parts of poster presentation

Reference management. Clean and simple.

The key parts of a scientific poster

Why make a scientific poster?

Type of poster formats, sections of a scientific poster, before you start: tips for making a scientific poster, the 6 technical elements of a scientific poster, 3. typography, 5. images and illustrations, how to seek feedback on your poster, how to present your poster, tips for the day of your poster presentation, in conclusion, other sources to help you with your scientific poster presentation, frequently asked questions about scientific posters, related articles.

A poster presentation provides the opportunity to show off your research to a broad audience and connect with other researchers in your field.

For junior researchers, presenting a poster is often the first type of scientific presentation they give in their careers.

The discussions you have with other researchers during your poster presentation may inspire new research ideas, or even lead to new collaborations.

Consequently, a poster presentation can be just as professionally enriching as giving an oral presentation , if you prepare for it properly.

In this guide post, you will learn:

• The goal of a scientific poster presentation
• The 6 key elements of a scientific poster
• How to make a scientific poster
• How to prepare for a scientific poster presentation
• ‘What to do on the day of the poster session.

Our advice comes from our previous experiences as scientists presenting posters at conferences.

Posters can be a powerful way for showcasing your data in scientific meetings. You can get helpful feedback from other researchers as well as expand your professional network and attract fruitful interactions with peers.

Scientific poster sessions tend to be more relaxed than oral presentation sessions, as they provide the opportunity to meet with peers in a less formal setting and to have energizing conversations about your research with a wide cross-section of researchers.

• Physical posters: A poster that is located in an exhibit hall and pinned to a poster board. Physical posters are beneficial since they may be visually available for the duration of a meeting, unlike oral presentations.
• E-posters: A poster that is shown on a screen rather than printed and pinned on a poster board. E-posters can have static or dynamic content. Static e-posters are slideshow presentations consisting of one or more slides, whereas dynamic e-posters include videos or animations.

Some events allow for a combination of both formats.

The sections included in a scientific poster tend to follow the format of a scientific paper , although other designs are possible. For example, the concept of a #betterposter was invented by PhD student Mike Morrison to address the issue of poorly designed scientific posters. It puts the take-home message at the center of the poster and includes a QR code on the poster to learn about further details of the project.

• Anticipate who your audience during the poster session will be—this will depend on the type of meeting. For example, presenting during a poster session at a large conference may attract a broad audience of generalists and specialists at a variety of career stages. You would like for your poster to appeal to all of these groups. You can achieve this by making the main message accessible through eye-catching figures, concise text, and an interesting title.
• Your goal in a poster session is to get your research noticed and to have interesting conversations with attendees. Your poster is a visual aid for the talks you will give, so having a well-organized, clear, and informative poster will help achieve your aim.
• Plan the narrative of your poster. Start by deciding the key take-home message of your presentation, and create a storyboard prioritizing the key findings that indicate the main message. Your storyboard can be a simple sketch of the poster layout, or you can use digital tools to make it. Present your results in a logical order, with the most important result in the center of the poster.
• Give yourself enough time to create a draft of your poster, and to get feedback on it. Since waiting to receive feedback, revising your poster, and sending the final version to the printers may take a few days, it is sensible to give yourself at least 1-2 weeks to make your poster.
• Check if the meeting has specific poster formatting requirements, and if your institution has a poster template with logos and color schemes that you can use. Poster templates can also be found online and can be adapted for use.
• Know where you will get your poster printed, and how long it typically takes to receive the printed poster.
• Ensure you write a specific and informative poster abstract, because specialists in your field may decide to visit your poster based on its quality. This is especially true in large meetings where viewers will choose what posters to visit before the poster session begins because it isn’t possible to read every poster.

➡️ Learn more about how to write an abstract

The technical elements of a scientific poster are:

• Images and Illustrations

Don’t be tempted to cram your entire paper into your poster—details that you omit can be brought up during conversations with viewers. Only include information that is useful for supporting your take-home message. Place your core message in the center of your poster, using either text or visual elements. Avoid jargon, and use concise text elements (no more than 10 lines and 50 words long). Present your data in graphs rather than in tabular form, as it can be difficult for visitors to extract the most important information from tables. Use bullet points and numbered lists to make text content easy to read. Your poster shouldn’t have more than 800 words.

Poster sections should have a logical visual flow, ideally in a longitudinal fashion. For example, in an article on poster presentations published in Nature , scientific illustrator Jamie Simon recommends using the law of thirds to display your research—a 3-column layout with 3 blocks per column. Headings, columns, graphs, and diagrams should be aligned and distributed with enough spacing and balance. The text should be left-aligned while maintaining an appropriate amount of "white space' i.e., areas devoid of any design elements.

To ensure the title is visible from 5 meters away, use a sans serif 85pt font. The body text should use a minimum of 24pt serif font so that it can be read from a one-meter distance. Section headings and subheadings should be in bold. Avoid underlining text and using all capitals in words; instead, a mixture of boldface and italics should be used for emphasis. Use adequate line spacing and one-inch margins to give a clean, uncluttered look.

Appropriate use of color can help readers make comparisons and contrasts in your figures. Account for the needs of color-blind viewers by not using red and green together, and using symbols and dashed lines in your figures. Use a white background for your poster, and black text.

Include no more than 4 figures, with a prominent centerpiece figure in the middle of the poster of your study system or main finding. Dimensions for illustrations, diagrams, and figures should be consistent. When inserting charts, avoid gray backgrounds and grid lines to prevent ink consumption and an unaesthetic look. Graphics used must have proper labels, legible axes, and be adequately sized. Images with a 200 dpi or higher resolution are preferred. If you obtain an image from the internet, make sure it has a high enough resolution and is available in the public domain.

Tools for poster design include Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Publisher, Adobe Illustrator, In Design, Scribus, Canva, Impress, Google Slides, and LaTeX. When starting with the design, the page size should be identical to the final print size. Stick to one design tool to avoid formatting errors.

Have at least one proofreading and feedback round before you print your final poster by following these steps:

• Share your poster draft with your advisor, peers, and ideally, at least one person outside of your field to get feedback.
• Allow time to revise your poster and implement the comments you’ve received.
• Before printing, proofread your final draft. You can use a spelling and grammar-checking tool, or print out a small version of the poster to help locate typos and redundant text.

Before giving a poster presentation, you need to be ready to discuss your research.

• For large meetings where viewers of your poster have a range of specialties, prepare 2-3 levels for your speech, starting with a one-minute talk consisting of key background information and take-home messages. Prepare separate short talks for casual viewers with varying levels of interest in your topic, ranging from "very little" to "some".
• Prepare a 3-5 minute presentation explaining the methods and results for those in your audience with an advanced background.
• Anticipate possible questions that could arise during your presentation and prepare answers for them.
• Practice your speech. You can ask friends, family, or fellow lab members to listen to your practice sessions and provide feedback.

Here we provide a checklist for your presentation day:

• Arrive early—often exhibition halls are large and it can take some time to find the allocated spot for your poster. Bring tape and extra pins to put up your poster properly.
• Wear professional attire and comfortable shoes.
• Be enthusiastic. Start the conversation by introducing yourself and requesting the attendee’s name and field of interest, and offering to explain your poster briefly. Maintain eye contact with attendees visiting your poster while pointing to relevant figures and charts.
• Ask visitors what they know about your topic so that you can tailor your presentation accordingly.
• Some attendees prefer to read through your poster first and then ask you questions. You can still offer to give a brief explanation of your poster and then follow up by answering their questions.
• When you meet with visitors to your poster, you are having a conversation, so you can also ask them questions. If you are not sure they understand what you are saying, ask if your explanation makes sense to them, and clarify points where needed.
• Be professional. Stand at your poster for the duration of the session, and prioritize being available to meet with visitors to your poster over socializing with friends or lab mates. Pay due attention to all visitors at once by acknowledging visitors waiting to speak with you.

A scientific poster is an excellent method to present your work and network with peers. Preparation is essential before your poster session, which includes planning your layout, drafting your poster, practicing your speech, and preparing answers to anticipated questions. The effort invested in preparing your poster will be returned by stimulating conversations during the poster session and greater awareness of your work in your scientific community.

