Poster Basics
• Design Tips
• Logos & Images

What is a Research Poster?

Posters are widely used in the academic community, and most conferences include poster presentations in their program.  Research posters summarize information or research concisely and attractively to help publicize it and generate discussion. 

The poster is usually a mixture of a brief text mixed with tables, graphs, pictures, and other presentation formats. At a conference, the researcher stands by the poster display while other participants can come and view the presentation and interact with the author.

What Makes a Good Poster?

• Important information should be readable from about 10 feet away
• Title is short and draws interest
• Word count of about 300 to 800 words
• Text is clear and to the point
• Use of bullets, numbering, and headlines make it easy to read
• Effective use of graphics, color and fonts
• Consistent and clean layout
• Includes acknowledgments, your name and institutional affiliation

A Sample of a Well Designed Poster

View this poster example in a web browser .  

Image credit: Poster Session Tips by [email protected], via Penn State

Where do I begin?

Answer these three questions:.

• What is the most important/interesting/astounding finding from my research project?
• How can I visually share my research with conference attendees? Should I use charts, graphs, photos, images?
• What kind of information can I convey during my talk that will complement my poster?

What software can I use to make a poster?

A popular, easy-to-use option. It is part of Microsoft Office package and is available on the library computers in rooms LC337 and LC336. ( Advice for creating a poster with PowerPoint ).

Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign

Feature-rich professional software that is good for posters including lots of high-resolution images, but they are more complex and expensive.  NYU Faculty, Staff, and Students can access and download the Adobe Creative Suite .

Open Source Alternatives 

• OpenOffice is the free alternative to MS Office (Impress is its PowerPoint alternative).
• Inkscape and Gimp are alternatives to Adobe products.
• For charts and diagrams try Gliffy or Lovely Charts .
• A complete list of free graphics software .

A Sample of a Poorly Designed Poster

View this bad poster example in a browser.

Image Credit: Critique by Better Posters

• Next: Design Tips >>
• Last Updated: Jul 11, 2023 5:09 PM
• URL: https://guides.nyu.edu/posters

• Feb 27, 2018
• 12 min read

How to Design an Award-Winning Scientific Conference Poster

Before we get started, I want you to think about three things that you know about scientific conference posters. Think hard now.

Done? Great! Now erase those ideas from your memory. F O R E V E R.

We need to start fresh.

The problem is that 90% of the scientific posters that you’ve seen at conferences and in

the corridors of your university are TERRIBLE. I mean VERY TERRIBLE!!! Therefore, any

ideas you might have about what a scientific poster should look like are probably, well. . . terrible. But it’s not your fault, and we’ll set things straight in this post, so hang tight!

First off, let’s make clear what a poster is NOT.

A poster is not a bottomless pit where you dump all of your data and technical lingo. Only carefully selected information and visuals should go into your poster. I know you have eight fancy 3D plots that you can’t wait to share with the world, but ask yourself, are they really necessary? Do you really need eight of them when just one would do the trick?

Now let’s talk about what a poster should be instead.

Above all, a poster should be a networking tool . The primary purpose of a poster is not to communicate every little detail of your fantastic research, but rather to attract

people’s attention and serve as a conversation starter. Think about the typical conference poster session; it’s at the end of the day, and there is often copious amounts of alcohol in the mix. Seriously, after a long day of presentations, no one wants to read walls of text as the wine kicks in. What they want is for you to share the story of your research and engage in informal conversation about it. Repeat after me, a poster is a conversation starter. And the poster is not going to do the talking for you.

Second, a poster is a communication tool. A poster should use visuals to draw people in from a distance. Then, as people step closer and begin reading it, go ahead and give the background information necessary so that they can put your work into context, understand what you have done, why you have done it, and come to realize its broader impact.

Does this ring a bell? It’s no coincidence that the key information you’d include in your poster is the same information that you’d find in any scientific abstract. And here’s the secret: a scientific poster is simply a visual abstract . It’s also known as a graphical abstract. A concise and visual summary of your research. Its purpose is to be accessible and to drive attention to your research.

If you’re the type of researcher who best learns by example, take some inspiration from some amazing posters made by scientists who have mastered the fundamentals!

As academics, we like to write using impossible words, passive tenses, and convoluted sentences. We believe this is the way it should be done and what makes us seem most intelligent. The reality is, this is a selfish way of writing and does not take the reader into account . So please, break this vicious cycle of selfish scientific writing and design your poster with the reader in mind from the start.

How? Let me show you.

Step 1 – Scripting

Before you consider opening PowerPoint, or any other design software, open Microsoft Word.

Any word processor will do, but make sure that it has the ability to track your word count and checks your spelling. The latter is particularly important, as I learned the hard way by missing an award because of a bloody typo!

Target audience . Ask yourself, who is my ideal audience for this poster? Is it other experts in your field, or perhaps the broader public? What is their level of understanding of the subject? This is an important question because if you put a bit of effort into making your poster understandable to the broader public, you automatically increase your potential audience and impact. Also consider that a poster written in plain English works with both experts and non-experts alike, while technical and complicated writing greatly limits your potential audience.

Bullet points. A poster should not look like a paper, therefore, bullet points are your friend. 200-word paragraphs on a poster would discourage even the most motivated, sober, and caffeinated conference attendant. Bullet points on the other hand are a lot less frightening. There is a trend among some academics to slap a solid 200-or-so word abstract right at the top of their posters. Let me set the record straight. This has to stop. Your whole poster is a VISUAL abstract, so it makes no sense whatsoever to put a solid block of text that no one is going to read at the top of your poster. Exception: If you’re ashamed of how terrible your data are and you don’t want people to look at your poster, then go for it, put that abstract at the top. It’ll do a wonderful job at keeping people at a safe distance!

Use sections with headers. Because we are writing with the reader in mind, we want to make the logical flow of the sections as easy as possible for the viewer to follow. My advice is to have large, easy-to-read and numbered sections that cover the main pillars of the story, which typically are:

1 – Background

2 – Questions / knowledge gap

3 – Methods (keep this to the bare minimum or skip it if you can)

4 – Results

5 – Conclusions

6 – References and acknowledgements (smaller at the bottom)

Less words. I know this is going to shock many of you, but you should keep your word count under 250 in total. Possibly <150 words. I’m serious. The harsh reality is that if your poster is wordy, people will ignore it. Less is definitely more.

Graphs. I know that you’re proud of your amazing graphs (especially those fancy multi-dimensional plots with lots of colours). Unfortunately, I have a bad news for you. You need to leave most of them out. You need to carefully select only the very essentials. One or two graphs is better than three or four, and certainly better than eight or nine! When selecting the graphs to display, also ask yourself who your audience is. This is important because if you are using your poster as an outreach tool for the general public, then there is no point in including complicated graphs that no one is going to understand. However, things are different if you are showing your poster exclusively to an audience of experts. In that case, it’s safe to assume your audience can read your graphs.

Step 2 – Concept

Here is where the fun starts. Grab a piece of paper, or open up your design software , and make a first draft. There’s definitely some logic involved in how you choose to blueprint your poster.

Layout and size. Vertical or horizontal? You better check with the conference organisers, as you don’t want to show up at the conference with a poster that doesn’t fit the panels. A0 (841 x 1189 mm or 33.1 x 46.8 inches) is a good standard size to start. Keep in mind that when you design posters, it’s always safer to downsize than to upsize, as upsizing a digital image based on a pixel grid will inevitably cause a loss of resolution.

Panels. How do we read, left to right or right to left? Top-down or bottom-up? It may seem obvious, but I always see posters that are visually confusing and don’t have a clear directional flow. Start with an enlarged and readable title right at the top, then create a simple layout of panels that make it easy for the viewer to navigate. Remember that we’re committed to keep the reader in mind, so use arrows and numbered headers to help them out.

Leave space at the edges. Notice the grey space in the images above? It’s important to leave some blank space around the edges for a couple of reasons. First, you don’t want to risk important information to be cut off when printing, and second, you don’t want your poster to feel cluttered. This blank space is also known as negative space, and we’re going to unpack this concept more in the next section.

You’re half-way there! If you’re finding this useful, we recommend our online course: How to Design an Award-Winning Scientific Poster. You can learn at your own pace and arm yourself with the tools, templates, skills and knowledge to create your own award-winning scientific posters. It includes 33 video lessons, 3 hours of learning, 8 templates & downloads and is an excellent investment for your career.

Step 3 – Design

Negative space. For some strange reason, many academics feel the need to cover every inch of their poster with text or images. This is the wrong idea! It’s bad because it makes it difficult for the viewer to find the relevant information and to rest their eye. Clear space, also known as negative space, is a super important design concept, one that you should use to your advantage. Get ready for it. . . 40% of your poster should be clear. I am serious!

Eye-catching visuals. Imagine you’re walking around a poster session, and you’re far enough away from the posters that you can’t read titles or graphs. What will compel you to walk towards a particular poster? It’ll likely be a recognisable image that grabs your attention. Without a big and recognisable image, your poster will look like a fuzzy wall of text and it will likely go unnoticed. Therefore, it’s smart to include one big visual that’s related to your research and has the ability to hook people in from a distance. Be it a rocket, a lion, or an octopus — what matters is that it’s there.

Colour. This should be common sense, yet still I often get my retina scarred by the most unbearable colour combinations on scientific posters. Choosing a colour scheme is more than just intuition - there’s logic involved too.

Use a limited number of colours, say three-to-five, and stick with them! Graphs included. My suggestion is that you have two or three shades of a primary colour of your choice, an accent colour that stands out, and a couple of text colours. In a colour scheme of this kind, you can use the accent colour to draw attention to where you want people to look. The important thing is that you use the accent colour in moderation. Let me show you what I mean.

See how the 87% and the dot points stand out? This is the effect you want to recreate on your own posters. Feel free to steal these colour schemes, and in case you need some more inspiration, Material Palette is a free tool that creates colour palettes for you based on two colours of your choice.

Background. I know you have that awesome photo you really want to include in the poster. Why not blow it up and use it as the background of the whole poster?

NO! Don’t do it! You’re not doing yourself or the viewer any favours. A photo used as a background is too distracting and makes it impossible to have negative space on your poster. It’s much better to leave the background white, grey, or filled with a light colour from your colour palette.

Fonts. Fonts and font sizes work a bit like colours. That is, the fewer you use, the better. My suggestion is to use only one or two different fonts. Boldface should be used on titles and headlines, while all the rest should be normal. When picking what fonts to use, play it safe. Stick with the classic Arial, Myriad Pro, and other familiar fonts and you can’t go wrong. I know you’re tempted to use that super-original font that you’ve just discovered, but please, spare us. In terms of font size, try 90 for the Title, 60 for the headlines, and 36 for the body text. And remember that your poster should not require a magnifying glass to be read, but rather it should be easily readable from a meter away. If you’re keen to learn more about the word of fonts, and what the heck ‘serif’ means, we’ve got you covered .

Contact information. It may seem strange, but a lot of people forget to write their contact information on their posters. You may have a stunning poster, but how are people going to contact you and offer you a postdoc if you’re not around and your email is not on the poster? Slap on a QR code to your Twitter profile or LinkedIn! Even better, put a few business cards or a miniature A4 version of the poster (with contact info) beside the poster for people to take. This will have you looking very professional!

