Wednesday, Day3 Winter crash course A pathway to Academic Communication

1. What is a poster? Definition of a poster

A scientific poster is a method of professional communication that visually tells the comprehensive, but condensed, story of a research project. While a poster can be effective alone, a presenter at a planned gathering enhances the poster by engaging interested visitors in dialogues that  explain the research,

 expand the provided information, and  ensure the visitor leaves with the desired takeaway message about the project.

2. What is a poster presentation?

Watch an episode about poster presentation. Video “Giving an effective poster presentation” (0.20 min)

What do people do there? (vocabulary about conferences!!!!)

3. How to design a Research poster Video 2.55 min

4. How does a poster look like

Look through the examples A2:Title 35pt, sub-headings 20pt, body text 16pt

Are poster structured? What parts have you spotted there?

Good news there are templates!!!! Link+ sections Poster Templates: http://www.posterpresentations.com/html/free_poster_templates.html#100x140

Now let’s look at the posters sections

Sections to be included in your scientific poster presentation

// Lisa b. Marshall //

Title: Used to convey the single overall main message • Headline title with noun and verb – quantified if possible • 1-2 lines max using sentence case • NOT for keyword search – it can be straightforward (or catchy?) • Max 25 words

Introduction: Get viewer interest about issue or question • State the purpose/aim/goal (long-term and short-term may be different) using bullets • Place work in context (where does it fit in overall field) • Give background minimum • Might end/start with some bullet statements of your hypotheses (Hypotheses may be coupled with results in results section) • Max 125 words

Methods/Materials: (Skip if standard, include if science) Describes experiment • Use figures, photos, drawings to illustrate experimental design if possible; • Use flow charts (the type with text, numbers and drawings within boxes) to summarize steps or timing • Perhaps mention statistical analyses used and how they address hypothesis • Max 150 words

Results: Summarizes what you found • Result graphs support only your conclusion bullet points (3-5) • Each graphs/chart/table provides quantitative and qualitative/descriptive results • Each graph/chart should contain headline title and/or takeaway conveying understandable main point (may be the only thing read, needs to be clear) • Cut down to key words only, remove punctuation • Bullets OK • If method/process important can be in smaller under takeaway or bottom of chart • Max approx 250 words – this should be your largest section

Conclusions: (Conclusions and future directions) • Should be summary of results in bullet form • Can include a one or two bullets for future directions (don’t make future directions separate) • Max 150 words

Literature cited: • Follow standard format exactly • Maximum approximately 5 citations

Acknowledgments: • Mention who has provided funding • Include disclosures for any type of conflicts • Possibly include SIGNIFICANT contributors – name and contribution (not title) • Max 40 words

The authors thank Igor Henchman for technical assistance and Dr. Frankenstein for constructing the human model. We also thank the Umbrella Corporation providing the T1 virus.

Further information: • Your e-mail address and web site address • Perhaps a URLs – to download PDFs of poster or related papers or your CV (edit URL – don’t leave blue or underlined) • Maximum 30 words

5. “How to make a scientific poster that people want to stop at”?