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How to Write an Abstract For a Poster Presentation Application

Published on 15 Aug 2023

Attending a conference is a great achievement for a young researcher. Besides presenting your research to your peers, networking with researchers of other institutions and building future collaborations are other benefits.

Above all, it allows you to question your research and improve it based on the feedback you receive. As Sönke Ahrens wrote in How To Take Smart Notes "an idea kept private is as good as one you never had".

The poster presentation is one way to present your research at a conference. Contrary to some beliefs, poster presenters aren't the ones relegated to oral presentation and poster sessions are far from second zone presentations; Poster presentations favor natural interactions with peers and can lead to very valuable talks.

The application process

The abstract submitted during the application process is not the same as the poster abstract. The abstract submission is usually longer and you have to respect several points when writing it:

• Use the template provided by the conference organization (if applicable);
• Specify the abstract title, list author names, co-authors and the institutions in the banner;
• Use sub-headings to show out the structure of your abstract (if authorized);
• Respect the maximum word count (usually about a 300 word limit) and do not exceed one page;
• Exclude figures or graphs, keep them for your poster;
• Minimize the number of citations/references.
• Respect the submission deadline.

The 3 components of an abstract for a conference application

Most poster abstract submissions follow the classical IMRaD structure, also called the hourglass structure. 

To make your abstract more memorable and impactful, you can try the Russian doll structure. Contrary to IMRaD, which has a more linear progression of ideas, the Russian doll structure emphasizes the WHY and WHAT. It unravels the research narrative layer by layer, capturing the reader’s attention more effectively.

Your abstract should be something the reviewer wants to open in order to discover the different layers of your research down to its core (like opening a Russian doll or peeling an onion). Then, it should be wrapped up elegantly with the outcomes (see figure below)  like dressing the same Russian doll.

Hence, to design the best Russian doll, I recommend Jean-Luc Doumont's structure as detailed in his book Trees, Maps and Theorems that I adapted in 3 main components:

1. Background. The first component answers to the WHY and details the motivations of your research at different levels:

• Context : Why now? Describe the big picture, the current situation.
• Need : Why is it relevant to the reader? Describe the research question.
• Tasks : Why do we have to do this way? Review the studies related to your research question and emphasize the gap between the need and what was done.

2. Core . The center component answer to the HOW and consists in describing the objective of your research and its method:

• Objective : How did I focus on the need? Detail the purpose of your study.
• Methods : How did I proceed? Describe briefly the workflow (study population, softwares, tools, process, models, etc.)

3. Outcomes . The final component answers to the WHAT and details the take-aways of your research at different levels:

• Findings : What resulted from my method? Describe the main results (only).
• Meanings : What do the research findings mean to the reader? Discuss your results by linking them to your objective and research question.
• Perspectives : What should be the next steps? Propose further studies that could improve, complement or challenge yours.

It's worth noting that this structure emphasizes the WHY and the WHAT more than the HOW. It is the secret of great scientific storytelling .

The illustration below provides a clearer understanding of the logical flow among the three components and their respective layers. Note that, if authorized, sub-headings can be used for each section mentioned above.

4 tips to help get your abstract qualified

Here are some tips to give yourself the best chance of success for having your poster abstract accepted:

• Start by answering questions . It is very hard for the human brain to create something totally from scratch. Hence, allow the questions detailed above to guide you in creating the first path to explore.
• Write first, then edit . Do not try to do both at the same time. You won't get the final version of your abstract after your first try. Be patient, and "let your text die" before editing it with a fresh new point of view.
• "Kill your darlings'' . Not everything is necessary in the abstract. In Stephen Sondheim's words , West Side Story composer, "you have to throw out good stuff to get the best stuff". You will be amazed at just how surprising and efficient this tip is.
• Steal like an artist . As suggested by Austin Kleon's book title , get inspiration from others by reading other abstracts. It can be very helpful if you struggle finding punchy phrasing or transitions. I'm not referring to plagiarism, only getting good ideas about form (and not content) that can be adapted and used in your abstract.

When you get accepted, it's time to design your poster board and prepare your pitch. Pick your favorite graphics software and bring your abstract to life with figures, tables, and colors. We have written an article on how to make a scientific poster , do not hesitate to take a look.

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How to Create an Effective Poster Presentation (A Nurse Student?s Guide)

When preparing to present a thesis, capstone project , or dissertation , it is best to create an abstract poster. The poster will help you to give potential attendees the information they need to decide if they will attend your presentation.

Nurses, clinicians, and researchers share information on programs they develop or their studies through abstract posters. It aids in sharing clinical wisdom and advancing the knowledge of nursing and other healthcare professionals. Presenting poster abstracts is a common practice in conferences and seminars.

In this post, we will reveal everything you need to know about creating an abstract poster. You should be able to create a brilliant abstract poster when you read this article.

What Is a Poster Abstract?

An abstract poster, aka poster abstract, is essentially an advertisement for a research presentation, and it is prepared by the research author to give potential presentation attendees a glimpse of the research.

A poster abstract is typically 300 words long, and it takes between 30 minutes to 60 minutes. Writing takes longer because it involves summarizing an entire research project into a one-page summary.

A good poster abstract uses a few sentences to capture the essence of a research project perfectly, and it is not and should never be just a basic summary of a research project.

When asked to write a poster abstract for a conference, you will most likely be given some requirements to follow. The requirements will undoubtedly include the format to follow, the word limit, and the deadline to adhere to.

A well-written abstract describes the research questions, PICOT questions, or clinical problems. It also entails the methods used to address the clinical issues and the significance and implications of the results.