Photo. Most people don’t even think about this, but it’s a good idea to put a photo of you in one of the lower corners of your poster near your contact info. This is good practice as it makes the poster more human and even allows people to identify you and, if you’re lucky, buy you a drink because you impressed them with such a stunning poster. Hey, you never know.

Resources. You’re probably not an artist, so where can you source quality visuals to put on your poster? Well, you can hire a professional scientific illustrator, or you can utilise one of the plenty free resources on the web. If you’re in the environmental sciences, the IAN image library is a great free library of graphics. Another great website to find free illustrations and icons is Freepik . Happy browsing! Though if you feel like getting in touch with your creative side, we’ve got a handy guide for making some simple scientific icons and diagrams.

Software. Some of you may be thinking that to make great posters you need great (and expensive) software. Wrong! All you really need is Microsoft PowerPoint and the principles contained in this blog post. Feeling like trying something more powerful? We’ve put together an extensive list of free and paid software recommendations for not only making posters, but for also learning the foundations of graphic design. But if you’re in the market for a quick and FREE solution, check out Canva . Then if you’re really up for a challenge, use Affinity Designer , Adobe Illustrator or Indesign . However, be ready for a steep learning curve and a substantial investment on these latter options. On the bright side, Adobe always has significant educational discounts for students and university staff.

Step 4 – Getting your poster ready for print.

Get feedback. You’ve designed your masterpiece. Awesome! Congratulations! Now it’s time to get feedback from your supervisor and/or colleagues before printing it. Ask them to proofread it too. And remember that people are busy, so do this well in advance, as printing often takes longer than you’d imagine.

Dummy. Before spending money printing your poster, you really want to make a dummy as a final check. Print your poster A4, or even better A3 size if you can, and triple check that important information isn’t too close to the margins. You’re likely going to put your picture in a corner, so you want to ensure your face isn’t going to get cut in half!

Colour profile. If you designed your poster with professional software, you’ll have the ability to control the colour profile. Nothing complicated, there are two options: RGB and CMYK. The first one is for digital use, and the second one is for printing — pick the second one. That’s all you need to know.

Resolution. If you designed your poster big enough from the start (e.g. A0), you should be alright. As a rule of thumb, your resolution for high-quality printing posters and images should be around 300 dpi (dots per inch).

Where to print. You have many options, from the big office supplies stores like Officeworks , to the small print shops around campus. Print time varies from place to place, so be sure to plan this ahead of time.

Paper. Shiny things are pretty, but it’s better to avoid shiny and glossy papers when it comes to posters, as they can create annoying reflections. Matte papers are best. But paper isn’t the only option these days, some stores can even print your poster on canvas or cloth.

Tubes and foldable posters. The most common is to print your poster on paper which fits into a cardboard tube. This is fine if you don’t need to take you poster on a flight, but have you considered that the tube might exceed the standard carry-on size limit? There is a solution! Some stores like Officeworks can print your poster on soft cloth materials that you can fold into your suitcase! And in case your poster gets a little wrinkly, all you need to do is to iron it. I tried this and I was very impressed by the print quality. The colours looked great!

Conference got cancelled? And it’s now online? We completely understand the frustration of having to cancel your travel plans to that amazing conference in the Swiss Alps. While we can’t solve the travelling part, your poster can still make the trip! We’re now living in an internet-native society, so having your poster on the world wide web should be a no-brainer. We call these ePosters. Check out how to convert your poster to this exciting new format. But for argument’s sake let’s hope your conference stays in person, because who would want to miss out on the Alps?

Oh, and one last thing. Remember when I said that a poster is a conversation starter? It’s true, so you need to prepare and sharpen your pitch! Practice walking people through your poster in about a minute, and then start a conversation with them. How? Asking them what they work on is a good start. The secret to a good conversation is showing interest and listening. People love to talk about themselves and their research, so let them talk! It’s as easy as that.

This was a long post with lots of information, so I’m impressed you made it this far! 

But, we’ve only just scratched the surface.

To properly cover this topic, we’ve developed a whole online course: How to Design an Award-Winning Scientific Poster. You can learn at your own pace and arm yourself with the tools, templates, skills and knowledge to create your own award-winning scientific posters. We’ve had excellent feedback on the 33 video lessons, 3 hours of learning and 8 templates & downloads included - so we’re confident that you’ll love it too.

Haven’t got the time to make your own Award-Winning poster?

We completely understand that learning is a huge time commitment, especially for busy researchers. We’ve been there and totally sympathise. But don’t fret, you still have another award-winning option we KNOW you'll love.

Animate Your Science now has their very own line of scientific poster templates! These are perfect for those who really need to get started on their poster for next week’s conference (you know who you are 🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏾‍♂️), without the fuss of making it from scratch.

Lovingly handcrafted by our creative experts, these templates are downloadable across 4 different file formats, include 50 science icons, feature 8 unique colour schemes, and include our specially selected list of fonts to match your aesthetic.

Plug and play, and try them out today!

Until next time!

Dr Tullio Rossi

Juan Miguel Balbin

#scicomm #poster #science

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Most people use Microsoft Powerpoint to design their posters - it's a common program that's easy to use. In this guide, we'll assume that you're using Powerpoint.

If you'd like to explore other options, you could also use graphic design software such as Photoshop or InDesign, or a program meant specifically for creating posters.

• Poster Perfect An article from The Scientist Magazine with tips on effective poster design.
• Ten Simple Rules for a Good Poster Presentation This article also includes advice on the poster session itself.
• Mortal Sins in Poster Presentations or How to Give the Poster No One Remembers What not to do.
• APHA Guidelines for Accessible Posters Rules for accessible poster presentations.
• Designing Conference Posters This page has lots of great advice on poster design.
• UCLA Undergraduate Research Center-Presenting Your Research General tips on poster design from the Undergraduate Research Center.
• URC Workshops If you're a UCLA undergraduate, you can attend a URC-sponsored abstract or poster workshop in Spring quarter.
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How to Make a Good Poster Presentation

• First Online: 02 February 2019

Cite this chapter

• Baris Kocaoglu 8 ,
• Paulo Henrique Araujo 9 &
• Carola Francisca van Eck 10  

2696 Accesses

Poster presentations are a key component of any scientific conference. They are an excellent platform for a researcher to present their study to a large audience. Therefore, it is important to prepare the presentation in a way that catches the eye of the people attending the meeting while presenting the key data in an easy to interpret format. This will encourage the audience to engage in an academic discussion, which is vital for the researcher to obtain feedback on their study. This chapter aims to help orthopedic researchers in preparation and presentation of a scientific poster. After reading this chapter, the reader should know the various different types of poster presentation, be familiar with the technical aspect of how to make their own poster, and understand what to do at the scientific meeting to get the most out of presenting their research in poster format.

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Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Acibadem University Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey

Baris Kocaoglu

Santa Luzia Hospital, Clínica COB, Brasília, Brazil

Paulo Henrique Araujo

Department of Orthopedic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Rooney Sports Complex, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Carola Francisca van Eck

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Correspondence to Carola Francisca van Eck .

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Volker Musahl

Department of Orthopaedics, Sahlgrenska Academy, Gothenburg University, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden

Jón Karlsson

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology, Kantonsspital Baselland (Bruderholz, Laufen und Liestal), Bruderholz, Switzerland

Michael T. Hirschmann

McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

Olufemi R. Ayeni

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Norimasa Nakamura

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Kocaoglu, B., Araujo, P.H., van Eck, C.F. (2019). How to Make a Good Poster Presentation. In: Musahl, V., et al. Basic Methods Handbook for Clinical Orthopaedic Research. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-58254-1_23

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iPosters and Betterposter: How to create a conference poster that people want to read

Download free templates, or make the switch to digital-only.

Marc J. Kuchner

Researchers meet and share their research in the poster hall at the AGU Fall Meeting. Credit: Gary Wagner Photos (garywagnerphotos.com)

6 February 2020

Gary Wagner Photos (garywagnerphotos.com)

Researchers meet and share their research in the poster hall at the AGU Fall Meeting.

A few years ago, presenting a poster at a scientific conference inevitably meant battling with thumbtacks, rubber bands, and an unwieldly sail of paper with little power to inspire. Now researchers are increasingly opting for digital posters and templated designs that highlight – rather than obscure – their key findings.

I recently attended the 2019 annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco, where 17,909 scientific posters were displayed over the course of a week. Many of these posters were visually arresting and cleverly constructed. And some were entirely online.

Since 2017, the AGU has been inviting presenters to submit digital poster ideas. Known as iPosters, they can support videos and animations, and are displayed on giant, interactive touch-screens.

That year, 117 iPoster submissions were approved for display at the conference. In 2018, that number had jumped to 775 iPosters, and last year, there were 995.

“The audience is jazzed about them,” says AGU executive program manager, Erik Hankin. “There’s an excitement around the technology and how it can overcome the limitations of a paper poster.”

The digital poster’s advantages go far beyond not having to lug around a 40-inch cardboard tube. Presenters can easily make last-minute changes to the content, and they can be instantly converted to other digital formats so they can be shared or uploaded to a website.

“I like not having to deal with the university printing office or worry about leaving it on the train,” says Leah Wood, a PhD student from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. “And I think it’s more engaging.”

PhD student Leah Wood, explaining her digital poster at this winter’s meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Credit: Marc Kuchner

The AGU asked iPoster presenters to give brief talks about their research (called eLightning talks), and those were a hit as well.

“I think it’s the best of both worlds between giving an oral presentation and a poster presentation,” says Wood. “These three-minute talks are just right to give an elevator pitch and encourage people to come and play with the poster.”

Paper posters aren’t done yet

The downside of running a digital poster session is that it costs more than a conventional poster session, and someone has to foot the bill.

Conference organizers pay aMuze Interactive, a US- and Sweden-based company, for the use of proprietary iPoster software, and often a second company to truck in the special monitors and display hardware.

Some conferences can charge as much as $1,000 extra to participants who present digital posters to cover these expenses.

If that cost precludes you from going digital, progress has touched the paper side of the poster hall, too.

We’ve also seen improvements in the design of scientific posters. In 2019, Mike Morrison, a PhD student in psychology at Michigan State University, created a viral video calling out the inadequacy of conventional posters and introducing his own free downloadable poster templates called betterposters .

Morrison’s betterposter design includes small portraits of each author so conference-goers can recognize their faces in a crowd. They also include QR codes that can be scanned to bring up the relevant paper and other supplementary material on a user’s smartphone.

But the hallmark of the betterposter is a big dark square, smack in the middle of the poster, containing a single sentence that states the primary result of the research. It’s written so large that it’s impossible for conference-goers not to read it as they walk by.

my first attempt at a #betterposter come find out what happens! #ELSO2019 pic.twitter.com/NxfgQBMhEE — Brendan Riordan (@concernecus) September 14, 2019

@drdavidliew presents his poster #2685 #ACRbest #ACR19 @RheumNow come check out the Australian Experience of TA bx. pic.twitter.com/quQrEhv8x3 — Dr. Rachel Tate (@uptoTate) November 12, 2019

My colleague, Petr Pokorny, a planetary science postdoc from the Catholic University of America in Washington and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, tried using a betterposter template for the first time at the 2019 AGU meeting.