➡️ How to prepare a scientific poster

➡️ Conference presentations: Lead the poster parade

➡️ Designing conference posters

A scientific poster can be used to network with colleagues, get feedback on your research and get recognition as a researcher.

A scientific poster should include a main heading, introduction, methods, results, conclusion, and references.

An e-poster is a poster fashioned as a slideshow presentation that plays on a digital screen, with each slide carrying a sliver of information.

A handful of tools can be used to design a poster including Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Publisher, Illustrator, In Design, Photoshop, Impress, and LaTeX.

Start the conversation by introducing yourself and requesting the attendees' names, affiliations, and fields of interest, and offering to explain your poster briefly. Alternatively, you can give attendees ample time to read through your poster first and then offer to explain your poster in 10 seconds followed by questions and answers.

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

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 deliver an engaging scientific poster presentation: Dos and Don’ts!

You've spent hours meticulously designing an award-winning scientific poster that beautifully showcases your research findings and stands out from the crowd. 🔬🧫

Now it’s time to talk to an actual human being!!

The thought of presenting can be nerve-wracking, and the real challenge lies in simply and effectively communicating your novel research findings.

But fear not!

In this blog, we've got you covered with expert tips and strategies to help you confidently nail your poster presentation. Get ready to conquer your fears and showcase your research with finesse and confidence. ✨

Let’s run through the dos and don’ts of presenting your poster at a conference, ensuring you leave a lasting impression on your audience.

So dive in and discover how to deliver an exceptional poster presentation! 👇

Scientific Poster Presentation Dos:

Ahhh, you made it! 💪

Maybe it felt like a mad dash to the finish line, 🏃‍♀️ or a long time coming. Either way the conference is here. After weeks designing your award-winning poster - picking a cohesive colour scheme , an attention-grabbing font and perfecting the layout , you and your scientific poster are ready to stand out !

But you hadn’t given any thought to the actual presentation, until now…

…Cue freak out!

Poster presentations are the perfect way to showcase your recently published work, to have more intimate conversations with your peers, and to foster collaborations.

So let’s give you a run down to make sure you get off on the right foot.

You can breathe again, you got this! 😮‍💨 💪

Number 1: Start a conversation

Seems simple enough! But the power of a conversation is unparalleled.

So how do you start a conversation with a stranger? And in a loud and busy poster hall?

Well let’s find out.

Once you spot somebody eyeing off your poster, smile at them and allow 5 or so seconds for them to read your title and digest your research topic, before asking them "Would you like me to run you through my poster?". Think of it like window shopping, giving them time to decide whether they are interested and want to know more.

You can also use body language as a great indicator to determine if someone is interested.

For example, if someone beelines to your poster, conference booklet in hand, opened to your conference abstract, it's safe to assume they want to know more. If they barely pause at your poster, and avoid eye contact, that’s okay. Not everyone will be interested in your research!

To set a positive tone, start with a genuine smile and a warm greeting. Don’t forget to introduce yourself. Here are some conversation starters to get you going. 👇

To encourage interaction and foster a meaningful conversation ask open-ended questions.

"Have you encountered similar challenges in your own work?”

"What are your thoughts on this approach?"

Listen attentively and show genuine interest in their response, delving deeper into their perspectives where appropriate.

By having a two-way conversation you are more likely to get valuable input on your research topic and make meaningful connections. 🙌

But to have a successful conversation, you need to know who you are talking to, which leads us to our next point.

Number 2: Tailor your presentation

Once you have lured them in, it's time to provide a concise overview of your research. Keep it brief. Focus on the key point to pique their interest, and tailor your delivery according to their knowledge base.

The key here is to ask more questions.

It is a great idea to gauge your audience's background before you start with your spiel. A great question to start with is “How familiar are you with topic X?”.

Then continue to ask your audience simple yes/no questions interspersed throughout your presentation to further gauge their background knowledge and understanding.

For instance:

Are you familiar with this concept?

Have you heard of X technique before?

Do you know about XYZ?

Once you have an answer you can adjust the level of detail and terminology accordingly. This will help you adapt your explanations and avoid unnecessary complexity or oversimplification.

Some people are interested in the nitty-gritty details of your research and others might only be interested in an overview. Let the conversation guide you!

For example, a professor who has been working in the breast cancer field for 30+ years, will need very minimal background and will comprehend complex concepts, technical jargon and specialised methodologies with very little explanation required.

In contrast, someone that has no prior experience in cancer, or possibly even science, will require a more detailed explanation. Using layman's terms and analogies to simplify complex concepts will ensure a clear understanding.

Remain flexible, be prepared to tailor your delivery to your audience on the spot.

If you are unsure if you are hitting the mark, it is perfectly fine to ask “Is that clear?” or “Feel free to stop me if you are not following.” This way you are encouraging a conversation, and opening up the opportunity for them to ask you questions, rather than just solely presenting information to them.

Even though you are the presenter, don’t think that you should be the only one talking. Good networking looks like a well-balanced conversation between two people exchanging value and ideas.

The entire goal of a poster presentation is to make sure everyone who visits your poster leaves invigorated with a comprehensive understanding of your research, which in turn means they are more likely to remember your work, and remember YOU! 😍

Number 3: Employ storytelling

Research shows that people are more likely to remember information that is presented to them in a narrative form compared to dry facts or statistics. 📊

This is because stories engage multiple regions of the brain and activate sensory and emotional processing, which enhances memory retention.

If you’re a loyal reader of ours, you would know that we love all things storytelling ! 🤩

📖 Stories naturally follow a structure, typically involving a beginning, middle, and end.

Or as Randy Olson prefers to refer to it the And - But - Therefore framework:

‘And’ provides the context (or background if you will).

‘But’ provides drama, hooking in the reader (most likely your knowledge gap)

‘Therefore’ brings your story to a resolution (ie results and conclusions).

By creating a logical flow to your presentation, it makes it easier for your audience to follow along and understand the progression of your research.

To create a memorable story and leave a lasting impression, try sharing personal experiences, challenges, or triumphs, things your audience can relate to which will evoke an emotional connection. 💛

Facts and figures alone are easily forgotten, the approach of storytelling means your audience is more likely to remember long after the presentation is over.

Number 4: Use open body language

Non-verbal language also speaks volumes!

Use your body language to your advantage. Engage with your audience by maintaining eye contact, smiling, and displaying open body language. 🙂 For example:

Exude a confident, relaxed posture. Stand tall with your shoulders back, arms down and face your audience.

Smile. Genuinely. 😉 A fake smile doesn’t have the same warm and welcoming feel. But a genuine smile conveys friendliness and approachability, whilst creating a positive atmosphere. We suggest smiling both whilst your audience is perusing the posters as well as during your presentation.

Use natural gestures. Try to use gestures that complement your words. Point to your poster, use open hands, and purposeful, controlled gestures to emphasise key points or convey enthusiasm.

Maintain eye contact. 👀 Eye contact is a powerful way to establish a connection. It conveys attentiveness and interest. Try using the 50/70 rule. Maintain eye contact for 50 percent of the time while speaking and 70% of the time when listening. This helps to display interest and confidence. 4-5 seconds is the sweet spot. Be mindful of cultural differences, for example many Western cultures tend to value eye contact, but some Eastern ones see it as a form of disrespect. Be perceptive to cues of discomfort.

All of these small things might seem small, but they all add up. The more open you are with your body the more likely you are to have people come up to you and consequently hold their attention for longer during your presentation.

But it’s not just about you, be attentive to others' body language. Notice their gestures, posture, and facial expressions.

Pay attention to these cues, you can gauge their level of engagement, understanding, or potential discomfort. If they lean in, it indicates interest and engagement. If you notice a change in body language or eyes beginning to glaze over, it may indicate confusion or disinterest. 😬

Consider adjusting your content, providing more context, or shifting your body language to create a more comfortable and receptive atmosphere.

Scientific Poster Presentation Don'ts:

So now that we have what to do down pat. ✔️

Lat’s talk about some things to avoid! 🙅‍♂️🚫

Number 1: Try not to overcomplicate

This seems like a simple enough concept.