Parts of A Poster Abstract

When tasked to write a poster abstract, or if you are doing one for an upcoming nursing or interprofessional conference relevant to your field, you must make sure it includes the following parts:

• Title and Author (s). This comes in the top section of the poster, and it includes the title and names of the contributing authors. The poster's title should be the same as the abstract, and it should be clear, concise, and in an easy-to-read font. You should include the credentials and institutional affiliations of the authors and add organizational logos if possible.
• Background: Your poster abstract should begin by providing the background of your research project, and it should do this by introducing the problem you investigated in your research.
• Methods: Your abstract poster should have a methods section that explains the ?how? of your project. In this part of your poster, you are supposed to summarize how you did your project. One or two sentences are enough for this part; unnecessary words are unnecessary.
• Results: The results part of your abstract is perhaps the most important since it is where you highlight your most important findings. Highlight your key findings here without offering any interpretations or explanations. Let those interested in the interpretation and discussion part of your research attend your presentation.
• Conclusion: This should be the last part of your poster abstract. It should present the reader with a brief overview of the conclusions you made in your research, and it should also mention the implications of your study.
• Future Plans: This section can include a few sentences of recommendations for some research or plans to follow up on the initiative or program.
• References: List all your references in alphabetical order.
• Acknowledgments: Acknowledge any contributors, funding agencies, and institutions.

An abstract for a nursing capstone project will slightly differ. It will have the following sections:

• Purpose and goal statement
• Framework and synthesis of evidence
• Practice recommendations
• Implementation process
• Outcomes measures
• Clinical implications

Check the example below from The University of Tennessee Knoxville

If you are focusing on a change project or a Quality improvement project , it will include the background; PICOT question ; literature search, synthesis of findings; recommended changes to practice; evaluation; references; and acknowledgments. See the attached example from the University of Houston (College of Nursing)

Steps for Preparing a Poster Presentation

Your journey to making an excellent abstract and a poster begins by searching for upcoming nursing conferences or other related interprofessional seminars. You can also ask your colleagues about their experiences and the conferences they have attended. Your mentor can also come in handy but make sure you read the call for abstract posters to know what is expected, such as the scope of the conference and how to design the posters.

1. Do Some Planning 

Planning is the first thing you need to do regarding your poster presentation. During your presentation, brainstorm and think about what you want people to know about your research, and Note down everything you want them to know.

These notes will help you ensure your abstract is comprehensive and genuinely insightful. You should also create enough time to work on your abstract and poster before the deadline.

When planning, reviewing abstracts from past conferences or classes is best. Study them for style, content, and scope so that yours succeeds. Preparing your information dissemination process should commence early so that you cover all the mandatory aspects.

2. Write Your Abstract

This is the most important part of your poster abstract preparation process. A good poster abstract is short and clear. Be sure to include all the important details of your work in the abstract poster. It is, however, best to avoid having your work?s fine details in the poster abstract. And similar to all other academic writing styles, any statement requiring a reference within the abstract should be referenced (cited). You are, nonetheless, advised to limit the specific need for references in your abstract; only the important referable statements should be included.

When drafting the abstract, ensure you meet the correct length, use relevant headings and sections, and include citations. It would be good to let your thoughts flow at first when drafting so that you shorten the draft as you edit and proofread it.

Below is an excellent example of abstract criteria that you can use when writing your abstract:

• Concisely and written abstract
• A title that well describes the poster abstract
• Statement of a clear objective
• Significance to the theme of the conference
• The approach used appropriately to objectives
• Analysis and outcomes well applied and construed
• The work?s weaknesses and strengths are highlighted
• Suggestions for future work stated
• Appeals to a globally diverse crowd

3. Review the Abstract

When you finish the initial draft, setting aside a day or two to refresh your mind and be as objective as possible is important. After the break, read the draft with a ?fresh? pair of eyes so that you can notice and eliminate redundancies and errors, and reword the entire abstract.

If you spot any unclear statements or jargon, make the necessary corrections. As you review, assess the flow and logic of your abstract and correct it as necessary. Ensure that all clinical jargon and abbreviation is illustrated in a way that makes sense to the target audience.

It would help if you also welcomed your peers to review the abstract. The rationale of a peer review is to ensure that the errors, omissions, and mistakes that escaped your eyes are arrested and corrected. You can consult your supervisor or mentor for a critical peer review.

Suppose you can get someone outside of your discipline, the better because they will breathe a fresh perspective on the clarity and logic of the content. As intimidating and rigorous as it might be, a peer review often helps you submit an abstract that makes sense. Besides, you can make a poster that comprehensively addresses the readers' needs.

4. Design Your Poster

Designing the poster is the most fun part of the entire process. There are, however, certain rules that you might have to follow before you begin. First and foremost, confirm the required poster size and poster orientation; landscape or portrait. If uncertain, the safest guess is a portrait, which will most likely fit on the conference?s typically sized-poster boards.

It is also important to choose the software within which you?ll design your poster. The most often used options are Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Office PowerPoint, and CorelDraw . Whichever software you choose; you should always begin by setting up the page size. Let?s say somebody is a meter away from the conference board; the smallest font size they?ll be able to read quickly is around 20 points, assuming your page is appropriately sized.

With regard to readability, light writing on dark backgrounds and vice versa works well, and the restricted usage of varying font types and sizes also works great. Simply put, it is a delicate balance between utilizing these particular aspects to offer structure to your presentation and excessively complicating your structure, making it hard to navigate.

Use diagrams instead of words to describe key principles, methods, and outcomes if possible. Apart from being visually appealing, diagrams are quicker and easier for individuals to process. Remember that people typically spend a few seconds or minutes reading each poster, so the simpler the information is to absorb, the better.