“It was a huge success. I got about 100 people stopping to read the poster and take pictures of it,” says Pokorny. “And it was a pretty dead part of the room.”

Petr Pokorny’s betterposter conference poster. (Kuchner is a co-author on the paper.) Credit: Marc Kuchner

Learn from the best

My hope for the future of conference posters is to see the aMuze iPoster templates incorporate some of the clever elements of the betterposter concept.

Although the digital posters I saw last year were easy enough to interact with, I often found myself struggling to understand the main point of the research being presented.

The betterposter templates are designed to put the “so what?” factor at the front and centre of the presentation – quite literally – which often solves this problem.

Here are some of my favourites that have been posted to Twitter:

@ghs_org Health Sciences Center Research Showcase today - lots of great feedback on our #betterposter design! @Laura_MPH pic.twitter.com/ngHq8PAc6t — Jacqueline Forrester (@jacforrester) April 12, 2019

Presenting research at @metals_in in Paris this week! Got creative with this one following some inspiration from @mikemorrison . *Note the skull decorated with orbitals to represent cytotoxicity! #CHEMISTRY #betterposter #Paris pic.twitter.com/HhgmfSIJL6 — Miles S Capper (@CapperMiles) November 15, 2019

Giving the #betterposter template a go at #NAPCRG2019 and have caught some eyeballs. Success 🤷🏻‍♀️ Come learn about primary care patient volume and quality of care for complex patients with me 😊 pic.twitter.com/ZIyVnbHdCI — Natasha Lane (@NatashaErinLane) November 19, 2019

Thank you #IPOS2019 for the opportunity to present my research on #symptom perception in #AYAcancer survivors today. My first #betterposter design was seemingly a success :) pic.twitter.com/9qgFcojP7W — Lauren Heathcote, PhD (@LCHeathcote) September 24, 2019

Search the #betterposter hashtag on Twitter to see more examples.

And to avoid that crushing feeling that results from unfurling a crinkled poster, you can also order a cloth fabric poster at makesigns.com or postersmith.com .

Marc J. Kuchner is an astrophysicist and the author of Marketing for Scientists: How to Shine in Tough Times. Photo by Gary Wagner Photos .

Scientific Conference Posters: Conference Posters

Poster samples & sharing.

Search these sites to get ideas on how posters are presented within your discipline.

Also, if you upload your poster to one of these sites you can provide handouts or bookmarks with links to the electronic version of your poster at the conference, and keep your work accessible long after the conference.

• Faculty of 1000 Research Posters Open access repository for posters and slide presentations across biology and medicine.
• eposters Open-access journal that provides free access to over 1,800 scientific and medical posters presented at conferences from around the world.
• FigShare This link opens in a new window figshare allows users to upload any file format so that scholarly information can be disseminated electronically.

Designing a Research Poster

The following resources provide guidance on the poster creation process .

• ACP American College of Physicians - Preparing a Poster Presentation This article addresses poster planning, production, and presentation.

• Makesigns Scientific Poster Tutorial Step-by-step guide to poster design and creation.

These resources can be used to obtain copyright compliant images .  Image resolution will vary.

• USC Academic Unit Logotypes University approved logos.
• Open-i - Open Access Biomedical Image Search Engine This link opens in a new window Open-i searches for images in all Open Access articles indexed in PubMed Central. Search over 600,000 copyright compliant images by keyword, topic, or image to find relevant or visually similar images.
• Pixabay This link opens in a new window Repository of free, high quality, copyright compliant images. Begin typing "medical" into the search box. Click dropdown menu to filter by image type. Sign up for free account to download images.
• Wikimedia Commons This link opens in a new window A database of freely usable, high resolution image files.
• Google Images This link opens in a new window For copyright compliant images: type in keywords, click "Search tools", click on "Usage rights" dropdown menu, select from the "Labeled for reuse" options.
• Multimedia Resources (in the Health Sciences) Guide Find videos, audio clips, images, and cases to use in education.

Working with images

• Tips for working with images in Publisher Vendor tips for working with images in Publisher. Includes content about image size, resolution, file formats, and refining.
• Photoshop isn’t the only solution: 5 best programs for resizing images This article provides step-by-step instructions on how to upsample images using Photoshop, GIMP, Windows Live Photo Gallery, Preview, and Pixlr.

Image Manipulation Guidelines

Low resolution images may be manipulated to improve print quality, however you want to proceed with caution when it comes to images that represent research data.

• Rossner, M., & Yamada, K. (2004). What's in a picture? The temptation of image manipulation. The Journal of Cell Biology, 11-15. PMID: 15240566 This article provides specific guidelines on the do's and dont's of image manipulation in scientific publishing in order to ensure the integrity of your data.

Poster Sample / Tips

Diagram image citation:  Blausen.com staff. " Blausen gallery 2014". Wikiversity Journal of Medicine. DOI:10.15347/ wjm /2014.010. ISSN 20018762. (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

• Scientific Conference Posters - Webinar This video provides an overview of some tools, resources and key elements to creating a conference poster. Content covers software, general content, design tips, provides image resources, and tips for improved print quality. ~35 min.
• Conference Poster Click here to download a pdf copy of the poster above.
• Scientific Posters PPT slides Click here to download video PPT slides.

Click on chart to access online.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/new-pastpresentfuture/3800240305 /

• Psychology of Color This site provides information on the meaning of color and how it is perceived.
• The Art of Color Coordination How to combine colors in order to have a positive effect on your audience.

Upsampling images in Photoshop

Through a process called upsampling , you can add pixels to low resolution images , and thereby improve the print quality . The short video below demonstrates how to upsample images in Photoshop .

Final Checklist

https://www.acponline.org/system/files/documents/education_recertification/education/program_directors/abstracts/prepare/poster_checklist.pdf

Universal Design

Universal Design is the design and composition of an environment so that it can be accessed, understood and used to the greatest extent possible by all people, regardless of their age, size or disability. 

• Equal Access: Universal Design of Conference Exhibits and Presentations A checklist for making conference exhibits and presentations welcoming and accessible to everyone.

Microsoft Publisher Tutorials

The following resources provide guidance on how to use Microsoft Publisher . Resources at the top provide step-by-step guidance about poster creation. Links at the bottom provide general guidance on using Publisher.

• Microsoft Publisher: Conference Poster Sessions University of Liverpool's Microsoft Publisher software video tutorial. Step-by-step demonstration of the key features used to create a poster. Applicable to Publisher 2010, 2013, and 2016. Run time ~12 min.
• Publisher 2016 Essential Training Training videos via Lynda.com that offer in-depth instruction to Publisher 2016.
• Text wrapping in Publisher Guide on how to wrap text around images in Publisher.

PowerPoint Templates & Tutorials

Links to freely available PowerPoint conference poster templates , and guidance for specific software features relevant to poster creation . 

• PhD Posters - Power Point Template Files PPT templates in a variety of sizes. Packed with helpful tips and easy to customize.
• Mega Print Inc - Free Powerpoint Scientific Research Poster Templates PowerPoint® 2007-2013 templates in a variety of sizes.
• Colin Purrington's PPT Poster Templates Free PPT templates and poster making tips.
• Using grids in PowerPoint Guide on how to set up grids in PPT for better content alignment.
• Creating a Poster in PowerPoint 2010 Eastern Michigan University's detailed guide to creating a poster in PowerPoint.

Other Software

Graphics , such as charts and tables can easily be created in Excel .

• Creating Excel charts with the Recommended Charts feature Lynda.com video tutorial that demonstrates how to create charts in Excel 2013. Requires login.

Print Vendors

The following list is provided as a convenience , and is not meant to endorse or promote any particular vendor.

• PhD Posters Fabric or paper options. Also offers free PPT templates and many poster creation tips.
• PosterSmith Fabric posters.

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Research Posters

• Elements of a poster

WHAT MAKES A GREAT POSTER?

• Step by step
• Visualizations & images
• Illinois logo
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• More Resources
• Oral Presentations
• 2024 Undergraduate Research Symposium This link opens in a new window
• Colin Purrington - Designing conference posters
• The poster sessions pool - Flickr
• F1000Research Open access repository for posters and slide presentations in biology and medicine.
• Better Posters - A Blog Academic conference posters are often ugly, with tiny text, confusing layouts, and dubious colour schemes. Better Posters is about making posters informative and beautiful.
• << Previous: Elements of a poster
• Next: Step by step >>
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Blog Data Visualization 12 Scientific Poster Examples [And How To Create One]

12 Scientific Poster Examples [And How To Create One]

Written by: Ivonna Cabrera Jul 02, 2023

Truth be told, scientific posters are effective at piquing interest. It’s incredible how graphics and presentation style can attract audiences.

Want to make a scientific poster but don’t know how? Well, you no longer need to be a design guru if you use Venngage’s Poster Maker .

You can speed up the process even more by using our scientific poster templates.

Before I dive right into scientific poster examples, let’s discuss what scientific posters are in the first place.

Click to jump ahead:

What is a scientific poster?

Best examples of scientific posters, how to create a scientific poster, what makes a good scientific poster.

• What you need to make a scientific poster
• What’s the purpose of a scientific or research poster?

A scientific poster is a visual presentation of research findings or scientific information shared with audiences at conferences, symposiums, and academic events. Scientific posters generally provide information on topics their authors are currently discussing.

Many scientists, researchers and medical experts use scientific posters to explain their findings in a simple and easy-to-understand format.

Of course, text isn’t the best way to show how scientific posters work.

So, I’ll let these examples do the talking.

Academic scientific poster examples

An academic scientific poster presents complicated information in a visually appealing manner.

Choosing the right poster layout is important here. Generally, sections such as an introduction, use, process, and takeaways allow students to understand a process or concept in a step-by-step method.

Here’s a great example of a scientific poster that discusses distillation:

Just so you know, some of our scientific poster templates are free to use and some require a small monthly fee. Sign up is always free, as is access to Venngage’s online drag-and-drop editor.

Often, it’s also important to separate information into categories and develop data in a clear and concise manner.

Is your scientific poster focused on environmental issues? Explore our gallery of environmental poster templates for inspiration and designs tailored to your topic.

Chemistry poster examples

Chemistry posters play a vital role in the scientific community by highlighting the importance of chemistry as a subject.

They also promote a deeper understanding of its principles and applications.

Here’s a great example:

A chemistry poster is usually organized in a logical and structured manner to effectively convey information.

Here are some common elements you can find in chemistry posters:

• Introduction

Here’s another example of a chemistry poster that displays only the abstract to hook the reader.

Lab poster examples

Lab posters are effective at sharing scientific knowledge, promoting discussion and collaboration, and disseminating research findings.

They provide a visual platform to showcase research efforts and contribute to the advancement of scientific knowledge in various fields of study.

In the lab poster below, the impact of overeating and binge drinking on the health of college students is presented in a format that anyone can understand the takeaway in a single glance.

Now that you know everything about scientific posters, it’s time to create your own.