However, when you are so intimately familiar with a topic, the lines between simple terminology and technical jargon become blurry . You start to forget what words are niche to your topic and unfamiliar to those outside your field. 🙈

While it's important to convey the depth and accuracy of your research, we recommend you always:

Avoid excessive technical jargon

Minimise the use fancy words or writing-style language

Restrict unnecessary detail

Strive for a balance between scientific accuracy and accessibility.

If your research is complicated, analogies and relatable examples are a powerful way to help simplify the complexity — bridging the gap between overtly technical concepts and common knowledge, makes the ideas easier to grasp.

Next, stick to the main ideas. You want to clearly and concisely communicate your key message in just a minute. Identify your main research finding and nut out the real-world applications or implications, these are your main messages! Avoid overwhelming your audience with excessive details or venturing off on irrelevant tangents.

✨ Less is best! ✨

Everyone can understand your explanation when you use simple clear language, but only a small proportion will follow when riddled with technical terms and excessive jargon.

Number 2: Avoid being over-rehearsed

Whilst practising your presentation can provide you with confidence, being over-rehearsed can be a detriment, hindering the flow of conversation and the ability to tailor your presentation.

Your aim is to generate a memorable and genuine conversation. Being over-rehearsed can make your presentation feel robotic, rigid and devoid of authenticity.

Let’s be clear, we absolutely encourage practising. After all, practice makes perfect, but the aim is not to deliver a memorised scripted poster presentation! Save that for the 3MT . 😉

An excessively scripted presentation can ironically lead to increased stress and anxiety, causing you to appear tense and nervous. This is because you feel pressured to deliver a flawless presentation, and a single interruption, deviation or mistake from the rehearsed script can throw you off.

You become fixated on sticking to your rehearsed script, that instead of actively listening, you are preoccupied with remembering your lines. 🙈

As a result your presentation lacks connection, the conversation may feel stiff, if even present, and you may struggle respond naturally to questions, or pivot according to your audiences cues.

Instead of rehearsing a perfectly written script, try practising each section separately.

Familiarise yourself with the story structure, know the key ideas and work on improvisation. Become comfortable with strong introductory sentences to each of your sections, prepare some useful analogies and free flow from there.

This more balanced approach, allows you to:

Feel comfortable discussing your material in any order

Adapt and adjust your delivery based on your audience

Be present in the moment

Deliver a more authentic and flexible presentation

Stay attentive and develop meaningful exchange

So avoid the trap of reciting your perfectly crafted script and learn to improvise and converse! ✨

Number 3: Don't neglect your audience or your poster

We are not talking about maintaining eye contact, asking open-ended questions or paying attention to your audience. 👀❓

We are talking about the most important point… actually being there.

Be present beside your poster for the entire duration of your scheduled session.

An interested collaborator can’t talk to you if you are at the buffet the whole time, a potential employer can’t gauge your interest if you are hanging out at your friends' poster.

Waiting by your poster is crucial!

Now we aren’t saying you can’t grab a bite to eat, or go to the bathroom. But perhaps ask a friend to stand in for your, or better yet ask them to grab you a plate of food.

Came alone to the conference? No problem make friends with the presenter next to you and help each other out! The potential for meaningful connections are endless, make sure you are present!

Remember the advice I got from a big shot professor at my first national conference? It was in our blog Beyond publication: 5 science communication tips to maximise your research impact.

Well it doesn’t have to be you seeking out a connection, you could make a connection with someone who approached you at your poster. 😉

While we are talking about connection, connecting with your poster is almost as important as connecting with your audience!

As you deliver your presentation, point to key parts of your poster, guide your audience through it with you. Your presentation should complement the content on your poster and reinforce your key message(s) . Avoid skipping large sections of your poster, jumping around or talking about data not present on your poster (unless you are answering their question).

Your poster is a visual aid, use it to helps enhance your explanations and reinforce the key ideas with the help of visuals.

By giving attention to both your audience and your poster, you create a balanced and engaging presentation. Prioritising connection, interaction, and clarity to ensure your audience gets the most out of your research.

Number 4: Minimise bad presenting habits

You are so close to delivering an effective poster presentation, now let’s cover some poster presentation traps you want to avoid falling into!

There are lots of small habits you can avoid when presenting that can make the biggest of difference.

Reading directly from your poster 🚫 Try not to read the text verbatim of your poster. Your audience can likely read and therefore your presentation provides no value add. It can also make your delivery monotonous and disengaging for your audience. We recommend a natural conversation instead with explanations beyond what is presented on your poster.

Overuse of filler words 💬 Strive to minimise or eliminate filler words such as "um," "uh," "like," or "you know" from your speech. These words used in excess can detract from your message and make you appear less confident and knowledgeable. Try pausing briefly instead to gather your thoughts. It’s okay to not fill every silence, a meaningful pause allows your audience time to digest the information they just received.

Misdirecting your voice 🗣️ It can be easy to continue talking whilst you are looking at your poster. However, conference poster halls can be loud places, and it can be difficult to hear. When you are looking at your poster you are projecting your voice in the wrong direction, and you are not making eye contact. Instead, allow yourself to pause look at your poster to orient yourself or emphasise a point and then look back at your audience projecting your voice towards them at an appropriate level whilst maintaining eye contact.

Avoid closed body language 🙅‍♂️ So simple and yet for many of us our default stance is a closed posture. Avoid crossing your arms or hunching over. Try not to constantly turn you back to your audience by staring at your poster. These can create barriers and convey a defensive or disinterested attitude. Try open body language which is much more inviting.

Ignoring time constraints ⏳ Showing a lack of consideration for your audiences time can come across as rude. Over explaining or going off on irrelevant tangents are easy traps to fall into. But respecting your audiences time is crucial. They may have several other posters they want to get to, or maybe they need to leave to catch a flight. Practice your presentation to ensure that you can effectively convey your key points within 1-2 minutes. Of course the duration of your spiel can change depending on how much detail our audience is after, there is no one size fits all approach here! Just be mindful of the clock and watch for cues of discomfort. If you are unsure, it’s okay to ask “Would you like to know more about X?”

With these tips you can deliver a more engaging, and confident presentation that leaves a positive and lasting impression on your audience. ✨

BONUS TIP: 😉 Be prepared

Okay here are some bonus tips to level up your delivery:

Keep a pen on hand to quickly note down contact information if someone wants to collaborate or stay in touch.

Poster presentations are the perfect networking tool and business cards are the perfect networking tool, and yet so many researchers don’t have them. We think business cards are a must.

You could have some other handouts , such as are an A5 poster handout, or other memorable tokens like a keychain, or wrist band something related to your research. This will make you stand out and allow your audience to take something physical away from your presentation.

Anticipate and prepare for general questions and potential gaps in your research. Have concise points ready for missing experiments, alternative experimental design choices, and additional research avenues that may arise during discussions.

So there you have it, our top tips for making the best out of your poster session.

Remember, don’t present your poster, present yourself!

The conversation is more important than a perfectly planned speech, and these are not a rigid set of rules to follow, just be yourself. Be approachable, adaptable and engage with your audience through a genuine conversation and enjoy the experience.

Want more tips to nail your poster presentation?

Our online or in-person science communication workshops are perfect!

With a focus on science communication, storytelling , and communication you will hone all these skills and be competent to present your research to both expert and lay audiences. But we need your help by recommending us to your institution!

Here’s what one of our satisfied universities have said about our workshops:

"I submitted my first ever poster at a technical conference and not only received many compliments, but also won two poster prizes! I am sure that I will continue to make good use of all the information for many years to come." ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Eleanor Bilogrevic, Australian Wine Research Institute, Australia

If you’re interested in becoming a confident presenter, get in touch with us now!

Related Posts

The 8 Science Video Types Every Researcher Should Master

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The psychology of design and science communication: Part 1

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How to: Poster Presentations: Parts of a Research Poster

• What is a research poster?
• Parts of a Research Poster
• Template and Examples
• Talking About Your Poster

Always check your instructions when planning and designing your poster.