Consider using software features like guides and snap-to-grid when presenting your details on the poster. This is vital as small disparities in alignment on the computer monitor can be emphasized on a poster printout. That said, attention to detail is vital. Proofreading a poster when restricted to a small size monitor is usually challenging. For that reason, you should consider requesting a colleague or friend to take another look for any typing errors.

All authors of the work and their institutional affiliations should be included in the poster?s upper title section. The presenter and the poster?s designer typically sit as the first author and the work?s principal investigator or most senior author as the last author. For the order of the middle authors, the team is left to discuss and agree. Any acknowledgments to organizations and individuals that are not authors are featured at the bottom of your poster.

5. Print and Prepare for Poster Presentation

Printing out your poster is the last step. As you think about designing your poster, you should also think of this particular step, as it is crucial to have knowledge of the printing timescales. The chosen printer could provide same-day service or might take a couple of days to turn around if busy. You may also need to send your poster off-site for other purposes, like lamination.

The paper?s weight not only determines the cost of the print but also how robust the poster will travel (the thicker the poster, the more robust).

Laminating the poster adds an extra protective layer to it, consequently increasing its lifespan, making it much more resistant to water but also making it costlier and weightier to transport.

It is advisable to print out a mock-up version (A3 or A4) to look for any design issues, typing errors, and alignment concerns before investing in the final version of your poster.

Now that your poster is ready, you can prepare to discuss it with others. Come up with a brief oral presentation you can recite on the day, increasing your confidence in the conference presentation.

Once you get there, just be calm and enjoy the experience. And if you are interested in networking or sharing your results with the conference audience, you should consider preparing A4 flyers for your poster.

Tips to Make the Best Poster Presentation

There are various poster pitfalls that you should avoid when making a poster. Some, like avoiding including too much detail or too many images, are a no-brainer. Let?s look at some of the best practices you should consider when making a poster to present your project, capstone, or dissertation.

• Avoid unnecessary clutter. Restrict your presentation to a few important ideas. Note that presenting a few of your findings well is better than presenting all your findings badly. Arrange the contents of your poster to read from top to bottom and left to right. Frames, lines, and boxes should emphasize the most important points.
• Use simple lettering. Do not make us of more than three different font sizes; the smallest for text, the medium for section titles, and the largest for the title of the poster. Your smallest font size should be big enough to be read from a distance (24-point font). And for all your lettering, utilize bother lower- and uppercase letters, as words made up of uppercase letters only are hard to read.
• Use simple colors. Using many colors can be somewhat distracting, while using too little tends to be boring. Make use of color only when emphasizing the most vital elements.
• Avoid overly long titles. A good title is brief, snappy, and straight to the point. Some great titles ask questions, while others answer them. The title should highlight the subject matter and be big enough to be easily read from a distance, say 30 feet away. Also, the title should not surpass the width of the poster area and should not be entirely in capital letters.
• Include your names. The names of the authors involved, together with their institutional affiliations, should be included below the title. When doing so, do not use a similar font size as that used for the title; instead, use a smaller font.
• Never use a small font size for your poster. Avoid using 10-point or 12-point font sizes. Instead, use a font size that can be easily read from a distance of around 4 feet. You want your poster to be easily readable from a distance, don?t you? What?s more, avoid those fonts that are difficult to read, such as Linotext or Helvetica.
• Lay out the segments of your poster in a logical manner. This will allow reading to proceed linearly. You do not want your readers to have difficulty following your presentation. The best layout to use is the columnar format. This way, the readers proceed vertically from top to bottom and then from left to right.
• Divide your poster into sections to avoid one long, unending thread. All sections should be well-labeled with relevant titles. Aim to convey your message in a few words and diagrams, as your readers will not spend more than 3 minutes on your poster.
• Remember that a poster is not a scientific paper, and d o not waste a lot of precious space on irrelevant experimental details. The main areas to emphasize in your poster are the key results, experimental strategies, and the drawn conclusions.
• Do not forget to include the acknowledgments. You should give credit where it is due. Include a brief acknowledgment section thanking everyone who assisted you in completing the work. Also, include academic references where necessary. Note that your references should be as thorough as those in academic papers. You can also include footnotes, but avoid them if possible.

Final Thoughts on Abstract Posters

An abstract poster is a complex thing but the easiest of all to design when you have a structured approach. It may not be part of your research, but it is vital to communicate what you did to the world at the end of your research. As a re-cap, an effective poster should at least meet the following criteria:

• Have listicles as needed;
• Have brief text;
• Include headings and subheadings;
• Sparring use of images (only include 3-4 images);
• Include whitespace for ease of reading;
• Have a brief title;
• Clear and logical layout; and
• Interpretable text and images.

An effective poster presentation will help your readers understand your main points. Less is more when making a poster. Therefore, ensure you have adequate white space to improve its readability. At the same time, use colors and images sparingly.

If you are given a poster template from class, ensure that you use it because it has a predefined format that can help you actualize your professor's expectations. With the structure and the steps for preparing a poster abstract, we are confident you can make an outstanding one. Feel free to apply the tips to compose a brilliant presentation poster.

If you feel like you need any assistance to prepare an abstract poster, hit us up. Go to our home page and make an order for your poster. Our nurse writing expert will take up your order and deliver an abstract poster ASAP. It will be original, compact, and with zero errors.

Our per-page prices are affordable, and we do not charge extra for revisions.

Related Readings:

• Capstone project Ideas and Topics.

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Characteristics of An Abstract

• One paragraph of text, typically 200-300 words long.
• A summary of the entire poster.
• Organized into four distinct sections that appear in order:   Introduction, Materials & Methods, Results, Discussion.
• Each section typically consists of 2-4 sentences.
• No tables and no figures.      

The abstract is a paragraph of text that appears at the top-left side of the poster ( Figs. 1 and 2 ).   It is a summary of the entire poster. It should stand alone such that a person can read the abstract and understand all the research described in the poster.   An abstract ( Fig. 3 ) contains four parts that should be written in the following order: Introduction, Materials & Methods, Results and Discussion.   Each part typically consists of 2-4 sentences and the entire abstract will contain 200-300 words.   An abstract consists strictly of text, it contains no figures, no tables, and typically it does not contain citations.    

Figure 3. Abstract

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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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 Create an Academic Poster

• Designing Effective Research Posters
• Poster Templates
• Poster Printing Guidelines

How to Write a Poster Abstract or Proposal

• More Research Help

Little Memorial Library Printing Guidelines

How to print a poster:.

• Submit your poster print request here: https://midway.libwizard.com/f/posterprinting
• Submit your poster print request at least one week in advance of when you need it
• Go to the Business Office in LRC and pay for the poster (You may also call them at 859-846-5402 .)
• Wait for an email from The Center@Midway telling you to come pick up your poster

Printing specifications:

• Make your poster 36" x 48".
• Save your poster as a PDF.  Only PDF files will be accepted.
• Use at least 300 dpi (but no more than 1200 dpi)
• File size should be no more than 10MB
• Poster must be school/study-related.
• Cost: $20 per poster (you will incur an additional $20 charge every time you want your poster re-printed because of a typo, wanting to change information, etc.).
• Poster Abstracts

What is an abstract/proposal and why should I write one?

If you want to submit your paper/research at a conference, you must first write a proposal.  A poster proposal tells the conference committee what your poster is about and, depending on the conference guidelines, might include a poster abstract, your list of contributors, and/or presentation needs.

The poster abstract is the most important part of your proposal.  It is a summary of your research poster, and tells the reader what your problem, method, results, and conclusions are.  Most abstracts are only 75 -- 250 words long.

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Best Practices for Abstract Writing and Presentation

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The development of an abstract, poster, or podium presentation is a significant undertaking. Presenting the scope of your work in a concise and effective way can be daunting, but it does not have to be. Erica Fischer-Cartlidge, MSN, CNS, CBCN ® , AOCNS ® , a clinical nurse specialist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, provided advice on abstract writing and presentation.

What Are the First Steps In Writing an Effective Abstract?

First, consider the conference goals and objectives to ensure that your research has a place there. If it’s a good fit, begin writing an abstract that clearly demonstrates the relevance of your presentation. Before starting this work, determine if your employer’s approval is needed for you to submit your research. Once approval is granted, gather all necessary information for a complete abstract.

Clearly identify your purpose, methods, findings, and discussion points for nursing implications. Identify all authors who contributed to your work, and include their names, credentials, and work settings. Determine if you are the project leader or facilitator, and include other coauthors, if applicable. In some cases, the number of coauthors who can be listed is limited by abstract guidelines.

It’s important to adhere to all abstract guidelines. Identify necessary sections, headers, and other formatting requirements, particularly word counts, as outlined by the selection committee. These can help you fill out the content of your abstract by acting as an outline. Work with coauthors to decide which parts of the research belong in each section. Selection committees will use scoring criteria to evaluate each abstract. Review them to guide you in selecting the right content for your abstract.

What Are Some Best Practices for Writing an Abstract?

Beyond including the required content and following formatting guidelines, incorporate other style considerations. Use abbreviations only when necessary and only after writing out the terminology on first reference. Present findings with data and statistics; leave speculations and conclusion for the discussion section. A good rule of thumb to follow is the mnemonic KISS : Keep It Short and Simple. Your reader should be left wanting, not wondering.

Write to express, not to impress. Your abstract will be clearer if participants always appear before verbs and you avoid passive voice (e.g., “we studied,” “patients reported”). And, of course, select an informative and dynamic title.

When finished, it helps to read your abstract aloud to get a sense flow and clarity, and to catch errors. Be sure to do a “human” check for spelling, grammar, and punctuation; don’t rely on spellcheck programs alone. Ask a friend or colleague to read your abstract draft to ensure that your work is clear and understandable. And, finally, score your abstract against the conference scoring criteria. How does it measure up?

Once the Abstract Is Accepted, How Is the Work Generally Presented?

You may present your work in three ways: poster, podium, or lecture. (Abstract submission guidelines may ask you to specify whether you are submitting for a podium or a poster.) Usually, the type of presentation is determined by relevance of the subject to the conference goals and the scoring during the review process. Lectureship is generally a separate process. Posters may be a standard paper poster, a moderated poster, or an electronic poster.

Moderated posters or electronic posters include a short (less than five minutes) verbal presentation of the project, in addition to the visual poster you create. Electronic posters involve the projection of the poster on a computer or television monitor instead of printing it on paper to hang for display.

Podium presentations are grouped by subject, and the sessions generally include three to five presenters who cover related topics. Each presenter typically has about 15 minutes to verbally present the work alongside accompanying slides.

What Are the Key Considerations in Developing and Executing a Presentation?

Review formatting guidelines before starting your work. Use institutional branding when appropriate. Be consistent with fonts, bullets, justification, indentation, and point size. Limit the use of all capitals and italics. The content and organization should mirror the sections of your abstract. When reporting data, find the best visual representation for the information you are sharing.

• Bar graphs show trends, similarity, or differences among groups of information.
• Line graphs demonstrate change over time for a group of data.
• Pie charts represent parts of a whole.

For podium sessions, your research will appear in a slide presentation. Slides should emphasize your verbal content—don’t simply read from them. For this reason, aim for slides to have no more than six lines of text, as more than this can crowd the slide and distract the audience from the content. In some cases, graphics and images can replace text on a slide to better engage the audience.

In formatting your content, simpler is better. Avoid complete sentences, and avoid abbreviations for terms that are not general knowledge to your audience. Finally, pay careful attention to correct presentation of schools, titles, degrees, and more. Make sure these are capitalized, accurate, and complete.

Posters require a slightly different approach. Again, be sure to read the criteria and follow the requirements closely. Before beginning, find out whether your institution has branded templates for conferences; your organization’s information technology, graphics, or public affairs departments may be able to help you with this. When designing the poster, minimize text and use bullets for key points. Avoid excess white space. Enhance your text with graphs, photos, and/or smart art. Variation in column sizes can help enhance the design of your poster.

What Tips Can You Give for Delivering the Presentation?

Dress to impress. Come prepared with business cards and any applicable handouts. Arrive early to assess your environment. Where is the slide show projected? How is the microphone set up?

Test the microphone and volume before the presentation start time.

While presenting, make eye contact with members of the audience. Do not simply read the content from your slides—remember, these are talking points only. When fielding audience questions, allow the question to be asked fully before answering. Rephrase the attendee’s question, and repeat it into the microphone for the other audience members. Avoid over answering, be diplomatic with controversy, and don’t misrepresent any information.

Editor’s Note: This interview was edited from materials presented by Erica Fischer-Cartlidge, MSN, CNS, CBCN ® , AOCNS ® , clinical nurse specialist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, at the 2017 ONS 42nd Annual Congress.

• nursing professional development
• ONS Congress
• Oncology nursing community
• Oncology nurse influence

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

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• Last Updated: Jul 11, 2023 5:09 PM
• URL: https://guides.nyu.edu/posters

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Guide to Writing A Poster Abstract

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Poster abstracts submitted to NCURA should serve as the initial report of knowledge, experience, or best practices in the field of research Administration. Submissions are evaluated by a review committee.

A well-written abstract is more likely to be considered as a finalist and, ultimately, for a recognition award. To expedite the review process, to assure effective communication, and to elevate the work toward the recognition award following, the following general suggestions will be helpful in submitting your abstract and description.

General suggestions

• Check for proper spelling and grammar.
• Use a standard typeface, such as Times Roman with a font size of 12.
• It is important to keep nonstandard abbreviations/acronyms to a minimum, to allow for readability and understanding.
• Do not include tables, figures, or graphs in the abstract. Such content is appropriate for the poster. 
• Abstract should be 250 words or less and should summarize the overall objectives being presented in the poster.  This can be included in bullet point format if preferred.
• The application should include a detailed description of poster make up itself and include the outcomes to be presented.  Limit to 500 words (use the less=more concept).
• Try to organize the abstract with the following headings where appropriate, as explained below; purpose, methods, results, conclusions.

The abstract title conveys the content/subject of the poster. The title may be written as a question or the title may be written to suggest the conclusions, if appropriate. A short concise title may more easily catch a reader’s attention. Try to not use abbreviations or acronyms in titles.

The introductory sentence(s) may be stated as a hypothesis, a purpose, an objective, or as current evidence for a finding. Hypothesis is a supposition or conjecture used as a basis for further investigations. Purpose is a statement of the reason for conducting a project or reporting on a program, process or activity. Objective is the result that the author is trying to achieve by conducting a project, program, process or activity.

Briefly describe the methods of the project to define the data or population, outcome variables, and analytic techniques, as well as data collection procedures and frequencies. A description of statistical methods used may be included if appropriate.

The results should be stated succinctly to support only the purpose, objectives, hypothesis, or conclusions.

Conclusions

The conclusion(s) should highlight the impact of the project, and follow the methods and results in a logical fashion. This section should not restate results. Rather, the utility of the results and their potential role in the management of the project should be emphasized. New information or conclusions not supported by data in the results section should be avoided.

Important note

Poster program finalists are determined following evaluation of each actual poster by the review committee. Finalists will be notified by email no later than June 25th.

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How to Write a Really Great Presentation Abstract

Whether this is your first abstract submission or you just need a refresher on best practices when writing a conference abstract, these tips are for you..

An abstract for a presentation should include most the following sections. Sometimes they will only be a sentence each since abstracts are typically short (250 words):

• What (the focus): Clearly explain your idea or question your work addresses (i.e. how to recruit participants in a retirement community, a new perspective on the concept of “participant” in citizen science, a strategy for taking results to local government agencies).
• Why (the purpose): Explain why your focus is important (i.e. older people in retirement communities are often left out of citizen science; participants in citizen science are often marginalized as “just” data collectors; taking data to local governments is rarely successful in changing policy, etc.)
• How (the methods): Describe how you collected information/data to answer your question. Your methods might be quantitative (producing a number-based result, such as a count of participants before and after your intervention), or qualitative (producing or documenting information that is not metric-based such as surveys or interviews to document opinions, or motivations behind a person’s action) or both.
• Results: Share your results — the information you collected. What does the data say? (e.g. Retirement community members respond best to in-person workshops; participants described their participation in the following ways, 6 out of 10 attempts to influence a local government resulted in policy changes ).
• Conclusion : State your conclusion(s) by relating your data to your original question. Discuss the connections between your results and the problem (retirement communities are a wonderful resource for new participants; when we broaden the definition of “participant” the way participants describe their relationship to science changes; involvement of a credentialed scientist increases the likelihood of success of evidence being taken seriously by local governments.). If your project is still ‘in progress’ and you don’t yet have solid conclusions, use this space to discuss what you know at the moment (i.e. lessons learned so far, emerging trends, etc).

Here is a sample abstract submitted to a previous conference as an example:

Giving participants feedback about the data they help to collect can be a critical (and sometimes ignored) part of a healthy citizen science cycle. One study on participant motivations in citizen science projects noted “When scientists were not cognizant of providing periodic feedback to their volunteers, volunteers felt peripheral, became demotivated, and tended to forgo future work on those projects” (Rotman et al, 2012). In that same study, the authors indicated that scientists tended to overlook the importance of feedback to volunteers, missing their critical interest in the science and the value to participants when their contributions were recognized. Prioritizing feedback for volunteers adds value to a project, but can be daunting for project staff. This speed talk will cover 3 different kinds of visual feedback that can be utilized to keep participants in-the-loop. We’ll cover strengths and weaknesses of each visualization and point people to tools available on the Web to help create powerful visualizations. Rotman, D., Preece, J., Hammock, J., Procita, K., Hansen, D., Parr, C., et al. (2012). Dynamic changes in motivation in collaborative citizen-science projects. the ACM 2012 conference (pp. 217–226). New York, New York, USA: ACM. doi:10.1145/2145204.2145238

📊   Data Ethics  – Refers to trustworthy data practices for citizen science.

Get involved » Join the Data Ethics Topic Room on CSA Connect!

📰   Publication Ethics  – Refers to the best practice in the ethics of scholarly publishing.

Get involved » Join the Publication Ethics Topic Room on CSA Connect!

⚖️  Social Justice Ethics  – Refers to fair and just relations between the individual and society as measured by the distribution of wealth, opportunities for personal activity, and social privileges. Social justice also encompasses inclusiveness and diversity.

Get involved » Join the Social Justice Topic Room on CSA Connect!

👤   Human Subject Ethics  – Refers to rules of conduct in any research involving humans including biomedical research, social studies. Note that this goes beyond human subject ethics regulations as much of what goes on isn’t covered.

Get involved » Join the Human Subject Ethics Topic Room on CSA Connect!

🍃  Biodiversity & Environmental Ethics – Refers to the improvement of the dynamics between humans and the myriad of species that combine to create the biosphere, which will ultimately benefit both humans and non-humans alike [UNESCO 2011 white paper on Ethics and Biodiversity ]. This is a kind of ethics that is advancing rapidly in light of the current global crisis as many stakeholders know how critical biodiversity is to the human species (e.g., public health, women’s rights, social and environmental justice).

⚠ UNESCO also affirms that respect for biological diversity implies respect for societal and cultural diversity, as both elements are intimately interconnected and fundamental to global well-being and peace. ( Source ).

Get involved » Join the Biodiversity & Environmental Ethics Topic Room on CSA Connect!

🤝  Community Partnership Ethics – Refers to rules of engagement and respect of community members directly or directly involved or affected by any research study/project.

Get involved » Join the Community Partnership Ethics Topic Room on CSA Connect!

Writing the Poster Abstract

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• Peter J. Gosling Ph.D. 2  

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The poster abstract is the part of the overall presentation that is usually destined for publication in the proceedings or abstract book of the meeting. Specific skills are required to summarize large amounts of scientific text and data into a few sentences that still adequately set the scene and convey the appropriate message. The abstract is not merely a summary of your findings. It must be able to, and indeed will, stand alone. The restriction on the number of words, the format, and the deadline for receipt will be given by the conference organizers. It is common to supply a box outline in which the abstract must be typed or printed in a camera ready format. This is the lasting part of your presentation, and you need to devote a suitable amount of time to ensuring that it maintains the same high quality as the rest of your presentation. For this reason a good quality copy should be sent for publication, avoiding faxing, as the results are often difficult to read. For casual readers this may be the only part of your presentation that is seen. You should therefore avoid the use of phrases such as “evidence will be presented,” and make the abstract as representative of the whole presentation as possible.

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Gosling, P.J. (1999). Writing the Poster Abstract. In: Scientist’s Guide to Poster Presentations. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4761-7_4

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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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How to Write an Undergraduate Abstract

Writing an abstract for the undergraduate research poster session.

By Elzbieta Cook, Louisiana State University

General Rules and Accepted Practices

Successful abstracts exhibit what is generally accepted as good scientific communication. The following guidelines specify all aspects of how a good abstract is written.

The Title is informative; it is neither too long nor too short, and it does not oversell or sensationalize the content of the presentation.

• Make the title descriptive, yet short and sweet.
• Do not start the t itle with “The”, “A”, or “An.”
• Capitalize only the first letter of the first word of the title, the first letter of the first word after a colon, and any proper names, acronyms (e.g., NMR) or chemical formulas (e.g., NaOH).  
• Do not put a period at the end of the title.

The body of the abstract briefly frames the researched issue, succinctly describes the performed research, and outlines the findings and general conclusions without going into too many details or numbers.

• Do not write everything you did in your work.  Briefly frame the research you will be describing. Your poster will be a better place to elaborate on selected aspects of your research. Instead, make general statements in regards to what was done, what techniques were used, what type of information was gained (without going into details of specific results), and what the potential benefits or significance of the findings are.
• Ensure that the content of the abstract is approved by your research advisor. In addition to getting valuable feedback on how you write, your research advisor will know which results are ready to be shared in your presentation and which belong elsewhere. Additionally, the advisor is responsible for your work and, consequently, your work and results.  
• Do not make literature references to other published research in the abstract.  A good place for literature references is in the introduction of your poster. Likewise, unless specifically requested by the session organizers, do not include funding information in the abstract. Your research program and funding sources can be mentioned in the acknowledgment part of your poster.
• Do not use “I” and “we” when reporting on you research.  It is okay to state, for instance, that “research in our group is focused on…” The passive voice is still the standard in scientific literature, even if it makes your English teacher cringe.
• Exercise restraint when placing figures, schemes, and tables in the abstract.  The body of your poster is a much better place for the majority of artwork. Having said that, figures, schemes, and tables are allowed in the abstract, but you need to watch the character count, as these features quickly add hundreds of characters.
• Limit the number of characters for the entire abstract to 2,500 . This includes the title, the body, and the authors, along with their affiliations.

The list of authors, in addition to the presenting undergraduate student(s), always includes the name of the research advisor(s) as well as any other non-presenting author who contributed to the presented work.

• The list of authors must include the presenting author(s) . The presenting author is you and any other undergraduate student who will present the research with you.
• Include the name(s) of your research advisor(s) on the list of poster authors.  With few exceptions, undergraduate research is typically funded through a grant applied for and received by a research mentor, and must be properly acknowledged. Your research project is likely the brainchild of your research advisor, even if you contributed to its development. Remember that credit must go where it belongs! Even if you are the only person who performs the experiments, you do so under the supervision of a research advisor or graduate student (who, in turn, is financially supported by the mentor). In addition, the costs of hosting you in the laboratory, including disposables, software licenses, hazardous waste disposal, and even the costs of keeping the lab air-conditioned, the lights on and the elevator functioning, are typically courtesy of the host group (covered from your mentor’s indirect costs). The reviewer of your abstract will check whether the list of authors includes the name of the research advisor. Submissions without this information  will not be accepted  until the necessary correction is made.
• List the presenting author first.  While there is no strict rule about the order of authors, it is common that the presenting author is listed first. If there is more than one presenting author, the order should follow that of their contributions, followed by non-presenting authors, with the research mentor being listed at the end. Some research mentors elect to be the first authors on undergraduate research posters, but care must be taken so that they are not listed as presenting authors. Again, the reviewer of your abstract will check to see whether the research mentor is listed as a presenting author, and if that is the case, the abstract will be returned to the authors for further clarification.

NOTE:   Only undergraduate students are allowed to present in the Undergraduate Research Poster session. Any research mentor who wishes to present the results from an undergraduate project must do so in another session.

Affiliations

• Ensure that the name and the address of each college, university, institute, etc., is the same for all authors who come from that school.  For instance, MAPS, the ACS’s abstract submission system, will “think” that Penn State and The Pennsylvania State University are two different schools and will assign two different affiliations to authors who were, after all, working in the same lab!
• The order of affiliations should follow the order of authors.

Submitting an Abstract to the Correct Session

It is a common error for students and faculty to submit a poster abstract to an incorrect session. The confusion often comes from the fact that the Chemical Education division of the ACS (DivCHED) accepts two types of poster abstracts: those from faculty about their chemical education research and those from undergraduate students about their research in a particular technical discipline.

The Undergraduate Research Poster Session in DivCHED is custom made for undergraduate student research. It is a good place to submit an abstract here, whether it’s your first presentation at a National Meeting or your third or fourth (as long as you’re still an undergrad).

Nevertheless, you should consult with your research advisor to find the right place to submit. If you do plan on submitting to a division other than DivCHED (e.g. Division of Analytical Chemistry),  it’s a good idea to check with the division program chair to find the best place to showcase your research.

The Undergraduate Research Poster Session   is meant only for undergraduate student presenters (i.e., you!). ACS has created several sub-divisions for the various sub-disciplines in chemistry, so you can present in an area that closely relates to your research.

In the Undergraduate Research Poster Session, you’ll want to choose the area of chemistry your research fits best, such as biochemistry, environmental, etc.  If your undergraduate research is organic chemistry, for example, select  Undergraduate Research Posters: Organic Chemistry-Poster . Only if you have helped to develop a new laboratory experiment or in-class demonstration, or you have analyzed learning outcomes of new learning strategies or a new pedagogy—will you want to submit your abstract to  Undergraduate Research Posters: Chemical Education-Poster.

Remember, you, as an undergraduate researcher, must register and attend the meeting to present your work. Please note that if a faculty researcher, a postdoctoral candidate, or a graduate student wishes to present a poster on chemistry education research, they should submit their abstract to the CHED division in the General Poster Session. This article is  not  meant for such submissions.

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• J Palliat Med

Writing Abstracts and Developing Posters for National Meetings

Gordon j. wood.

1 Department of Medicine, Section of Palliative Care and Medical Ethics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

R. Sean Morrison

2 Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York, and the James J. Peters VA, Bronx, New York.

Presenting posters at national meetings can help fellows and junior faculty members develop a national reputation. They often lead to interesting and fruitful networking and collaboration opportunities. They also help with promotion in academic medicine and can reveal new job opportunities. Practically, presenting posters can help justify funding to attend a meeting. Finally, this process can be invaluable in assisting with manuscript preparation. This article provides suggestions and words of wisdom for palliative care fellows and junior faculty members wanting to present a poster at a national meeting describing a case study or original research. It outlines how to pick a topic, decide on collaborators, and choose a meeting for the submission. It also describes how to write the abstract using examples that present a general format as well as writing tips for each section. It then describes how to prepare the poster and do the presentation. Sample poster formats are provided as are talking points to help the reader productively interact with those that visit the poster. Finally, tips are given regarding what to do after the meeting. The article seeks to not only describe the basic steps of this entire process, but also to highlight the hidden curriculum behind the successful abstracts and posters. These tricks of the trade can help the submission stand out and will make sure the reader gets the most out of the hard work that goes into a poster presentation at a national meeting.

Introduction

A track record of successful presentations at national meetings is important for the junior academic palliative medicine clinician. Unfortunately, palliative care fellows report minimal training in how to even start the process by writing the abstract. 1 What follows is a practical, step-by-step guide aimed at the palliative care fellow or junior palliative care faculty member who is hoping to present original research or a case study at a national meeting. We will discuss the rationale for presenting at national meetings, development of the abstract, creation and conduct of the presentation, as well as what to do after the meeting. We will draw on the literature where available 2 – 7 and on our experience where data are lacking. We will focus on the development of posters rather than oral presentations or workshops as these are typically the first and more common experiences for junior faculty and fellows. Finally, in addition to discussing the nuts and bolts of the process, we will also focus on the “hidden curriculum” behind the successful submissions and poster presentations (see Table 1 ).

The Hidden Curriculum: Tips To Get the Most Out of Your Submission

Why Present at National Meetings?

Given that it takes a fair amount of work to put together an abstract and presentation, it is fair to ask what is to be gained from the effort. The standard answer is that presentations at national meetings aid in the dissemination of your findings and help further the field. Although this is certainly true, there are also several practical and personal reasons that should hold at least equal importance to fellows or junior faculty members (see Table 2 ). Perhaps most importantly, presenting at a national meeting helps develop your national reputation. People will begin to know your name and associate it with the topic you are presenting. Additionally, it provides an opportunity to network and collaborate, which can then lead to other projects. Many of us have begun life-long collaborative relationships after connecting with someone at a national meeting. Even if you don't make a personal connection at the meeting, if people begin to associate your name with a topic, they will often reach out to you when they need an expert to sit on a committee, write a paper, or collaborate on a project.

Personal Reasons To Present Abstracts/Posters

Development of a national reputation is important not only in garnering interesting opportunities, but it is also key to career advancement. For fellows, presenting at national meetings can forge connections with future employers and lead to that all-important “first job.” For junior faculty, demonstration of a national reputation is often the main criterion for promotion and presentations at national meetings help establish this reputation. 8 Junior faculty may also make connections that lead to potential job opportunities of which they might not otherwise have been aware.

There are three additional practical reasons to present at a national meeting. First, having something accepted for presentation is often the only way your department will reimburse your trip to the meeting. Second, going through the work of abstract submission and presentation helps tremendously in manuscript preparation. It provides a deadline and forces you to organize your thoughts, analyze your data, and place them in an understandable format. This makes the eventual job of writing the manuscript much less daunting. Third, presenting also allows you to get immediate feedback, which can then make the manuscript stronger before it is submitted. Such feedback often gives the presenter additional ideas for analyses, alternate explanations for findings, and ideas regarding future directions.

Although these personal and practical reasons for presenting are derived from our own experiences, they are concordant with the survey results of 219 presenters at the Society of General Internal Medicine Annual Meeting. 9 This survey also highlighted how posters and oral presentations can meet these needs differently. For example, for these presenters, posters were preferred for getting feedback and criticism and for networking and collaborating. Oral presentations, on the other hand, were preferred for developing a national reputation and sharing important findings most effectively. For all of these reasons, many academic centers have developed highly effective programs for trainees and junior faculty to help encourage submissions 10 , 11 so it is wise to seek out such programs if they exist in your home institution.

Getting Started

Realizing the importance of presenting at national meetings may be the easy part. Actually getting started and putting together a submission is where most fall short. The critical first step is to pick something that interests you. For original research, hopefully your level of interest was a consideration at the beginning of the project, although how anxious you are to work on the submission may be a good barometer for your true investment in the project.

For case studies, make sure the topic, and ideally the case, fuel a passion. Unlike original research, in which mentors and advisors are usually established at study conception, case studies often require you to seek appropriate collaborators when contemplating submission. It is the rare submission that comes from a single author. In choosing collaborators, look for a senior mentor with experience submitting posters and an investment in both you and the topic. There is nothing more disheartening for the junior clinician than having to harass a mentor whose heart is not in the project.

Another critical step is to choose the right meeting for the submission. Although many submissions may be to palliative care meetings (e.g., American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine), there is great benefit to both the field and your career in presenting at other specialty meetings. Presentations at well-recognized nonpalliative care meetings further legitimize the field, increase your national visibility, and lead to interesting and fruitful collaborations. Additionally, these types of presentations may be looked on with more favor by people reviewing your CV who are not intimately familiar with the world of palliative care. Table 1 presents some questions you should discuss with your mentor and ask yourself when choosing a meeting. Some of these questions may have conflicting answers, and you should be thoughtful in weighing what is most important.

Once you have chosen your meeting, go to the meeting's website and review all of the instructions. Check requirements regarding what material can be presented. For example, many meetings will allow you to present data that were already presented at a regional meeting but not data that were previously presented at another national meeting. Most meetings also do not allow you to present data that are already published, although it is generally acceptable to submit your abstract at the same time you submit your paper for publication. If the paper is published before the meeting, make sure to inform the committee—most often you will still be able to present but will be asked to note the publication in your presentation. Regarding the submission, most conferences have very specific instructions and the rules are strict. The applications are generally online with preset fields and word limits. It is helpful to examine review criteria and deadlines for submission, paying particular attention to time zones. Finally, it can be invaluable to read published abstracts from the last meeting and to talk with prior presenters to get a sense of the types of abstracts that are accepted.

The next step is to start writing. The key to success is to leave enough time as there are often unavoidable and unplanned technical issues with the online submission that you will confront. Additionally, you will want to leave time to get input from all of the authors and from people who have not been primarily involved in the project—to make sure that a “naïve” audience understands the message of the abstract. