Research Posters and Presentations

Research Posters

Poster presentation is another effective way to present your research results to the audience. It is widely used in the academic community, and most conferences include it in their program. Like presentations, posters are a visual summary of your study on a topic that can be even more attractive than presentations. It is a mix of text with tables, graphs, and pictures based on specific guidelines or even without guidelines. It can be a great way to showcase your research study process and results. 

What is important?

All we learned in the presentation preparation process should also be followed for Poster preparation. The difference is that in posters, you need to put everything on one big piece of paper, so you need to follow instructions in order to create something aligned with academic conferences.

• Creating an effective research poster involves a careful balance of content and design. It should clearly and attractively present the key findings of your research.
• The goal is not to fill every inch of space with information but to communicate your research effectively and engagingly.

To Create an effective research poster:

• Writing For a Varied Professional Audience

As you design your poster, provide enough background on both the topic and the methods to convey the purpose, findings, and implications of your research to the expected range of readers.

• Telling a Simple, Clear Story

Compose your content in a way that makes the significance of your work clear to your audience, offering them a concise take-home message they can quickly comprehend during the brief time they spend at your poster.

To guarantee that your poster captures attention, is comprehensible, and memorable, tailor your analyses to align with the viewers' concerns and inquiries, instead of expecting them to interpret your statistical findings to suit their interests.

• Explaining Statistical Methods

Keep your description of data and methods brief, providing enough information for viewers to follow the storyline and evaluate your approach. Avoid cluttering the poster with too much technical detail or obscuring key findings with excessive jargon.

As you write about statistical methods or other technical issues, relate them to the specific concepts you study. Provide synonyms for technical and statistical terminology, remembering that many conferences of interest to policy researchers draw people from a range of disciplines. 

• Presenting Results with Charts

Charts are a powerful tool for presenting numeric patterns, as they can quickly illustrate the relative sizes of groups, comparative levels of outcomes, or trends. To enhance their effectiveness:

1. Title: Each chart should have a clear, large title that explains its topic. Using a rhetorical question or summarizing the main finding can be particularly impactful.
2. Annotations: Add a few annotations to each chart to succinctly describe the key patterns.
3. Familiar Chart Types: Use chart types that are familiar to the audience.
4. Script Descriptions: Provide detailed descriptions of the charts and tables in the accompanying script, rather than overcrowding the poster with information.

From: Miller, J. E. (2007). Preparing and Presenting Effective Research Posters. Health Services Research, 42(1 Pt 1), 311–328. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6773.2006.00588.x

SCAFFOLDING

Incorporate information that builds on what your audience already knows and connects to your science.

COLOR AND CONTENT

Illustrate points with images, charts, and thoughtful text. Display only the most relevant information and use color intentionally to highlight important elements.

Additionally, these two documents provide excellent information for anyone looking to design the perfect poster. (From Harvard Catalyst) 

• Qualities of a Strong Scientific Poster (PDF)

  This handout summarizes the key qualities of strong scientific posters. The document includes information on font choice, text size, poster layout and more.

• Rubric for Evaluating Scientific Posters (PDF)

  Use this rubric to evaluate the organization, data visualization, layout, and content of your scientific poster. Distribute the rubric to your mentors and colleagues to collect feedback on your draft poster before you present it.