Your poster content should include about 3-4 pages of info (less than 1000 words). Edit your content down to focus on the central points you want to communicate to your audience.

Deciding what to include on your poster:

• Keep your audience in mind when planning what to include in your presentation.  Are you presenting at an academic conference, a scientific conference, to fellow students and faculty who may or may not be familiar with your subject area? If you are sharing your poster to a group that may not be familiar with your topic or field of study, stay away from using overly technical terms that not everyone will understand.

The following are typical headings/sections included on research posters. Only use the ones that make sense for your presentation.

Title - Your title should be clear and catchy. Not overly wordy, something to draw viewers over to your poster.

Author(s) - Author(s) name(s) should be displayed just below the title.

Introduction - A short summary of the question(s) that your research is exploring.

Materials/Methods  - What materials and/or methods did you use to investigate your topic?

Analysis  - A breakdown of your research topic/data.

Results   - A summation of your discoveries. 

Conclusions - A brief exploration of the implications of your results.

Citations - Citations for all unoriginal elements of your presentation! Use one citation style (ex: MLA, APA, etc.).

Acknowledgments - Acknowledge those who helped with your presentation - fellow classmates, colleagues, staff, professors, other professionals and any funding or other support. 

Contact/Further Information - Include your contact information so people can follow up with you after the presentation. Include your name, email address, affiliation and consider using a QR code for easy follow up.  

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Scientific Poster Tutorials

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PosterNerd.com is easiest way to print your poster.

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Scientific Poster Parts

Nearly all scientific posters are organized into sections, with each section being one to many paragraphs and possibly including photos, charts, or other data. A great place to start your poster is by deciding what sections you are going to include.

Starter Templates

The easiest way to get started is to use a template . Your school or organization may have templates with their logo and branding, but PosterNerd.com also provides free scientific poster templates .

Common Poster Sections

Every section you include should have a purpose and be familiar to the viewer. The easiest way to decide which sections to include on your poster are to organize your information into 3 categories - Introduction , Research , and Conclusion . The Introduction sections set the stage and outline why you did the research you did. The Research shows all the data you collected and how you collected it. Finally, the Conclusion sections analyze and summarize your results. This is what the viewer ultimately takes away from your poster, so pay special attention to these sections.

• Introduction
• Condensed Abstract
• Objectives/Purpose
• Methodology
• Recommendations
• Implications
• Acknowledgements
• Contact Information

What Sections To Include

A typical poster will have 4-8 sections. The specifics of your research will dictate which sections are most important, but we recommend including Objectives , Results , and Recommendations in all posters. If you’re having a hard time knowing what to include on your poster, here are some questions to make sure you can answer:

• 1 What is my presentation about?
• 2 Why am I doing it and what do I hope to add to the conversation?
• 3 What were the methods I used?
• 4 What conclusions did I come to?
• 5 What are my recommendations based on this research?

How to Organize Poster

Most posters are divided into columns, with 1-3 sections per column. Each column is read from top to bottom and columns are read from left to right. Reading your poster in this order should give the viewer a clear picture of your research.

Questions, Comments, or Concerns

If you have any further questions or comments about our tutorials, we would love to help you out.

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• Designing and Presenting Effective Posters

Designing and Presenting Effective Posters: A Two-Part Coaching Workshop

Increase your confidence in creating and delivering purpose-driven poster presentations..

PLEASE COMPLETE THIS SURVEY TO BE CONTACTED IF WE OFFER THIS WORKSHOP AGAIN

For a scientific poster to be effective, it must be both well-designed and well-presented. You can increase your poster’s quality by considering key elements of accessible and engaging graphic content, texts, and storytelling for diverse audiences. You can further your poster’s impact by preparing a poster “pitch” that describes your research with clarity and confidence. And through practice, you can hone the conversational skills needed to navigate unpredictable questions and moments, as well as build rapport with your audience.

This two-part workshop combines a curated curriculum of online resources with the opportunity for participants to present two iterations of their poster in a small-group setting. Accepted participants will receive feedback from a scientific communication coach and their peers, benefitting from practical guidance to inform and strengthen the design, preparation, and presentation of their poster. Participants should have a complete poster ready to share and receive feedback on by mid-March.

Accepted participants will:

Part 1: Poster Design

• Submit an initial draft of your poster in mid-March. (Please note that the poster will be printed out to review and discuss during the first session.)
• Complete 2-3 hours of pre-work.
• Participate in the first of two in-person sessions (2 hours) on poster design.

Part 2: Poster Presentation

• Submit an updated version of your poster in mid-April. (Please note that the poster will be printed out to review and discuss during the second session.)
• Participate in the second of two in-person sessions (2 hours) on presenting posters.

Meet the Coach

For nearly three decades Cheryl D. Vaughan, Ph.D., Ed.M. has worked at the intersection of science and education at Harvard University. First managing operations and content development for large introductory courses at Harvard College, Dr. Vaughan went on to Direct the Master’s in Biotechnology Program at the Harvard Extension School. In 2014, she was recruited to design, develop, and deliver the Skills Development Center for the newly funded Boston Biomedical Innovation Center (an initiative of the NHLBI). Since 2016, Dr. Vaughan has served as a speaker and leader in the Poster Presentation session of the long-running Harvard Catalyst course Effectively Communicating Research (ECR). These Poster Presentation coaching sessions were developed as a natural next stage of that educational effort.

Session Dates and Times

We will ask for your availability across these options for this two-part workshop. If accepted, you will attend one of these sets of two dates.

• Option 1: Tuesday, April 2 and May 14 from 10:00am - 12:00pm 
• Option 2: Tuesday, April 2 and May 14 from 1:30pm - 3:30pm
• Option 3: Wednesday, April 3 and May 15 from 3:00pm - 5:00pm

Sessions will be held in person on the Harvard Longwood Medical Area campus. Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access can contact [email protected] in advance of the sessions.

This workshop is free for participants from Harvard-affiliated schools and institutions .

Eligibility

This workshop is open only to Harvard-affiliated schools and institutions . Availability is limited. Participants will be selected at random, based on availability.

We believe that the research community is strengthened by understanding how a number of factors including gender identity, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, culture, religion, national origin, language, disability, and age shape the environment in which we live and work, affect each of our personal identities, and impacts all areas of human health.

• Introduction to Oral Communication
• Prepare for Any Talk
• Elevator Pitches
• Designing and Delivering Effective Research Talks
• Preparing and Delivering Effective Elevator Pitches

• Library Pages

How to Create a Poster Presentation

Getting started, poster design best practices.

• Don't be too wordy! Keep text concise and clear.
• Organization is key. Think about what you want to say first and then carefully consider layout.
• Consider your audience. What will they have questions about? What do you want them to learn from your poster?
• Make sure your title is descriptive and large enough to be readable from far away.
• Think about image and font sizes so the poster is readable from 5-8 feet away.
• Use headings, bullets, and graphics to break up text.
• Make sure your images and graphics have contrast so they pop on the page.
• Think about including contact information for those who want more information.
• Remember, your poster will read left to right just like a page.

Example Posters (Click arrow to scroll through)

Award Categories

This year posters will be judged in two categories:

Most Visually Appealing Poster Description: A visually appealing poster can be judged based on the following criteria:

• Do visuals enhance poster content? Is it eye-catching?
• Are the components of the poster balanced across the space?
• Easy to read, pleasing-on-the-eye font/ color scheme choices? Is text error-free?
• Are photographs, graphs, tables, and other graphics creative?  

Best Articulation of Career Development Through Internship Description: In this category, we are looking for the poster to show how the internship impacted the student’s career path and development of career competencies.

• Poster provides clear description of the internship including student’s responsibilities/accomplishments
• Poster clearly identifies career readiness skills and how they were strengthened through internship
• Poster articulates student’s next steps and career goals
• Poster showcases internship in dynamic way such as “day-in-the-life”

Poster Template

This template will help you get started. Just download this and add your content to the boxes using PowerPoint. Be sure to keep the box sizes the same so that the poster will print properly.

Need Access to PowerPoint?

Because of the ease of importing images, formatting text boxes, and making slides with extra-large dimensions, many people use PowerPoint for creating posters. For this project, please use the PowerPoint template on this page for your poster. BC students can download PowerPoint for free . You are only allowed one download per computer. If you have received a new computer since your first download, you can re-download it on your new device. For any other technical assistance or if installation does not work, please connect directly with BC Information Technology Services by either calling (617-552-4357) or visiting the IT Help Desk located in O’Neill Library, 3rd floor. For those on or close to campus this summer, you can also use the Library computers that house all softwares.

Microsoft Office @ BC

• Last Updated: Feb 7, 2023 11:38 AM

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How to Prepare for a Poster Session

• Introduction to Poster Sessions
• Components of a Poster Presentation
• Designing Your Poster
• Printing Your Poster
• Archiving Your Poster
• Additional Resources

Components of a Poster Session

Presentation.

Prior to the poster session, you should prepare and practice a 1-2 minute "elevator pitch" or "lightning talk" about your research project. In preparing for your presentation, think about how much information can reasonably be conveyed in 1-2 minutes. Since your poster already contains a lot of information, your presentation should aim to complement and highlight the information on the poster, not repeat it. Present information that provides context for the information on your poster, while following the organizational structure of the poster. 

One simple approach is to think about a unique experience or insight that adds a human element to your research. What makes your project interesting? How did you become involved in this work to begin with? A brief anecdote may be useful, and can serve as a way to catch people's attention and get them interested in learning more about your research.

In preparing your presentation, it's important to think about your anticipated audience. Are you presenting at a conference likely to be attended by specialists in your field, or are you presenting at a multidisciplinary event that will be attended by people with different backgrounds and levels of expertise? In either case, a good rule of thumb is to minimize your use of jargon or overly technical language, and this is particularly important for events that will draw a more general audience. Try practicing your presentation for a friend who doesn't have any background in your area of research. If they find your presentation difficult to follow, this is a good indicator that you should work on simplifying your language to make the information more accessible. 

Finally, think about what sorts of questions people may have for you. If you are able to practice in front of someone, encourage them to ask you questions about your research. And don't worry if you don't know the answer to someone's question. Thank them for your question, and offer to the follow up with them later after you've had some time to think it over. 

While your presentation is arguably the most important element of a poster presentation, the poster itself is generally what catches people's attention. This portion of the guide discusses the role that your poster plays in presenting your research. For information about formatting and designing your poster, see the Designing Your Poster page . 

The role of the poster is to provide a visual outline of your research project. It should not aim to represent the project in full detail. It may be helpful to think of your poster as a highlight reel of your research project. It is important to strike a balance between including enough information so that the poster is informative, while avoiding including too much information as this can make your poster difficult for people to take in, or create information overload. Aim to strike a balance between text and visuals. The question of what types of visuals are appropriate will depend on the details of your project, but some possibilities are data visualizations (e.g. charts or graphs) or photographs. 

The best approach may be to think of your poster as a visual aid for your presentation. So in preparing your poster, consider what you can cover in your presentation, and how this might be enhanced by visual material that you can include on the poster. What might it be useful to refer to on your poster in the course of giving your presentation? Visuals are especially useful when they can convey information that is difficult to express with text alone. 

The final component of a successful poster presentation is a handout. While handouts are generally not required, they can be beneficial for a number of reasons. First, they provide you with more space with which you can convey additional information, information that may be important to convey, but not quite important enough to include on your poster. Handouts also serve as a way to help attendees remember you (so be sure to include your name and contact information!). 

In most cases you should limit your handout to a single sheet of paper which can contain information on both sides. On one side, consider including an image fo the poster. This will help attendees associate the handout with their interactions with you during the session. Color printing can be expensive, so it's alright to use a black and white image of the poster so long as it's clear and legible. You can always include a URL to a full color image of the poster online. In addition to supplementary information, you can use the handout to list URLs for your website, or any place online where people can learn more about your research. 

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• Next: Designing Your Poster >>
• Last Updated: Feb 6, 2024 10:59 AM
• URL: https://libguides.wvu.edu/poster

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

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Posters, presentations & science writing: prepare.

• Writing Tips & Evaluation

Parts of a poster

KEY PARTS of a science poster: Title | Introduction | Materials & Methods | Results | Conclusion | Questions | Future, will vary according to subject, audience and requirements.

Follow a template (Divan, 2009; Hofmann, 2010)

• Good titles are clear & capture the essence of the research topic, approach, and results.
• Include authors' names, institutions, and contact details.

INTRODUCTION

• State your research question & objectives clearly.  Be brief.
• Provide the topic background - particularly, how your research fits into the context.
• Give an overview and a justification of your experimental methods.

MATERIALS & METHODS

• Explain your experimental procedures with illustrations like flow charts or reaction diagrams.
• Most of your content will be in this section. Use photographs, figures, graphs, and tables when possible.
• Summarize the main findings and provide interpretations.

FURTHER QUESTIONS / FUTURE RESEARCH

• Offer suggestions for future exploration.
• Include citations to the scientific literature used.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (optional)

• Thank others for their research assistance, funding, supervision, or other contributions.

Adhere to requirements

• Follow the poster requirements specified by your instructor.
• Write according to your audience’s level of understanding.
• Do not exceed size restrictions (e.g., 42 x 48 inches maximum).
• Aim for less than 200 words per poster section (Purrington, 2010).

PREPARE A HANDOUT Allows your audience to review your research after the presentation. Try printing your poster in miniature. The other side of your handout may provide research details and your contact information.

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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 ]

How-To Geek

How to make a poster using microsoft powerpoint.

Microsoft PowerPoint isn't just for presentations--you can make posters with it, as well. Here's how.

Quick Links

Define the poster dimensions, design your poster.

Microsoft PowerPoint isn't just for presentations---it also provides all of the creative tools you need to design a beautiful poster. Just set the dimensions, design the poster, and print it out. Here's how to make a poster using PowerPoint.

Posters come in all sizes, but the first thing you need to know is PowerPoint's slide limit is 56-inches x 56-inches, so you'll need to plan accordingly. It's also important to note that you want to set your poster dimensions before you start designing your poster. Otherwise, you might end up having to rework parts of your design due to the size change.

Related: How to Reduce the File Size of a PowerPoint Presentation

Here are some of the standard poster sizes to get you started:

• Small poster: 11" x 17"
• Medium poster: 18" x 24"
• Large posters: 24" x 36" or 27" x 39"

Once you've decided on your poster size, set the dimensions in PowerPoint. To do this, open PowerPoint and navigate to the "Design" tab.

In the "Customize" group, select "Slide Size."

Select "Custom Slide Size" from the dropdown menu.

The "Slide Size" window will appear. Input the width and height specifications to match your required size. Keep in mind that if your height is larger in size than your width, the orientation of the slide will automatically change to "Portrait."

When you're finished, select "OK."

Once selected, a new window will appear giving you two scaling options: Maximize or Ensure Fit. If your slide already has content on it, you'll want to select "Ensure Fit."

Your slide will now be resized.

Your poster design is going to depend completely on you. You'll want to pay attention to the background of the poster, text and image arrangement, font size and style, etc. Essentially, you should treat this part exactly as if you were just creating another slide for a presentation.

Because the design and process of this step is going to differ for everyone, we'd like to offer some of our previous guides to get you started in the design process:

• Insert a picture or other object.
• Use an image as a background.
• Insert an image inside text.
• Get a picture behind text.
• Make a border or frame.

Once your design is ready, all that's left to do is print it out and hang it up!

Related: How to Troubleshoot Printing Issues in Microsoft Word

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Scientific Posters

Characteristics of a scientific poster.

• Organized, clean, simple design.  
• Focused on one specific research topic that can be explained in 5-15 minutes.
• Contains a Title, Authors, Abstract, Introduction, Materials & Methods, Results, Discussion, References and Acknowledgements.
• Has four to ten high-resolution figures and/or tables that describe the research in detail.
• Contains minimal text, with figures and tables being the main focus.

Scientific Poster

A scientific poster ( Fig.1 ) is an illustrated summary of research that scientists and engineers use to present their scientific discoveries to larger audiences.   A typical poster is printed on paper with dimensions of 36-inches (height) by 48-inches (width).    

