Preparing and Giving Effective Poster Presentations

Wang, Alice; Greda, Dominik; Carroll, Sean M.; Bianchi, Lynne M.; Cunningham, Calhoun D.

doi:10.1201/9781003126478-16

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Writing about conference posters is often focused on recommending best practices (Block, 1996;Erren and Bourne, 2007;Barker and Phillips, 2021;Faulkes, 2021;Wang et al, 2022) rather than documenting the common practices used in conference posters "on the ground." This may be because posters are considered ephemeral "first drafts" of research that people expect will be published in journals later.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…I further hypothesized that because of journal's emphasis on text plus a lack of graphic design experience, many posters would not follow best practices in graphic design. Best practices for posters (Block, 1996;Erren and Bourne, 2007;Barker and Phillips, 2021;Faulkes, 2021;Wang et al, 2022) generally include: large text; low word count (allowing larger text and more visuals); no abstract (because the poster is self-contained); a grid-based layout of columns or rows; no tables (graphs are more visual and easier to read at a distance); no logos in the same area as the title (competes for attention with title). Not following these practices can readily result in a "wall of text" poster that is ineffective as a graphic display.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The “wall of text” visual structure of academic conference posters

Faulkes

2023

Front. Commun.

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Posters created for conferences are a type of visual communication that are used frequently by academics. There are rarely any formatting requirements beyond fitting on their provided boards. Because posters are usually created by researchers rather than experienced graphic designers, the visual structure of conference posters may be influenced by the common format for journal articles, where text is given primacy over graphics and structured as “introduction, methods, results, discussion.” To test this, I examined award-winning posters from a large scientific society over 5 years of meetings. About three-quarters use the “Introduction, methods, results, discussion” format common to journal articles; about two-thirds use a columnar layout; most show multiple graphs and cite multiple references. Relatively few posters follow best graphic design practices, resulting in a “wall of text” on many posters.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The “wall of text” visual structure of academic conference posters

Faulkes

2023

Front. Commun.

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“…Life scientist, who in addition to posters also prepare data visualizations for manuscripts or slides, should be trained in software and design fundamentals. While notable books on better posters (Fraser et al, 2016;Faulkes, 2021) and several guidelines for poster preparation and presentation have been published (Brown, 1996(Brown, , 1996Block, 1996;Erren and Bourne, 2007;Barker and Phillips, 2021;Wang et al, 2022), general guidelines for preparing diagrams and figures exist from publishers (Nature Guidelines, 2023), and articles provide insights into the design process (Wong, 2011d;2011a;2011b), these resources seem to not sufficiently reach their target audiences.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several guidelines help life scientists in preparing legible and concise posters (Brown, 1997(Brown, , 1996Block, 1996;Erren and Bourne, 2007;Fraser et al, 2016;Barker and Phillips, 2021;Faulkes, 2021;Wang et al, 2022). These guidelines are explicitly written for scientists with little or no previous knowledge in visual design and low visualization literacy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insights on poster preparation practices in life sciences

Jambor

2023

Front. Bioinform.

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Posters are intended to spark scientific dialogue and are omnipresent at biological conferences. Guides and how-to articles help life scientists in preparing informative visualizations in poster format. However, posters shown at conferences are at present often overloaded with data and text and lack visual structure. Here, I surveyed life scientists themselves to understand how they are currently preparing posters and which parts they struggle with. Biologist spend on average two entire days preparing one poster, with half of the time devoted to visual design aspects. Most receive no design or software training and also receive little to no feedback when preparing their visualizations. In conclusion, training in visualization principles and tools for poster preparation would likely improve the quality of conference posters. This would also benefit other common visuals such as figures and slides, and improve the science communication of researchers overall.

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Insights on Poster Preparation Practices in Life Sciences

Jambor

2020

Preprint

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Poster sessions allow conference participants to discuss recent research and are a first public discussion for many early career scientists. Preparing a poster that is both accessible and insightful to the audience is key. Yet often both poster presenter and audiences complain about overloaded and incomprehensible posters, despite many guides and how-to papers being available. Here, I probed the current practices of poster preparation and present the results of an online survey and in-person interviews with poster presenters. This revealed, that the on average scientists spend two days on the preparation of a poster and receive neither training nor feedback on this task. Early feedback, provided during the drafting stage of the poster preparation process, could safe many hours of work, free valuable time for research, and help making research reach a larger audience.

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Preparing and Giving Effective Poster Presentations

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

The “wall of text” visual structure of academic conference posters

The “wall of text” visual structure of academic conference posters

Insights on poster preparation practices in life sciences

Insights on Poster Preparation Practices in Life Sciences

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