Step 1 – Sign up for a free Venngage account

Start the process by  signing up  for Venngage with your email, Gmail or Facebook account.

Step 2 – Select a template from our library

Besides the examples above, you’ll find a sizeable collection of poster templates and specifically scientific posters to choose from.

There’s a template for every need, from a scientific poster for a case study review to templates focused on presenting complex data.

Step 3 – Edit your scientific poster with our editor

All our scientific poster templates can be edited using a simple drag-and-drop interface.

Feel free to change the colors, text, icons, or illustrations to make the design your own or simply input your data to have an optimized scientific poster in minutes.

Step 4 – Bring your scientific poster to life with icons, illustrations and branding elements

Venngage offers 40,000 icons and illustrations to help you visualize and bring a scientific poster to life.

If you upgrade to a  Business  account, you can also enjoy  My Brand Kit  — the one-click branding kit that lets you upload your logo and apply brand colors and fonts to any design.

Step 5 – Share a link to your scientific poster or upgrade to download

Once you upgrade to a  Business  account, you can download your scientific poster as a PNG, PDF, or interactive PDF.

But you can always share your scientific poster online for free.

Searching for a tech poster template? Explore these tech poster designs for useful and innovative templates.

A good scientific poster is often an attractive and easy-to-read presentation of scientific research .

They may include images, diagrams, graphs and tables, and they often focus on one or two main points.

Combining data and design together makes it easy for readers to dissect information easily, thanks to an attention-grabbing layout, simplified language and easy-to-follow jargon explanations where necessary.

A lot of layouts allow you to prioritize information and separate it into circles or boxes, like in the template above.

This type of poster design allows the reader to consume less time when reading the full context of a situation.

What do you need to make a useful scientific poster?

This is the section you’ve been waiting for — the best way to make a scientific poster from scratch.

Read on to learn about the steps below, and they come with easy-to-follow examples, too.

Study good scientific or academic poster examples

Venngage has great scientific poster templates for your first scientific poster. You can customize these templates using Venngage’s drag-and-drop editor.

Let’s take a look at each of them below.

The sparse but surgically precise use of text here contrasts the lush use of plants to explain photosynthesis.

Short explanations can be accompanied by explainer text in corner resource boxes that discuss the other details of photosynthesis.

Good science poster examples are readable from 10 feet away

There are many reasons why posters should be readable from 10 feet away.

The main reason is to allow readers to fully understand the concept from where they stand or walk.

For example, in a school or office hall, bulletin boards are usually 5 to 10 feet away from potential viewers. A poster that can be viewed within this range entices the audience to come closer and read the details.

School posters effectively engage students by presenting visual content that reinforces learning objectives or communicates important information. Browse our collection of school poster templates for inspiration and ideas.

The second reason is to allow readers to quickly comprehend the poster.

People usually don’t have time to stop and read a poster. In a school or office, everyone’s walking to do something urgently.

Thus, you don’t want to take up too much of your time reading jargon and difficult concepts that even academic peers can take hours to read and interpret.

Being readable from 10 feet away makes it easy for readers to understand your research.

You can use varying font sizes to create great posters. For digital campaigns, make sure that your posters are suitable for modern browsers.

Venngage’s  My Brand Kit  feature allows you to create posters that help your audience understand valuable info.

This is a special tool for Business accounts that allows you to upload logos, choose fonts, and set color palettes to your scientific posters .

Use our real-time collaboration feature to invite team members and work together. You can also leave comments and get feedback instantly.

Alternatively, share your design online, on social media, or via email completely for free.

Make an attention-grabbing, short headline

Attention-grabbing headlines are easy for science articles and posters.

It’s always thrilling to find out about a new plant species or discoveries that debunk old theories.

It’s a good idea to use best practices in making attention-grabbing headlines, even if it is just casual scientific content for social media.

Titles that draw attention and engagement include:

• Trending topics Create headlines according to what is trending. For example, if your study discusses climate change , align your headline to this topic to engage readers.
• Controversial developments An old textbook fact being false is a controversial and surprising topic which you can easily sum up in a headline.
• Issues that address curiosity Humans are naturally curious, so tickling the audience’s curiosity is a great way to create a compelling and attention-grabbing headline.

Use bullets and numbering to make a list easier to read

Bullets, lists and clear language are all tools that improve readability.

Even without fancy graphics and poster backgrounds , a short-sentence, simple-worded post with bullets and lists makes it easy to understand any topic.

Bulleted lists make each subtopic of your scientific poster easy to read. Plus, it allows readers to jump from one subtopic to another without feeling like they missed information along the way.

Designers of scientific posters find it easier to design bulleted and list content because they can place every bullet in different sections, making the poster easy to read.

If you used bullets instead of boxes to explain each subtopic in this poster, you could still read it easily — just not from 10 feet away.

Ensure layout consistency

Layout consistency is the uniform appearance of elements within a design.

It is achieved by employing the same layout, color and typography throughout an entire design.

For example, if a web page uses a consistent layout, each page will be uniform in appearance but not necessarily in content.

Layout consistency is achieved by employing the same pattern, color and typography throughout an entire design. This uniform appearance helps readers navigate for better organization. 

Creating layout consistency is of crucial importance in scientific poster design because coherence creates a familiar mood and attachment for readers.

This template uses the same fonts and complementary colors that give the scientific poster its own coherent, attention-grabbing and informative personality

Related:  Stay ahead of graphic design trends that can help you with your scientific poster design!

Include acknowledgments, names and affiliations

Lastly, all scientific posters include their acknowledgments, researcher names and affiliations underneath the poster.

You can use a footnote to include these details or a resource box. Plus, if you used any links as references in your research, add them to this section.

If you were the researcher involved in this scientific poster , you could include all the information I’ve mentioned underneath the last paragraph using a line to indicate that they are acknowledgments and author information.

Searching for a research poster? Browse through our collection of research poster templates in to get started!

What is the purpose of a scientific poster?

Academics are the only ones who can read and understand a technical scientific paper.

To a normal reader, a research paper’s language and syntax are challenging. Scientific papers don’t prioritize reading flow in their outlines or exposition of data, methods and results.

But with a well-made and creative poster , reading a technical paper becomes easier.

For example, effective scientific posters include images that explain complicated terms.

At the same time, the poster layout makes data and text easy to read. Lastly, scientific posters use simple language that allows even young children to understand concepts.

FAQ about scientific posters

I know you’re all set to make your own designs, but you might want to have these questions answered too.

What should a scientific poster include?

A scientific poster should include an easy-to-follow layout, graphics and color schemes that don’t take away from the reading experience. Successful scientific posters also use short sentences, simple language and bullet points.

How do you write a good scientific poster?

Researchers must focus on the evidence behind the research. Afterward, they can concentrate on using simple language and short sentences to explain their point. Short text and simple words make it easier for graphic designers to create posters with an intuitive layout.

How do you write a scientific title for a poster?

Focus on aligning your title with human emotions and curiosity. Outside human emotions, you can align your titles toward controversial or trending issues. This article dedicates an entire section to writing a great scientific title for a poster, so you should head there to learn more!

Our  Poster Maker guarantees that you’ll make the most intuitive and well-designed scientific posters in a single session.

Make the best scientific posters within minutes today!

Now, you’re ready to make your own scientific posters for print or website use!

If you’re short on ideas, you can use Venngage’s scientific poster templates for inspiration. Besides access to scores of templates, you also get a free drag-and-drop web-based editor by signing up for a FREE Venngage account today. Register now!

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Conference attendees will look at your poster only briefly, so a clear presentation is crucial

A scientific poster is an illustrated abstract of research that is displayed at meetings and conferences. A poster is a good way of presenting your information because it can reach a large audience, including people who might not be in your field. It is also a useful step towards publishing your research. Some conferences publish poster abstracts, which then count as publications in their own right.

A successful poster captures the viewer’s attention and communicates the key points clearly and succinctly. One author reviewed 142 posters at a national meeting and found that 33% were cluttered or sloppy, 22% had fonts that were too small to be easily read, and 38% had research objectives that could not be located in a one minute review. 1 Avoiding these mistakes is important to ensure your poster has a positive impact.

Where do I start?

If you have completed a project, you will need to research the right meeting or conference to submit your abstract to, if you have not done so already. You might need to ask your supervisor or consultants in the field of your topic for information about relevant conferences at which you can present your work.

You will usually be asked to submit an abstract online. The submission guidelines on the website should guide you on how to do this, as well as provide other valuable information such as formatting instructions and deadlines. Your abstract should state why your work is important, the specific objective or objectives, a brief but clear explanation of the methods, a summary of the main results, and the conclusions. I would not recommend adding the abstract to your poster unless this was stated in the conference guidelines because a poster is already a succinct description of your work; use it as an outline for your poster.

Follow submission guidelines carefully because they differ among meetings. Start putting your poster together early to avoid the stress of last minute printing queues.

Designing the poster

According to the 10-10 rule, attendees spend only 10 seconds scanning posters as they stroll by from a distance of 10 feet. 2 Your poster should be well laid out, with a visual representation preferable to large chunks of text. Diagrams, tables, and photographs aid readability and attract people. Guide the viewers’s eyes from one frame to another in a logical fashion from beginning to end. Set up this pattern via a columnar format, so the viewer reads vertically first, from top to bottom, moving across the columns from left to right. ⇓

An example of a poster. Using information from www.postersession.com

• Download figure
• Open in new tab
• Download powerpoint

Text and font

It’s important to make the writing in your poster clear and easily understandable—remember that readers won’t give it much time. Use plain language and write in the active voice (“We did this,” rather than, “This was done.”) Avoid jargon and acronyms. Use simple language and short sentences. Edit ruthlessly. If it’s not relevant to your message, remove it.

Avoid using uppercase text for more than one sentence because it becomes difficult to read. Keep text to a minimum. Whenever possible, use bulleted text rather than blocks of sentences and leave blank space around the text and throughout the poster.

Use sans serif fonts such as Arial or Helvetica, or fonts such as Times or Times New Roman, which are generally considered to help legibility for posters. If you want a different look, consider Baskerville, Century Schoolbook, or Palatino. The font should be consistent throughout the poster and text should be legible 5 to 6 feet away. Use at least 85 point for the title, 56 point for the authors’ names, 36-44 point for subheadings, 24-34 point for text in the main body, and 18 point for captions.

Use colour to attract attention, organise, and emphasise, but don’t overdo it. Use a maximum of two or three colours and consider people who have problems differentiating colours. One of the most common forms of colour blindness is an inability to tell green from red. Black type on a white background is standard practice, and patterned backgrounds should be used with caution.

Microsoft Powerpoint is easy to use and most people have access to it. Lay your poster out on a single slide. There are several other programs that can be used to design a poster, such as QuarkXPress, 3 InDesign, 4 LaTeX, 5 and Scribus (a free download). 6 These programs allow control of text wrapping around images and text flow among associated text blocks. One piece of software specifically targets the scientific poster market: PosterGenius. 7

The title is most effective when it refers to its overall “take home message.” It should include the scope of the investigation, the study design, and the goal. In general the title should highlight your subject matter, but need not state all your conclusions. It should be about 10-12 words long and the font size should be large, 85 point. If things don’t fit, shorten the title; don’t reduce the typesize. And remember, titles that are in uppercase lettering are hard to read.

The author who was involved most is listed first and the most senior author is listed last. Some posters will have the addresses of the institution to which the authors are affiliated.

Break up your poster into sections, much like a scientific article. Label all the sections with titles: introduction, methods, results, conclusion, references, and acknowledgements.

Introduction

Write a few brief sentences to identify what is known about the topic, why you did the research, and the aim or aims of your work. This section can also include your hypotheses, which usually go at the end of the introduction.

Explain what you did. For a study involving people, you should explicitly state whether the study was retrospective or prospective, and whether there was randomisation. Your data analysis and statistics used should also be described, including what P value you chose to indicate significant differences.

Select the most important results that support your message. Images and graphs say more than words. Tables and figures should be used to illustrate your study’s results, and they should be clear, self explanatory, and uncomplicated. They should be numbered, and referred to by number in the text—for example, “see figure 1”). Make sure figures have a title and a legend. Keep text to a minimum. Graphs and charts should have an appropriate scale and labelled axes. Orient text for graphs horizontally, including labels for vertical axes.

Write short, clear statements explaining the main outcomes of the study and why your results are interesting or important. You can also suggest future directions for research that build on your current study.

References should be limited to five, and the font size should be smaller than the poster text. Check on the organisation’s website for formatting instructions.

Acknowledgements

Write up a short acknowledgement section to thank those who helped you to complete your research, such as your research group or funding source. You should disclose any conflicts of interests that might exist.

Practicalities

Find out if the library based at your hospital site has the facilities to print your poster. Alternatively, you could upload your poster onto an internet site that will print and deliver the poster to you. Some conferences print posters on site so that you can collect them when you arrive.

If you do upload your poster online, make sure you set the dimensions on the file to match those in the conference guidelines. If you are travelling with your poster, make sure it is packaged in a plastic tube to protect the paper from getting damaged. If you are travelling by air, you should inform the staff at the check-in desk that you have extra hand luggage so that you do not have any problems taking your poster onto the aircraft.

Presenting the poster

When someone stops to look, you should be able to introduce your poster in 10 seconds and that person should be able to assimilate all of the information and discuss it with you in 10 minutes. 2 Some conferences will allocate time for you to present your poster to a small group of colleagues who also have posters in the same category as you. Check the conference website for details.

Place a note on your poster board listing the times you will be available by the board for those who would like to discuss the poster outside the formal presentation time. Prepare mini sized poster handouts or handouts of the key points for participants to take away. Make it easy for a conference attendee to contact you afterwards. Have your contact details clearly displayed on your poster and handouts. Posters are a great way to gain feedback from your colleagues and for networking and collaborating, and this should support you in writing up your research for publication.

Websites with examples of scientific posters

http://phdposters.com/gallery.php

http://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters/NewSite/ExamplePosters.html

http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/posters.html

Roper L. Attending professional conferences. Student BMJ 2012;20:e3962.

Originally published as: Student BMJ 2013;21:f297

Competing interests: None declared.

Provenance and peer review: Commissioned, not externally peer reviewed.

• ↵ Hess GR, Tosney KW, Liegel LH. Creating effective poster presentations: AMEE guide no. 40. Med Teach 2009 ; 31 : 319 -21. OpenUrl PubMed
• ↵ Boullata JI, Mancuso CE. A “how-to” guide in preparing abstracts and poster presentations. Nutr Clin Pract 2007 ; 22 : 641 -6. OpenUrl CrossRef PubMed Web of Science
• ↵ QuarkXPress. http://www.quark.com/ .
• ↵ InDesign. http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign.html .
• ↵ LaTeX. http://www.latex-project.org/ .
• ↵ Scribus. http://www.scribus.net/canvas/Scribus .
• ↵ PosterGenius. http://www.postergenius.com/cms/index.php .

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Tips for presenting your scientific poster at a conference

A scientific poster is a visual presentation that summarises your research findings and is typically displayed at conferences or academic events. Presenting one can be intimidating, but it's a valuable opportunity for feedback and confidence-building. Check out our top 9 top tips for successfully presenting your poster at a scientific conference.

Be welcoming

You should do your best to stand at your poster for the entirety of the conference poster session. If you do need to leave your poster for any reason, ensure you include your email address on it, so you can be contacted by conference attendees who may read your poster while you are not there. Read more tips for making your poster stand out here.

To make everyone feel welcome, stand to the side of your poster. This will make it easy for your potential audience to move closer and see the whole thing.

Think of your poster as a conversation starter. Smile and say hello to everyone who walks past and looks at you or your poster. Invite them to read more and, if they seem interested, ask if they would like you to talk them through it or if they have any questions.

Engage your audience

Remember to be enthusiastic - your research is exciting! Even towards the end of the poster session, when your energy levels may be lower, it is important to remain enthusiastic. If it is clear you find your work interesting, your audience are more likely to as well!

As you are presenting your poster, point to relevant parts of the poster so that people can follow as your talk through it. Try to avoid putting your hands in your pockets or behind your back.

Remember to also keep looking back at the audience, to keep them engaged and feeling involved in the presentation.

If you are already presenting your research to someone or a small group and someone else walks up, acknowledge them by making eye contact with them and smiling. Once you have finished with your initial visitors ask the newcomer if there was anything they missed that they would like a further explanation of, or whether they have any questions.

The most important aspect of presenting a poster at a conference is to make the most out of the opportunity you’ve been given. Who knows what might become of an interaction that you have in front of that notice board?

Tips for presenting your scientific poster at a conference: Engage your audience

The “elevator” pitch

First impressions really count in poster presentations. To pique the interest of your potential audience you should have a very short synopsis (maximum three sentences and no longer than two minutes) of your research prepared, which contains three vital bits of information:

• What is your research topic?
• What have you found?
• Why is that important?

The aim here is to get your audience hooked and wanting further details. Keep the bigger picture in mind, as the audience first needs the background info to then get excited about the small details of your research. Make sure your pitch is punchy, intriguing and relevant.

Creating a story

Once you’ve reeled in your audience and they are eager to learn more, it’s time to build the narrative of your research. Like all great stories your research needs a beginning, a middle and an end. Aim for this to be 10 minutes long, or less.

The introduction should set the scene and introduce the main characters:

• What is the necessary background information about your research topic that the audience must know?
• How did this lead you to your research question, what were you hoping to find out and why?
• Who are the main characters (e.g. a disease, a drug, a cell type, a brain region, a technique)? What are the relevant parts of their “characteristics” to the story?

The middle section is the adventure, it answers:

• How did you get from your research question to your conclusion? Why did you choose to take that route?
• What did you find on your way? Were there any interesting twists to your research?

The final section is the conclusion to the story:

• What is the ultimate consequence of your journey? What does this mean for your characters?
• Is this really the end of the adventure or are there plenty more adventures still to come? What might they look like?

Remember: You are the narrator; it is up to you as the story teller to make the content both compelling and exciting. Attendees are not all experts in your field.; if you are unsure how familiar your audience is with your subject area, ask them.

Tips for presenting your scientific poster at a conference: Create a story

The importance of practice

Presenting your poster is ultimately a form of performance. In performances, whether they involve acting, music, sport or presenting, practice is a major factor in success. After all, however much of a cliché it is: practice makes perfect. Rehearse what you will say and practice presenting on your friends and family. Once you begin speaking at your poster session you will be pleased that you spent time preparing and practising.

Before the poster session starts make sure that you:

• Understand exactly what all the figures on the poster show, that you can explain them fully and know their full implications.
• Have your elevator pitch memorised
• Know all the key points to your research story without referring to written notes
• Are ready to answer likely questions with confidence, and know how to deal with difficult questions that you might not be able to answer fully.

Tips for presenting your scientific poster at a conference: Practice, practice, practice

Check the audience's understanding

Ask members of the audience whether you have been clear or if you should go into more detail, rather than asking if they understand, as this could make them feel stupid or ignorant.

For example, say something like “Have I been clear enough” or “should I go into more detail about……?” instead of “do you understand how this works?”

The handout

There are pros and cons to having a handout with additional supporting materials or key information from your poster. You must decide for yourself if it will be of benefit to you depending on several factors including:

• What is the purpose of your poster?
• What are you hoping to achieve with your presentation?
• Will it enhance your audience’s engagement with your research or not?

The major positive outcome of a handout is that gives your audience something to take away with them to remind them about you, your research and why they were interested in it. It also gives them a way to get in touch with you should they have further questions.

The main negative is that some people who may be interested and could benefit from speaking to you about your poster will take the leaflet, read it (or not) and never engage with your research again. It is an easy way for them to avoid talking to you, for whatever reason that may be.

If you decide to go ahead with a handout there are several items that should be included:

• The project title
• Your name and affiliation
• Your professional email address (and phone number if your happy for people to contact you that way)
• The key information from your poster (including a link to the relevant paper if it has already been published.
• Any supporting materials not included on the poster that may be of help.

Tips for presenting your scientific poster at a conference: The handout

Expand your network

Look for opportunities to exchange contact information. If someone is particularly interested in your poster and wants to know all the details of your research, it may be better to suggest meeting them for a coffee after the poster session, or arranging another time for further discussions. This will ensure that other potential audience members don’t get bored and wander off without talking to you because they have been waiting too long.

Exchanging contact information and having further discussions can be a great way to expand your network and find potential collaborators for the future.

Tips for presenting your scientific poster at a conference: Expand your network

Dealing with feedback

It is important to welcome feedback, be prepared for discussion and not to be too defensive in the face of criticism.

If someone asks you a question or makes a comment that you don’t think is relevant, ask them to explain the relevance of their comment. They may have stumbled across something that you haven’t thought of because of their fresh perspective on the topic, or they might just not understand your research. Also, a negative comment or question might not actually be a criticism, but a genuine desire to understand why you’ve done something so they can fully interpret the poster. It is unlikely that someone has visited your poster to be vindictive, and if they have it is important not to engage them, shrug off their comments and move on to the next person who is genuinely interested.

Remember to thank the audience for listening and thank them for their feedback. People who have visited your poster could potentially be employers or colleagues in the future.

You got this!

In summary, presenting your poster at a conference is a chance to showcase your research, receive feedback, and connect with peers. Embrace the opportunity, be welcoming and enthusiastic, and enjoy the experience of sharing your work with others.

Neurowire blog posts

How to make your scientific posters stand out

Less is more: Advice for keeping your poster concise

10 tips for presenting your poster online at a virtual conference

How to get the most out of a scientific conference

9 simple and effective public speaking tips for scientists

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May 11th, 2018

How to design an award-winning conference poster.

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Before we get started, I want you to think about three things that you know about scientific posters. Think hard now.

Done? Great! Now erase those ideas from your memory. Forever .

We need to start fresh.

The problem is that 90% of the scientific posters that you’ve seen at conferences and in the corridors of your university are terrible . I mean very terrible ! Therefore, any ideas you might have about what a scientific poster should look like are probably, well…terrible. But it’s not your fault, and we’ll set things straight in this post, so hang tight!

First off, let’s make clear what a poster is not .