Figure 1. Scientific Poster

Posters are displayed at events such as symposiums, conferences and meetings to show new discoveries, new results and new information to scientists and engineers from different fields.   A large event can have hundreds of posters on display at one time with scientists and engineers standing beside their individual posters to showcase their research. A typical interaction between a poster presenter and an audience member will last 5-15 minutes.

Scientific posters are organized systematically into the following parts (or sections): Title, Authors, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments and References ( Table 1 and Fig. 2 ).   Organizing a poster in this manner allows the reader to quickly comprehend the major points of the research and to understand the significance of the work.  

Table 1. Characteristics of a Scientific Poster

The most important parts of a scientific poster will likely be its figures and/or tables because these are what an audience will naturally focus their attention on.   The phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words” is certainly true for scientific posters, and so it is very important for the poster’s author(s) to create informative figures that a reader can understand.   The “ideal” figure can be challenging to create.   Providing too much information in a figure will only serve to confuse the reader (or audience).   Provide too little information and the reader will be left with an incomplete understanding of the research.   Both situations should be avoided because they prevent a scientist from effectively communicating with their audience.  

Authors use different sizes of font for their poster text ( Table 2 ).   The general rule is to use a font size that can be read from a distance of 3-feet (1 meter), which is the approximate distance that a person will stand when viewing a poster.   The largest fonts (e.g., 40-120 point font) will be used for the title, author list and institutions.   Section headings will use 30-40 point font.   Section text, table captions, figure captions and references will typically use 20-30 point font.   Font sizes smaller than about 20-points can be difficult for an audience to read and should only be used for the References and Acknowledgements sections ( Table 2 ).  

Table 2. Poster Font Size and Style

A poster abstract contains all text (no figures, no tables) and appears at the beginning of the poster ( Fig. 2 ).   An abstract is one paragraph containing 200-300 words in length.   The Introduction section ( Fig. 2 ) appears after the abstract and typically contains 100-200 words of text, a figure(s) and/or table(s) and a caption for each figure and table consisting of 25-100 words for each caption.   The Material and Methods sections ( Fig. 2 ) appears third and consists of 100-200 words of text, a figure(s) and/or table(s) and a caption for each figure and table consisting of 25-100 words for each caption.   This is followed by the Results section and Discussion section ( Fig. 2 ).   Each of these sections contain 100-200 words of text, a figure(s) and/or table(s) and a caption for each figure and table consisting of 25-100 words for each caption. Sometimes these two parts of a poster are combined into one large section titled Results and Discussion.   Some posters contain a Conclusion section, which follows the Discussion section. The example shown is Figure 2 does not contain a Conclusion section.   The final parts of a poster are the References and Acknowledgements sections ( Fig. 2 ).  

Figure 2. Parts of a Scientific Poster

An audience will focus most of their attention on the poster title, abstract, figures and tables.   Therefore, it is important to pay particular attention to these parts of a poster.   A general rule is that less text is best and a figure is worth a thousand words.   The text contained within a poster should be reserved for the most important information that a presenter wants to convey to their audience.   The rest of the information will be communicated to the audience verbally by the scientist during their presentation.  

Its very important for a scientist to thoroughly understand all the data and information contained within their poster so that they can effectively communicate the research to an audience both verbally (i.e., during their presentation) and visually (i.e., using the figures and tables contained within the poster).   It is also important that the References section of a poster contains a thorough summary of all publications pertinent to the research presented in the poster.   This way, if an audience member wants more information on a particular topic (e.g., instrument, technique, method, study site) the presenter can direct the audience to the publication(s) where more information can be found.              

Scientific Posters: A Learner's Guide Copyright © 2020 by Ella Weaver; Kylienne A. Shaul; Henry Griffy; and Brian H. Lower is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Dos and Don’ts of Making a Poster Presentation (Part 3)

In Parts 1 and 2, we focused on the planning and designing of the poster. Here we discuss the most important aspect of an effective poster presentation—the presentation.

Presenting the Poster

Effective presentation skills play an equally important role in poster presentation as a good poster. Making a good presentation is an art that involves attention to the needs of your audience, careful planning, and attention to delivery. Here we explain some of the basics of effective presentation.

Where to stand?

✔︎ Allow the viewers to take a look at your poster. Arrive early at the display site and stand next to the poster.

✖ Don’t stand directly in front of poster but don’t completely disappear either!

Explanations

✔︎ Be concise when explaining a point to the viewer. You should be able to give an overview of your work in 3–5 min. Practice your presentation ahead of time, and time yourself!

✖ Don’t read your poster when explaining, instead, use it as a visual aid.

Studies show an audience can remember only three or four things you present in a talk.

• Make eye contact
• Avoid jargon and acronyms
• Speak clearly and slowly
• Don’t overload on detail

Getting the Message Through

✔︎ Decide what the purpose of your talk really is. What is the “take-home” message you want to give to your audience? Organize your talk accordingly, explaining the main focus of your poster. Summarize your conclusions and their importance.

✖ Don’t distract from your message by including peripheral topics or excessive arcane detail.

Technical Terminology

✔︎ Clearly define any terms that may not be familiar to your audience. Remember, they’re may not all be from the same specialty as you!

✖ Don’t assume that people are experts in your field when they approach you.

Inappropriate Words/Phrases

✔︎ Speak clearly. Express your ideas clearly and use appropriate language, pronunciation, and enunciation.

✖ Don’t use qualifiers—maybe, perhaps, or start sentences with “So,” end sentences with “right?” or “OK?”

Starting with “Just real quick” or “Briefly” tells your audience is that “this isn’t really important or relevant, but I’m going to inflict it on you anyway.”

Answering Questions

✔︎ Anticipate questions, rehearse answers.

One of the most common question is “ How does this work differ from the other research in this field? ”

✖  Don’t fumble when answering.

Listen carefully. Wait for them to finish the question!

Confusing the Audience

✔︎ Remember that “I don’t know” is a perfectly good answer. If you’re working on answering the question, just say that.

✖ Don’t make up stuff or go into a 5-minute explanation of why you don’t know the answer.

Take-Away Information

✔︎ Consider having handouts.

• miniatures of the poster
• additional details not included in the poster

✖ Don’t forget that you want people to remember you and your work!

✔︎ Practice beforehand.

Submit your poster to the “two-minute test” with friends unfamiliar with your project. Ask them if they can, after a two-minute review, grasp the basics of your project and accurately summarize your core message.

✖ Don’t wait till the actual presentation.

In brief, smile, be and appear friendly and glad to be there. Dress appropriately. Speak loudly. Articulate clearly.

Remember the following additional points for effective poster presentation:

Check Your Spelling

• Spelling mistakes on public display are embarrassing, especially if they are on the title page, and give the impression that you have not put in the effort and are not worthy of high assessment scores.

Maintain a Consistent Style

• Inconsistent styles give the impression of disharmony and can interrupt the fluency and flow of your messages.

  Review, Review, and Review

• Make draft versions of your poster sections and check them for mistakes, legibility, and inconsistency in style
• Try different layout arrangements
• Ask your partner, friends, colleagues or supervisor for their opinions

Use Poster-Making Services

You can opt for professional poster-making services.

Reference: Steven M. Block, Biophysical Journal, 1996;71:3527–9.

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Free Editable Poster Presentation Examples

Poster presentations are a popular presentation format for research and clinical findings. These presentations effectively communicate the research data and concepts to the audience using a balanced combination of visuals and text. We will also look into a few poster presentation examples to see how they help communicate with the audience perceptively and concisely.

1. What is a Poster Presentation?

A poster presentation is a short, concise yet clear way of communicating your research, study findings, concepts, and ideas. There are two most critical elements in any poster presentation example: a poster and a brief explanation.

Creating a poster presentation starts with analyzing and evaluating information or synthesizing ideas to present all necessary data and facts. The properties of an effective poster presentation are:

• The flow of information is well-organized and easy to follow.
• The text is easy to read, as a large font is used, and the information is not cluttered.
• Allows to convert to a mind map or a timeline diagram from the Gantt chart
• The balanced use of visuals, text, colors, and graphics makes the poster presentation attractive without losing its functionality.

2. The Poster Presentation Examples

Poster presentations include a part of the information from the research paper or the main text. So, it is crucial to pick the right amount and type of information, which is part of the analysis phase. Let us review some poster presentation examples to understand the salient features of well-made poster presentations.

Example 1: Nursing Poster Presentation Example

This nursing poster presentation example shows a nursing research paper's findings in a well-organized manner. It uses columns and rows to break down the information into different segments to make the text more readable. It also uses graphics, including graphs, bars, and charts, to show the relevant data and figures.

You can see that the flow of the information is very smooth and very understandable. The audience can quickly go to the section they want to read without skimming through the information for the required text.

Example 2: Medical Poster Presentation Example

The medical poster presentation example presented here is the perfect sample to product the summary of a medical research paper in organized and readable layout. It is a clinical case study with learning objective and case presentation. The case presentation also includes an image placeholder to explain the problem more clearly. The other important section in this poster presentation example are nutritional intervention, topic discussion and references.

Example 3: Research Poster Example

This editable research poster example is an excellent tool for any project team to produce their findings and information. The format is straightforward because it breaks down information into many sections. You can quickly put in the relevant information in every section without formatting issues. The title contains the logo, poster title, and author information. The later areas include project introduction, goals, and description. The central section presents the evaluation strategy, findings, and reference literature. We have the conclusion and implication, acknowledgment, and contact information in the concluding paragraph.

Example 4: App Poster Presentation Example

This app poster presentation example also deals with health behavior theory analysis. You can take inspiration from this template and show your research findings using this research poster example. It combines text and visuals to present the data and information attractively and effectively. It makes efficient use of tables to deliver the data, while some graphics and charts are also used to give information in an easy-to-understand manner.

Example 5: Scientific Poster Presentation Example

This scientific poster presentation example is a template focused on presenting the summary of research in an easily readable format. The template starts with a logo and introduction to the study, and a list of authors. The later parts include abstract, introduction, results, discussion, and other relevant sections. Another distinguishing feature of this poster presentation example is the detailed guidelines presented in each area. So, even a beginner can create an effective poster presentation using this template and guidelines.

Example 6: Psychology Poster Presentation Example

This document's psychology poster presentation example shows a scientific poster that produces the relevant information in a very effective and well-organized layout. The layout is immaculate yet collects a good amount of data without clutter. You can see a pie chart and a lot of bullet text. The central part of this research paper example is exciting. It has two parts, each with a circle in the center and four sections. It gives inspiration for presenting a large amount of text interestingly.

Source: EdrawMax Online

Example 7: Science Poster Presentation Example

This science poster presentation example uses columns to divide the content into manageable parts. The content division makes it easy to read, easy to edit, and makes going to specific information straightforward. Colorful headings and background color make this template attractive without distracting the flow of information and losing focus on the text.

Example 8: Good Poster Presentation Example

A good poster presentation example must be editable, well laid out, well organized, and guidelines for the poster presentations. The main sections are an introduction, method, results, conclusions, and bibliography. This example can also see placeholders for charts, graphs, and figures. The use of the right size of the font, proper text format, and proper use of graphics makes any poster presentation an excellent tool for communication.

Example 9: Mathematics Poster Presentation Example

Mathematics poster presentation examples are based on graphs, charts, and maps to show the statistics, mathematical functions, and data. Mathematicians need less amount of text and rely more on data presentations. This example shows how to include numerous charts and graphs in one poster presentation without losing any value in information and readability. It uses classic blue and a good size font for the contained text.

3. Online Scientific Poster Maker

A poster presentation example must present the information and data in an engaging, readable, and attractive layout. It is essential to communicate your important information effectively without losing anything to the structure. An online scientific poster maker is a tool that allows you to create scientific posters in less time and with all essential elements. EdrawMax Online is a great candidate for your best scientific poster maker because it has an easy-to-use editor, great font and layout toolkit, and an excellent collection of templates. You can use the professionally made scientific poster templates for inspiration and a quick start. These templates are fully customizable, so you can add your text and graphics to create an attractive scientific poster. Also, you can import your data easily with a few clicks and export your poster in many file formats.

4. Key Takeaways

Scientific posters and poster presentation examples are more complex than other posters because their information needs to be accurate and complete. Also, the text, data, and graphics must be visible even from a distance. Therefore, an excellent scientific poster maker like EdrawMax allows you to create a perfect poster presentation easily and quickly. A good choice of charts, graphs, and data representation also contributes towards a more effective poster presentation. You cam find more science diagrams or poster presentations in the Templates Community .

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Preparing a Poster Presentation

Posters are a legitimate and popular presentation format for research and clinical vignettes. They efficiently communicate concepts and data to an audience using a combination of visuals and text. Most scientific meeting planners take advantage of the popularity and communication efficiency of poster presentations by scheduling more poster than oral presentations. Poster presentations allow the author to meet and speak informally with interested viewers, facilitating a greater exchange of ideas and networking opportunities than with oral presentations. Poster presentations often are the first opportunities for young investigators to present their work at important scientific meetings and preparatory for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

Poster Production Timeline

In order to be successful, certain prerequisites must be met. First, you must have a desire to be scholastically effective and be willing to put the time into the design and production of the poster. Second, you need organizational skills. Like any other endeavor associated with deadlines, you must be able to deliver the product on time. Posters are associated with more deadlines than oral presentations, due to the necessary interaction with graphic artists, graphic production, and the needs of the meeting itself. Organizational skills are also needed to create a concise and logically structured graphic and text presentation of the research or vignette. In order to help you achieve these goals, this article addresses poster planning, production, and presentation. It may be helpful to create a poster production timeline .

• Determine if your poster will be judged at the scientific meeting. If so, ask for the judging criteria , which will be immensely helpful for you to plan and construct the poster.
• Know the rules . It is your responsibility to know the physical requirements for the poster including acceptable size and how it will be displayed. A 4' × 4' display area cannot accommodate a 6' × 6' poster and a 3' × 3' poster will look insignificant in an 8' × 8' display area. All scientific programs that sponsor a poster session will send you information on the display requirements at the time your poster is accepted for presentation. Review and follow the instructions precisely. However, be warned that not all scientific programs will automatically tell you how the poster will be displayed. Some programs provide a cork/tack-board system that allows you to display your poster by fastening it to a solid display board with stickpins. This gives you the option of displaying your poster as many individual parts (components of the poster, such as abstract, methods, graphics, conclusion, are fastened individually to the display board) or as one piece. Other programs "hang" their posters from a frame by large spring clips. This means that the poster must be created as a single unit and cannot be too heavy for the clips or too light such that it will curl upwards like a window shade. A few programs still use easels to display posters, mandating that the poster be constructed of or placed on a firm backing that can be supported in this way. The point is, find out how the poster will be displayed and engineer a poster that best meets the requirements.
• Determine exactly how the poster will be produced. Will you hire a graphic artist for partial or complete production? Does your institution provide graphic services to your department? Will you need to do this yourself? If payment is required, who will pay for the production? Regardless of who is doing the work and how it will be financed, only you can determine the individual tasks and set the deadlines. Make sure your deadlines include sufficient time to revise the poster if you find mistakes or otherwise need to make changes prior to the scientific meeting. Finally, if you are working with a graphic artist, make your timetable after consultation with him/her so it is realistic and he/she understands your time constraints.
• Compile a list of components that will appear on the poster. There are common elements to all posters, whether they are research presentations or clinical vignettes. At the top center, the poster should display the title, authors, and institutional affiliations. Any necessary acknowledgments can also be placed here. Many scientific programs will insist that the abstract be included on the poster and will specify its location (i.e., upper right corner).

Scientific posters should follow the IMRAD format (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) .

