Provide too little information and the reader will be left with an incomplete understanding of the research. Providing too much information in a figure will only serve to confuse the reader (or audience). The “ideal” figure can be challenging to create. 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 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. 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. 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. A typical interaction between a poster presenter and an audience member will last 5-15 minutes. 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. 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. Note that the total word count (not including references) is approximately 1,000 words. Notice that your eyes are naturally drawn to the poster’s figures and title. Abstract (top left), introduction (bottom left), materials and methods (second column), results (third column), discussion (forth column), references (bottom right). Title, author names and institution are listed at the very top of the poster in large font. When printed on paper, the poster will be 36-inches (height) by 48-inches (width). The poster is organized into rows and columns. Example of a scientific poster focused on human-wildlife interactions in Utah. A typical poster is printed on paper with dimensions of 36-inches (height) by 48-inches (width). Contains minimal text, with figures and tables being the main focus.Ī scientific poster ( Fig.1) is an illustrated summary of research that scientists and engineers use to present their scientific discoveries to larger audiences.Has four to ten high-resolution figures and/or tables that describe the research in detail.Contains a Title, Authors, Abstract, Introduction, Materials & Methods, Results, Discussion, References and Acknowledgements.Focused on one specific research topic that can be explained in 5-15 minutes.
Please remember that this is a VERY general guide.Scientific Posters Characteristics of a Scientific Poster in your poster, the table below will give you a general idea of what size poster you may be able to make without having to make the text too small or too big.
How many pages of text do you have? Assuming that you want to include pictures, tables, etc. Will your poster be mostly text, or a combination of text, graphs, charts, tables and photos? Most likely, your presentation is going to be a mix of all of the above. To determine which size is best for your poster presentation you should look at the amount of information you want to present. If the conference is providing a 4x8 space, here is a visual example of how some commonly used size posters will fit in that space.Īs you can see in the above diagram, you have many poster size options. Conferences outside the US most often provide smaller spaces and ask for vertical or square scientific posters (tall and narrow) in metric measurements. It is common for conferences in the United States to provide a 4x8 foot space (48x96 inches) to the attendees, but not always, so be careful. You would need to follow their instructions or you may end up with a poster that is too big or too small for the available space. Each conference publishes poster session guidelines indicating the space they are making available for poster presentations. Before you start working on your poster presentation you have to decide what size to make your poster.