A poster is not a bottomless pit where you dump all of your data and technical lingo. Only carefully selected information and visuals should go into your poster. I know you have eight fancy 3D plots that you can’t wait to share with the world, but ask yourself, are they  really necessary? Do you  really  need eight of them when just one would do the trick?

Now let’s talk about what a poster  should  be instead.

Above all, a poster should be a  networking tool . The primary purpose of a poster is not to communicate every little detail of your fantastic research, but rather to attract people’s attention and serve as a conversation starter. Think about the typical conference poster session; it’s at the end of the day, and there is often a copious amount of alcohol in the mix. Seriously, after a long day of presentations, no one wants to read walls of text as the wine kicks in. What they want is for you to share the story of your research and engage in informal conversation about it. Repeat after me: a poster is a conversation starter. And the poster is not going to do the talking for you.

Second, a poster is a  communication tool.  A poster should use visuals to draw people in from a distance. Then, as people step closer and begin reading it, go ahead and give the background information necessary so that they can put your work into context, understand what you have done, why you have done it, and come to realise its broader impact.

Does this ring a bell? It’s no coincidence that the key information you’d include in your poster is the same information that you’d find in any scientific abstract. And here’s the secret: a scientific poster is simply a  visual abstract . It’s also known as a graphical abstract. A concise and visual summary of your research. Its purpose is to be accessible and to drive attention to your research.

As academics, we like to write using impossible words, passive tenses, and convoluted sentences. We believe this is the way it should be done and what makes us seem most intelligent. The reality is, this is a selfish way of writing and does not  take the reader into account . So please, break this vicious cycle of selfish scientific writing and design your poster with the reader in mind from the start.

How? Let me show you.

Step 1 – Scripting

Before you consider opening PowerPoint, or any other design software, open Microsoft Word. Any word processor will do, but make sure that it has the ability to track your word count and check your spelling. The latter is particularly important, as I learned the hard way by missing an award because of a typo!

• Target audience : ask yourself, who is my ideal audience for this poster? Is it other experts in your field, or perhaps the broader public? What is their level of understanding of the subject? This is an important question because if you put a bit of effort into making your poster understandable to the broader public, you automatically increase your potential audience and impact. Also consider that a poster written in plain English works with both experts and non-experts alike, while technical and complicated writing greatly limits your potential audience.
• Bullet points : a poster should not look like a paper, therefore, bullet points are your friend. 200-word paragraphs on a poster would discourage even the most motivated, sober, and caffeinated conference attendant. Bullet points on the other hand are a lot less frightening. There is a trend among some academics to slap a solid 200-or-so word abstract right at the top of their posters. Let me set the record straight. This has to stop. Your whole poster is a visual abstract, so it makes no sense whatsoever to put a solid block of text that no one is going to read at the top of your poster. Exception: If you’re ashamed of how terrible your data are and you don’t want people to look at your poster, then go for it, put that abstract at the top. It’ll do a wonderful job at keeping people at a safe distance!
• Use sections with headers : because we are writing with the reader in mind, we want to make the logical flow of the sections as easy as possible for the viewer to follow. My advice is to have large, easy-to-read and numbered sections that cover the main pillars of the story, which typically are:

1. Background 2. Questions/knowledge gap 3. Methods (keep this to the bare minimum or skip it if you can) 4. Results 5. Conclusions 6. References and acknowledgements (smaller at the bottom)

• Fewer words : I know this is going to shock many of you, but you should keep your word count under 250 in total. Possibly <150 words. I’m serious. The harsh reality is that if your poster is wordy, people will ignore it. Less is definitely more.
• Graphs : I know that you’re proud of your amazing graphs (especially those fancy multi-dimensional plots with lots of colours). Unfortunately, I have a bad news for you: you need to leave most of them out. You need to carefully select only the very essentials. One or two graphs is better than three or four, and certainly better than eight or nine! When selecting the graphs to display, also ask yourself who your audience is. This is important because if you are using your poster as an outreach tool for the general public, then there is no point in including complicated graphs that no one is going to understand. However, things are different if you are showing your poster exclusively to an audience of experts. In that case, it’s safe to assume your audience can read your graphs.

Step 2 – Concept

Here is where the fun starts. Grab a piece of paper, or open up your design software, and make a first draft.

• Layout and size : vertical or horizontal? You better check with the conference organisers, as you don’t want to show up at the conference with a poster that doesn’t fit the panels. A0 (841 x 1189 mm or 33.1 x 46.8 inches) is a good standard size to start. Keep in mind that when you design posters, it’s always safer to downsize than to upsize, as upsizing a digital image based on a pixel grid will inevitably cause a loss of resolution.
• Panels : how do we read; left to right or right to left? Top-down or bottom-up? It may seem obvious, but I always see posters that are visually confusing and don’t have a clear directional flow. Start with an enlarged and readable title right at the top, then create a simple layout of panels that make it easy for the viewer to navigate. Remember that we’re committed to keep the reader in mind, so use arrows and numbered headers to help them out.

• Leave space at the edges : notice the grey space in the images above? It’s important to leave some blank space around the edges for a couple of reasons. First, you don’t want to risk important information to be cut off when printing, and second, you don’t want your poster to feel cluttered. This blank space is also known as negative space, and we’re going to unpack this concept more in the next section.

Step 3 – Design

• Negative space : for some strange reason, many academics feel the need to cover every inch of their poster with text or images. This is the wrong idea! It’s bad because it makes it difficult for the viewer to find the relevant information and to rest their eye. Clear space, also known as negative space, is a super important design concept, one that you should use to your advantage. Get ready for it…40% of your poster should be clear. I am serious!
• Eye-catching visuals : imagine you’re walking around a poster session, and you’re far enough away from the posters that you can’t read titles or graphs. What will compel you to walk towards a particular poster? It’ll likely be a recognisable image that grabs your attention. Without a big and recognisable image, your poster will look like a fuzzy wall of text and it will likely go unnoticed. Therefore, it’s smart to include one big visual that’s related to your research and has the ability to hook people in from a distance. Be it a rocket, a lion, or an octopus — what matters is that it’s there.
• Colour : this should be common sense, yet still I often get my retina scarred by the most unbearable colour combinations on scientific posters.

Use a limited number of colours, say three-to-five, and stick with them! Graphs included. My suggestion is that you have two or three shades of a primary colour of your choice, an accent colour that stands out, and a couple of text colours. In a colour scheme of this kind, you can use the accent colour to draw attention to where you want people to look. The important thing is that you use the accent colour in moderation. Let me show you what I mean.

See how the 87% and the dot points stand out? This is the effect you want to recreate on your own posters. Feel free to steal these colour schemes, and in case you need some more inspiration,  Material Palette  is a free tool that creates colour palettes for you based on two colours of your choice.

• Background: I know you have that awesome photo you really want to include in the poster. Why not blow it up and use it as the background of the whole poster? No! Don’t do it! You’re not doing yourself or the viewer any favours. A photo used as a background is too distracting and makes it impossible to have negative space on your poster. It’s much better to leave the background white, grey, or filled with a light colour from your colour palette.
• Fonts : fonts and font sizes work a bit like colours. That is, the fewer you use, the better. My suggestion is to use only one or two different fonts. Boldface should be used on titles and headlines, while all the rest should be normal. When picking what fonts to use, play it safe. Stick with the classic Arial, Myriad Pro, and other familiar fonts and you can’t go wrong. I know you’re tempted to use that super-original font that you’ve just discovered, but please, spare us. In terms of font size, try 90 for the title, 60 for the headlines, and 36 for the body text. And remember that your poster should not require a magnifying glass to be read, but rather it should be easily readable from a metre away.

• Contact information : it may seem strange, but a lot of people forget to write their contact information on their posters. You may have a stunning poster, but how are people going to contact you and offer you a postdoc if you’re not around and your email is not on the poster? Even better, put a few business cards or a miniature A4 version of the poster (with contact info) beside the poster for people to take. This will have you looking very professional!
• Photo : most people don’t even think about this, but it’s a good idea to put a photo of you in one of the lower corners of your poster near your contact info. This is good practice as it makes the poster more human and even allows people to identify you and, if you’re lucky, buy you a drink because you impressed them with such a stunning poster. Hey, you never know.
• Resources : you’re probably not an artist, so where can you source quality visuals to put on your poster? Well, you can hire a professional scientific illustrator, or you can utilise one of the plenty free resources on the web. If you’re in the environmental sciences, the  IAN image library  is a great free library of graphics. Another great website to find free illustrations and icons is  Freepik.  Happy browsing!
• Software : some of you may be thinking that to make great posters you need great (and expensive) software. Wrong! All you really need is Microsoft PowerPoint and the principles contained in this blog post. Feeling like trying something more powerful? Then I recommend you check out  Canva , and if you’re really up for a challenge use  Affinity Designer,   Adobe Illustrator  or  Indesign . However, be ready for a steep learning curve and a substantial investment on these latter options. On the bright side, Adobe always has significant educational discounts for students and university staff.

Step 4 – Getting your poster ready for print

• Get feedback : you’ve designed your masterpiece. Awesome! Congratulations! Now it’s time to get feedback from your supervisor and/or colleagues before printing it. Ask them to proofread it too. And remember that people are busy, so do this well in advance, as printing often takes longer than you’d imagine.
• Dummy : before spending money printing your poster, you really want to make a dummy as a final check. Print your poster A4, or even better A3 size if you can, and triple-check that important information isn’t too close to the margins. You’re likely going to put your picture in a corner, so you want to ensure your face isn’t going to get cut in half!
• Colour profile : if you designed your poster with professional software, you’ll have the ability to control the colour profile. Nothing complicated, there are two options: RGB and CMYK. The first one is for digital use, and the second one is for printing — pick the second one. That’s all you need to know.
• Resolution : if you designed your poster big enough from the start (e.g. A0), you should be alright. As a rule of thumb, your resolution for high-quality printing posters and images should be around 300 dpi (dots per inch).
• Where to print : you have many options, from the big office supplies stores like  Officeworks , to the small print shops around campus. Print time varies from place to place, so be sure to plan this ahead of time.
• Paper : shiny things are pretty, but it’s better to avoid shiny and glossy papers when it comes to posters, as they can create annoying reflections. Matte papers are best. But paper isn’t the only option these days, some stores can even print your poster on canvas or cloth.
• Tubes and foldable posters : the most common is to print your poster on paper which fits into a cardboard tube. This is fine if you don’t need to take you poster on a flight, but have you considered that the tube might exceed the standard carry-on size limit? There is a solution! Some stores like  Officeworks  can print your poster on soft cloth materials that you can fold into your suitcase! And in case your poster gets a little wrinkly, all you need to do is to iron it. I tried this and I was very impressed by the print quality. The colours looked great!

This was a long post with lots of information, so I’m impressed you made it this far! Now that you’ve learned these solid principles, you’re halfway there to making an award-winning poster.

Oh, and one last thing. Remember when I said that a poster is a conversation starter? It’s true, so you need to prepare and sharpen your pitch! Practice walking people through your poster in about a minute, and then start a conversation with them. How? Asking them what they work on is a good start. The secret to a good conversation is showing interest and listening. People love to talk about themselves and their research, so let them talk! It’s as easy as that.

This blog post originally appeared on the  Animate Your Science  blog and is reposted here with permission .

Animate Your Science is a communication agency that empowers researchers to change the world by communicating in an effective and accessible way with video animations and graphics.

Note: This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of the LSE Impact Blog, nor of the London School of Economics. Please review our  comments policy  if you have any concerns on posting a comment below.

About the author

Tullio Rossi is has a PhD in marine biology from the University of Adelaide. He is the founder of Animate Your Science, a company whose objective is to help scientists to get their work noticed and make a positive impact on society through the creation of video and graphical abstracts that are engaging, understandable, and shareable on social media. He is a rare breed: a marine biologist, graphic designer, and communicator all rolled into one. Tullio is Italian, but currently resides in Adelaide, South Australia. When he’s not helping scientists get discovered, he loves travelling to exotic places, exploring the underwater world, and dancing salsa!

16 Comments

Neglected to mention under adding Contact info to posters: ORCID can generate a QR code for posters, business cards, etc.

https://support.orcid.org/knowledgebase/articles/116878-orcid-qr-code

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Great informative post on poster ideas. The tips are very useful definitely going to follow these tips on next poster design.

This is great! especially in todays COVID-19 world many conferences are going digital and these tips are really useful. Do you mind if we take parts of this to share with conference attendees?

if so please email and let me know as I am helping to organize a conference and we like the content, wnat to give you credit but would like to put it on our site.

Hi Desmond, this post originally appeared on the Animate your Science blog, so I would suggest contacting them for permissions.

Recently I have won a poster prise following your instructions. I really wanted to thank you!

I didn’t know how much attention could get someone by designing a poster. Nice info

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What is a Poster Session? Definition, Guide & Examples

Published on 31 Mar 2022

What is a Poster Session?

Poster sessions are an integral (and fun!) part of academic conferences or annual meetings, and an important opportunity for researchers at all career stages to present and discuss their work with other researchers in their field.

Poster sessions typically take place in a large room where poster boards are set up and numbered and each presenter can hang a poster illustrating their methods and results. You can also have virtual poster sessions  where posters are presented using a virtual conference platform . 

Preparing a good poster takes some time and work, but it is well worth the effort in order to give your research a chance to shine!

How do poster sessions work?

During the poster session, conference attendees can wander around the poster hall to browse the posters. The presenters are expected to stay by their poster for the duration of the session so that other participants can come and listen to them talk about their work and ask them questions.

How long is the poster session?

A poster session usually lasts 1-2 hours, but can be longer or shorter depending on the size of the conference. Sometimes poster sessions are scheduled during a cocktail hour, which can actually be helpful to provide a bit of “Dutch courage” and facilitate more casual discussions.

What are the benefits of a poster session?

Presenting your research at a poster session is a great opportunity, especially for early-career researchers who are less likely to be invited to give a longer oral presentation at a big conference. These sessions are the best place to show off your impressive research results and for networking as well. You may even end up meeting a future employer and being offered your next job!

Need to organize a virtual poster session?

Guide to Your First Poster Session

1. read the guidelines.

The first step in any submission process is always to carefully read the instructions. Conferences may have different guidelines and formatting requirements, and it is very important that you follow them. If you don’t, your submission may be automatically rejected. 

Pay particular attention to word counts during the submission process, and size/formatting requirements of the poster itself (imagine showing up with a poster that doesn’t fit on the board), as well as the length of the poster session. 

For a longer poster session, you should prepare a 5 minute oral summary of your work, while for a shorter session you should probably cut that down to 1 or 2 minutes so that you don’t take up too much of anyone’s time. If someone visiting your poster is interested in hearing more, they will ask you questions.

Most conferences will require your abstract to include sections describing the methods, results, and discussion, while others may be more flexible and allow posters that describe methods that are still in development or studies that are planned for the future. Make sure that you know what is expected of you so that you have the best chance of having your abstract accepted and winning a coveted poster prize.

2. Write Your Abstract

Next, you will need to write an abstract that summarizes your work in a few hundred words. To do this you will need to choose what portion of your research project you want to present.

While it may be tempting to try to impress by explaining everything, it is unrealistic to try to present all of your work in so few words. Set yourself up for success by picking one study or experiment that tells a short, cohesive, and interesting story.

Your abstract should first describe the background and rationale behind your work, and then summarize the methodology used, the main results and conclusions, and then briefly discuss the implications and relevance of your findings.

You will also need to come up with a good title for your abstract. Remember that your abstract will be published in an abstract booklet that all attendees of the conference will use to find specific posters and presenters during the conference. Having a catchy title and a well-written abstract will help increase interest in your work and ensure that plenty of people will visit your poster during the poster session.

For most large conferences, submitted abstracts are peer-reviewed before you are invited to present your poster. Once you receive confirmation that your abstract has been accepted, then you can start preparing your poster.

Check out this article for more detailed instructions on how to write a good abstract for a conference.

3. Create Your Poster

Once your abstract has been accepted for a conference presentation, you will need to start preparing your poster design using a program such as Powerpoint, Photoshop, or Adobe Illustrator.

Your poster should be well-organized, with each section following clearly from the previous one, creating a visual path that tells a coherent story and ensuring readability. Someone who is looking at your poster should not have to jump from one side of the poster to the other in order to understand your work. Use color to group text, graphs, and images that belong together and numbers or arrows to indicate what comes next.

Like the abstract, your poster should have sections summarizing the background and rationale, methodology, results, and the implications of your work. This time, however, the story should be told mainly through figures rather than through text.

A little bit of text goes a long way on a poster - in fact, the fewer words the better. Posters with less text are more inviting and will draw more people. Don’t forget that you will be there to explain your work, so there is no reason to try to include everything in the text. You can even shorten your text by summarizing sections with bullet points and highlight the key messages.

Your poster should also include your contact information as well as the logos of the institution you work for and any organizations that funded your work. Some universities and research centers provide poster templates that use a specific color scheme and already include necessary logos. Check whether your institution has such a template and use it if they do - it will save you a lot of time!

Once you have finished creating your poster, you will need to get it printed. Again, it is very important that you read the instructions and conference guidelines very carefully and print your poster in the correct size and orientation.

Some institutions have dedicated printing facilities, but you can also visit a copy shop that has a large-format printer. If you are feeling creative, you might even choose to be a little bit different and print your poster on fabric so that you can reuse it as a unique table cloth or picnic blanket in the future. I have even seen fabric posters that use a special template that can be cut and sewn into a t-shirt! Unique posters tend to draw a lot of attention at conferences.

4. Prepare for the Session

Once you have created your poster, it’s time to prepare to present it! Poster sessions are much less formal than conference talks or lectures, so no need to stress about giving a perfectly practiced speech. Go into the poster session with the aim of having fruitful conversations with your fellow researchers.

You should be able to summarize your work in just a couple of minutes for anyone who visits your poster and then be prepared to answer any follow-up questions. Try to keep your summary short, since most attendees would like to visit several posters during the session and may be too polite to walk away if you keep them too long. You will have more interesting discussions if you allow visitors to ask you to elaborate on the parts of your research that they find most interesting.

Presenting your research can be stressful, especially the first time, but remember that no one knows your work better than yourself.

All of these tips are relevant to both in-person as well as virtual poster sessions, and you can find more detailed presenting tips here .

Poster Presentation Examples

Below you will find a few examples of posters with different formats.

This poster follows a typical scientific poster format. It has large figures, uses bullet points to minimize the amount of text, and uses a unified colour scheme. The simple layout makes it easy for the viewer to follow.

Source: UC Davis academic posters

Source: UC Davis academic posters - https://urc.ucdavis.edu/photo-galleries/uc-davis-academic-posters

This poster also follows the standard academic poster format, but it uses graphic design elements to add some flair and make it stand out from the rest. Adding color and custom graphics is a great way to draw attention to your poster without taking anything away from the quality of the work that it illustrates.

Source: Osvaldo Branquinho on Behance  

Source: Osvaldo Branquinho on Behance - https://www.behance.net/gallery/2284120/Scientific-Poster

If you are a social media user, you may have heard of the Better Poster campaign. This movement was started by a PhD candidate in Michigan in 2019 to try to transform the traditional poster into something more modern and efficient. The new format emphasizes just a few key points and adds a mobile-readable QR code that links to associated publications. While it may look strange if you are used to seeing traditional posters, this new format has become quite popular and it is now not unusual to see it at conferences. You can also watch the campaign video explaining the rationale behind this format - it’s actually quite interesting!

Source: Inside Higher Ed  

Source: Inside Higher Ed - https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/06/24/theres-movement-better-scientific-posters-are-they-really-better

These are some guidelines and ideas that will hopefully help you to create an attractive poster and have a successful poster session. While there are some general rules, poster sessions are also an opportunity to get creative (while still adhering to the conference guidelines of course) in order to draw more attention to your poster, generate interest and excitement in your research, and ensure lots of fruitful discussions!

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Ten Simple Rules for a Good Poster Presentation

Posters are a key component of communicating your science and an important element in a successful scientific career. Posters, while delivering the same high-quality science, offer a different medium from either oral presentations [ 1 ] or published papers [ 2 ], and should be treated accordingly. Posters should be considered a snapshot of your work intended to engage colleagues in a dialog about the work, or, if you are not present, to be a summary that will encourage the reader to want to learn more. Many a lifelong collaboration [ 3 ] has begun in front of a poster board. Here are ten simple rules for maximizing the return on the time-consuming process of preparing and presenting an effective poster.

The purpose will vary depending on the status and nature of the work being presented, as well as the intent. Some posters are designed to be used again and again; for example, those making conference attendees aware of a shared resource. Others will likely be used once at a conference and then be relegated to the wall in the laboratory. Before you start preparing the poster, ask yourself the following questions: What do you want the person passing by your poster to do? Engage in a discussion about the content? Learn enough to go off and want to try something for themselves? Want to collaborate? All the above, or none of the above but something else? Style your poster accordingly.

Rule 2: Sell Your Work in Ten Seconds

Some conferences will present hundreds of posters; you will need to fight for attention. The first impressions of your poster, and to a lesser extent what you might say when standing in front of it, are crucial. It is analogous to being in an elevator and having a few seconds to peak someone's interest before they get off. The sad truth is that you have to sell your work. One approach is to pose your work as addressing a decisive question, which you then address as best you can. Once you have posed the question, which may well also be the motivation for the study, the focus of your poster should be on addressing that question in a clear and concise way.

The title is a good way to sell your work. It may be the only thing the conference attendee sees before they reach your poster. The title should make them want to come and visit. The title might pose a decisive question, define the scope of the study, or hint at a new finding. Above all, the title should be short and comprehensible to a broad audience. The title is your equivalent of a newspaper headline—short, sharp, and compelling.

Do not take the acceptance of a poster as an endorsement of your work. Conferences need attendees to be financially viable. Many attendees who are there on grants cannot justify attending a conference unless they present. There are a small number of speaking slots compared with attendees. How to solve the dilemma? Enter posters; this way everyone can present. In other words, your poster has not been endorsed, just accepted. To get endorsement from your peers, do good science and present it well on the poster.

Identify your audience and provide the appropriate scope and depth of content. If the conference includes nonspecialists, cater to them. Just as the abstract of a paper needs to be a succinct summary of the motivation, hypothesis to be tested, major results, and conclusions, so does your poster.

The amount of material presented in a paper far outweighs what is presented on a poster. A poster requires you to distill the work, yet not lose the message or the logical flow. Posters need to be viewed from a distance, but can take advantage of your presence. Posters can be used as a distribution medium for copies of associated papers, supplementary information, and other handouts. Posters allow you to be more speculative. Often only the titles or at most the abstracts of posters can be considered published; that is, widely distributed. Mostly, they may never be seen again. There is the opportunity to say more than you would in the traditional literature, which for all intents and purposes will be part of the immutable record. Take advantage of these unique features.

Pop musician Keith Richards put the matter well in an interview with Der Spiegel [ 4 ]: “If you are a painter, then the most important thing is the bare canvas. A good painter will never cover all the space but will always leave some blank. My canvas is silence.” Your canvas as poster presenter is also white space. Guide the passerby's eyes from one succinct frame to another in a logical fashion from beginning to end. Unlike the literature, which is linear by virtue of one page following another, the reader of a poster is free to wander over the pages as if they are tacked to the poster board in a random order. Guide the reader with arrows, numbering, or whatever else makes sense in getting them to move from one logical step to another. Try to do this guiding in an unusual and eye-catching way. Look for appropriate layouts in the posters of others and adopt some of their approaches. Finally, never use less than a size 24 point font, and make sure the main points can be read at eye level.

Everything on the poster should help convey the message. The text must conform to the norms of sound scientific reporting: clarity, precision of expression, and economy of words. The latter is particularly important for posters because of their inherent space limitations. Use of first-rate pictorial material to illustrate a poster can sometimes transform what would otherwise be a bewildering mass of complex data into a coherent and convincing story. One carefully produced chart or graph often says more than hundreds of words. Use graphics for “clear portrayal of complexity” [ 5 ], not to impress (and possibly bewilder) viewers with complex artistry. Allow a figure to be viewed in both a superficial and a detailed way. For example, a large table might have bold swaths of color indicating relative contributions from different categories, and the smaller text in the table would provide gritty details for those who want them. Likewise, a graph could provide a bold trend line (with its interpretation clearly and concisely stated), and also have many detailed points with error bars. Have a clear and obvious set of conclusions—after the abstract, this is where the passerby's eyes will wander. Only then will they go to the results, followed by the methods.

A poster is a different medium from a paper, which is conventionally dry and impersonal. Think of your poster as an extension of your personality. Use it to draw the passerby to take a closer look or to want to talk to you. Scientific collaboration often starts for reasons other than the shared scientific interest, such as a personal interest. A photo of you on the poster not only helps someone find you at the conference when you are not at the poster, it can also be used to illustrate a hobby or an interest that can open a conversation.

When the considerable effort of making a poster is done, do not blow it on presentation day by failing to have the poster achieve maximum impact. This requires the right presenter–audience interaction. Work to get a crowd by being engaging; one engaged viewer will attract others. Don't badger people, let them read. Be ready with Rule 2. Work all the audience at once, do not leave visitors waiting for your attention. Make eye contact with every visitor.

Make it easy for a conference attendee to contact you afterward. Have copies of relevant papers on hand as well as copies of the poster on standard-sized paper. For work that is more mature, have the poster online and make the URL available as a handout. Have your e-mail and other demographics clearly displayed. Follow up with people who come to the poster by having a signup sheet.

The visitor is more likely to remember you than the content of your poster. Make yourself easy to remember. As the host of the work presented on the poster, be attentive, open, and curious, and self-confident but never arrogant and aggressive. Leave the visitors space and time—they can “travel” through your poster at their own discretion and pace. If a visitor asks a question, talk simply and openly about the work. This is likely your opportunity to get feedback on the work before it goes to publication. Better to be tripped up in front of your poster than by a reviewer of the manuscript.

Good posters and their presentations can improve your reputation, both within and outside your working group and institution, and may also contribute to a certain scientific freedom. Poster prizes count when peers look at your resume.

These ten rules will hopefully help you in preparing better posters. For a more humorous view on what not to do in preparing a poster, see [ 6 ], and for further information, including the opportunity to practice your German, see [ 7 ]. 

Acknowledgments

Thomas Erren's contributions to this piece are based on [ 7 ] and were stimulated by exchanges with Michael Jacobsen. Thanks also to Steven E. Brenner for useful input.

Thomas C. Erren is with the Institute and Policlinic for Occupational and Social Medicine, School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Cologne, Lindenthal, Germany. Philip E. Bourne is a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America.

Funding. The authors received no specific funding for this article.

Competing interests. The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

• Bourne PE. Ten simple rules for making good oral presentations. PLoS Comput Biol. 2007; 3 :e77. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.0030077 . [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Bourne PE. Ten simple rules for getting published. PLoS Comput Biol. 2005; 1 :e57. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.0010057 . [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Vicens Q, Bourne PE. Ten simple rules for a successful collaboration. PLoS Comput Biol. 2007; 3 :e44. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.0030044 . [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Interview with Keith Richards. Meine Leinwand ist die Stille. Der Spiegel. 1998; 45 :167–170. [ Google Scholar ]
• Tufte ER. The visual display of quantitative information. Cheshire (Connecticut): Graphics Press; 2001. p. 191. [ Google Scholar ]
• Wolcott TG. Mortal sins in poster presentations or how to give the poster no one remembers. Newsletter Soc Integr Compar Biol Fall. 1997. pp. 10–11. Available: http://www.sicb.org/newsletters/fa97nl/sicb/poster.html . Accessed 23 April 2007.
• Erren TC. Schau mich an! Ein Leitfaden zur Erstellung und Präsentation von Postern in der Medizin und den Naturwissenschaften. München/Wien/New York: W. Zuckschwerdt Verlag; 2006. [ Google Scholar ]

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With your template chosen, hitting the “Edit” button grants you entry into the Piktochart editor. This is your playground to adjust, alter, and align the design to reflect your personal touch and message.

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Junior researchers honored at 12th Design and Analysis of Experiments Conference

• Melissa McKeown
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The 12th event in the Design and Analysis of Experiments (DAE) conference series, a gathering of researchers from across the globe, was hosted by the Virginia Tech Department of Statistics in mid-May.

Poster presentations by junior researchers were a significant feature of the conference, which focused on emerging areas of research in experimental design, as well as novel innovations in traditional areas.

While 34 posters received the honor of acceptance into the conference, five of them stood above and beyond, earning best poster awards that were voted on by a panel of experts.

• Chao-Hui Huang, National Tsing Hua University for “The Uniform Placement of Alter-Nodes on a Spherical Surface [U-PASS] for Ego-Centric Networks and its Link to Minimum Energy Designs”
• David Collins, Binghamton University for “Subdata Selection for High-Dimensional Big Data with Categorical Responses”
• Samuel Myren, Los Alamos National Laboratory/Virginia Tech for “Training Design for Statistical Evaluation of Seismic Foundation Models”
• Simin Zheng, Virginia Tech   for   “Planning Reliability Assurance Tests for Autonomous Vehicles”
• Difan Song, Georgia Tech for “Complete Active Learning for Emulation and Optimization”

DAE 2024 was sponsored by JMP, the National Science Foundation , the National Security Agency , the Virginia Tech Academy of Data Science, and the Virginia Tech National Security Institute. Conference details, including abstracts for all of the talks and posters, can be found at the  DAE 2024  website.

Best Poster, Algorithmic Design

Chao-Hui Huang of National Tsing Hua University

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• Academy of Data Science
• College of Science
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• Virginia Tech National Security Institute

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Poster madness: MNRS conference gives nursing students opportunity to present to nurse researchers

• May 24, 2024
• 3 min. read

The bulletin boards were lined up in long rows. On each hung a poster, secured by a quartet of pushpins and laden with text, infographics and university logos. Laurel Marek stood by hers, as did hundreds of other students, ready to answer questions from the curious passersby who roamed the convention center halls. 

“I got to meet nurses from across the country and get exposure to a ton of other peoples’ research,” Marek says. 

Eight College of Nursing students displayed their projects at the 2024 Midwest Nursing Research Society Conference in Minneapolis. The college sends research-active students — from undergraduates to doctoral candidates — to the conference each year, hoping they can learn from others while gaining their own valuable presentation experience. 

Dr. Virginia Riggs attended the conference to present her research on how psychiatric-mental health nursing students’ confidence is impacted by different kinds of instructional delivery. Prior to the conference, Marquette faculty members walked Riggs through the elements of a good poster: include lots of visual aids, make sure it’s readable from at least six feet away and distill the information to its essence, which can be challenging when it’s coming from a dissertation. Still, Riggs believes it’s necessary to learn how to communicate her research concisely. 

“The last crucial component of research is dissemination of the findings,” Riggs says. “In many disciplines, including nursing, there are conferences like MNRS that provide a really good platform for it.” 

Marek, Riggs and Lisa Grabert represented the doctoral program in Marquette’s group; Katie Baeza and Cherise Edwards represented the master’s program; and Cecilia Oettinger, Sophia Lynch and Geraldine Ruiz were there from the bachelor’s program. 

Many credit their research advisers with helping them navigate the tricky process of preparing for the conference. Baeza works with Dr. Kim Whitmore, assistant professor of nursing, to develop a toolkit to prevent caregiver burnout. 

“I didn’t think I enjoyed research at first, but then I applied to be a research assistant here with Dr. Whitmore and now I’m hooked,” Baeza says. “I’ve considered getting a Ph.D. once I’m done with my nurse practitioner degree, which is not something I ever would have anticipated.” 

“It’s really fun to get to talk about the nuances of research with people who are also doing it,” Riggs added, noting how helpful it was to have Dean Dr. Jill Guttormson, Interim Assistant Dean of Graduate Programs Dr. Karen Robinson, and Interim Associate Dean for Research Dr. Marilyn Frenn in attendance. “It was wonderful, and they were all great company.” 

Networking isn’t the only benefit to attendees. For those who are preparing their doctoral defense, it serves as valuable practice. Marek is planning to defend her dissertation in 2026 and thinks dealing with random questions helped her prepare. During her day on the floor, Marek handled queries about everything from how she obtained her samples to her method of data analysis. 

“It helped me big-time in formulating some of the questions related to my dissertation research and showed me that I needed to focus a little bit more on a specific population,” Marek says. “I also met a lot of people who were a lot further in their dissertation than I am so it was useful to get their ideas.” 

When students had time away from their own posters, they meandered through the aisles and found inspiration in others’ displays. Riggs, who is also interested in nurse burnout and bereavement, saw posters at the event that might inform future research projects. She also found each day’s keynote addresses to be particularly valuable, as accomplished nursing researchers explained their scholarship. 

Riggs says if she could go back in time, she would’ve come to MNRS before beginning her research project. 

“There are a lot of challenges that come up in the course of research, which you couldn’t have anticipated prior to starting your project, so hearing from people who are also going through the process would have been valuable before diving in myself,” Riggs says. 

Students interested in attending MNRS should connect with their research advisers. Read more about MNRS here.  

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