• The Introduction presents the background and the purpose of the research. The background information typically consists of a statement summarizing the current knowledge in an area, what knowledge is missing, and how this research project addresses the knowledge gap. A hypothesis can be included in the Introduction.
• The Methods section should specifically address the following areas: research design, research setting, number of patients enrolled in the study, and how they were selected. The Methods section should also include a description of the intervention (if appropriate), a description of the outcome variables and how they were measured, and the method of statistical analysis.
• The Results section includes the quantitative data. This section usually begins with a description of the subjects in the study and a description of those who were not included because they failed to meet the inclusion criteria or dropped out. Include the frequencies of the most important outcome variables. Consider comparisons of the outcome variables between various subgroups within the study (treated vs. untreated, young vs. old, male vs. female, and so forth). Numerical results should include standard deviations or 95% confidence limits and the level of statistical significance should be indicated.
• Finally, in the Discussion section, state concisely what can be concluded from the study and its implications. Make sure that the conclusions are supported by the data presented in the Results and do not present unsubstantiated personal opinion.

Clinical vignette posters generally have three components: Introduction, Case Description, and Discussion. A short Introduction typically describes the context of the case and explains its relevance and importance. When describing the case, follow the basic rules of medical communication by describing in sequence the history, physical examination, investigative studies, and patient's progress and outcome. The main purpose of the discussion is to review why decisions were made and to extract the lesson from the case. Be wary of boasting that your case is the "first" to describe a particular phenomenon, since even the most thorough searches often fail to reveal all instances of similar cases. Keep in mind that the best research and clinical vignette posters are those that make a small number of points (even just one) clearly and succinctly.

As you review your content, make decisions on what can be displayed pictorially. Posters that are mainly text discourage others from visiting and reviewing your work. Make your presentation as visual as possible; not only does it make your poster more appealing, but information can be transmitted more efficiently with a picture, figure, or graph. For example, information on patient demographics could be represented as a pie chart, frequencies of outcomes as bar graphs, and comparisons of means and statistical significance as tables. Clinical vignettes offer an excellent opportunity to display clinical photographs that illustrate important points of pattern recognition.

Finally, find out if you are required to be present during the poster session. Most scientific meetings schedule a period of time for the author to stand by the poster during the session. This enables you to answer questions about your work and, in some situations, is part of the judging process. Find out if and when this is scheduled.

A Few Tips on Poster Appearance:

Avoid clutter.

Limit your poster presentation to a few main ideas. It's better to present a few of your findings well than present all of your findings poorly. Arrange your poster components to read from left to right and top to bottom. Emphasize important points on the poster with lines, frames or boxes, and arrows.

Keep the lettering simple.

Use no more than three different font sizes; the largest for the poster title, second-largest for section titles, and smallest for text. For all lettering, use both upper- and lowercase letters. Words composed of all uppercase letters are difficult to read. The smallest font should be large enough so it is easily read from a distance of 3 to 5 feet (usually, 24-point font).

Keep the colors simple.

Too much color can be distracting, while too little color can be boring and lifeless. Use color mainly to highlight important elements.

You will need to decide how your poster will be constructed. Your budget and available graphic art resources will most likely influence this decision. At one end of the spectrum, you can inexpensively produce a poster with a graphics software package (such as PowerPoint) and a color printer. Your output will be limited to individual components that measure 8" × 11" to 11" × 17". These components will probably need to be mounted on a stiff backing, such as poster board or foam core, to effectively display them. At the other, more expensive end of the spectrum, you can work with the graphic arts department at your institution. They can use sophisticated software programs, such as Quark, to design and create a poster. The electronic version of the poster can be sent by e-mail to a printing or service bureau. Service bureaus produce a variety of visual products including posters, slides, signs, and limited print editions of books. They can print any size poster with all its component parts as a single unit usually within 24 to 48 hours. The cost of this service is difficult to estimate because it is dependent on a number of variables including poster size, use of color, resolution of the print (dpi, or dots per inch), whether it is laminated, or backed with foam core. A moderately priced poster may cost from $500 to $600. The staff in your graphic arts department can help you pick the options that are within your budget.

At the time of production, it is your responsibility to review the first draft, or copy, of the poster. This is your best chance to correct errors and make changes to improve the accuracy and visual attractiveness of the poster. Use the Poster Checklist  to aid your review. In addition, have a colleague help you proofread. It's a good idea to have someone unfamiliar with the research or case help you because he or she will quickly identify areas that are confusing or ambiguous. It's a good idea to have someone who is expert in spelling and grammar review the poster as well. As mentioned previously, schedule the proofreading early enough in the process so that you have time to make any corrections or changes prior to the meeting.

As you prepare to travel to the scientific meeting, consider the following tips:

• Arrange for a proper carrying case for your poster. A worthy investment can prevent damage to your poster and your reputation.
• Don't check your poster as luggage. Carry the poster with you at all times. Better your clothes get lost than your poster.
• Come with some basic equipment. Although these items are typically provided at scientific meetings, you may not have quick access to them. Bring with you:
• Push pins, tacks, or stapler
• Know where and when to set up your poster. The room or area reserved for posters is usually noted in the meeting program. Arrive early to set up your poster. This will allow you to adapt to any surprises in the physical layout or unannounced changes in the method of displaying the poster. Additionally, it's easier to put up your poster when there are fewer people competing for space and equipment. Most scientific programs assign a unique identifying number to your poster that corresponds to location of the poster in the display area. Find out what your number is and place your poster in the corresponding spot.
• Know when to "stand-by" your poster. The time will be listed in the meeting program. Arrive on time and stay until the end of scheduled time. Don't wander off; you may miss the judges, your next fellowship director, or your next partner or employer.
• Know when to take your poster down. Meeting rooms turn-over fast. Have a clear understanding when the poster session is over and when the poster must come down. Failure to take the poster down at the appointed time can result in the hotel or convention staff (not so gently) removing it.
• Be prepared to promote yourself. Consider bringing handouts and business cards for those who visit your poster. Use this opportunity to "network" with other professionals who share similar academic interests.

This final section provides examples of what makes a poster effective. As you study the examples, note that they share similar characteristics:

• Organized and easy to follow the flow of information
• Easy to read, using large font size and are not overly dense with text
• Attractive, due to judicious use of colors, use of graphics, and arrangement

Listed below are a number of important poster characteristics and examples illustrating those characteristics:

• Use of a poignant attention getter
• Use of graphics  to communicate data
• Well organized  poster with easy to follow flow of information
• Overly dense  presentation of content

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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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Peter Dinklage Revealed As Dr. Dillamond During Universal’s ‘Wicked’ CinemaCon Presentation

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Peter Dinklage joins Ariana Grande as Glinda; Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba; Michelle Yeoh as Shiz University’s regal headmistress Madame Morrible; Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, a roguish and carefree prince; Ethan Slater as Boq, an altruistic Munchkin student; Marissa Bode in her feature debut as Nessarose, Elphaba’s favored sister; and Jeff Goldblum as the legendary Wizard of Oz.

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In the film adaptation of the Broadway musical phenomenon, Dr. Dillamond, a goat, is a professor of history at Shiz University who warns Elphaba about rising dark forces that threaten the speaking animals of Oz, including himself. 

Wicked will be released in two parts as Thanksgiving events on November 27, 2024, and Noember 26, 2025.

The Jon M. Chu-directed, Marc Platt-produced movie follows the untold story of the young witches of Oz. Elphaba is misunderstood because of her unusual green skin and has yet to discover her true power, while Glinda, who is quite popular and gilded by privilege and ambition, has yet to discover her true heart.

The two meet as students at Shiz University in the fantastical Land of Oz and forge an unlikely but profound friendship. Following an encounter with the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, their friendship reaches a crossroads and their lives take very different paths. Glinda’s unflinching desire for popularity sees her seduced by power, while Elphaba’s determination to remain true to herself, and to those around her, will have unexpected and shocking consequences on her future. Their extraordinary adventures in Oz ultimately will see them fulfill their respective destinies as Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.

Dinklage upcoming pics include  Unfrosted: The Pop Tart Story ,  The Thicket ,  Brothers and  The Toxic Avenger . His extensive theater credits include  A Month in the Country ,  Things We Want ,  Knickerbocker ,  Richard III ,  Uncle Vanya , and  Cyrano . The actor is repped by CAA and Karl Austen.

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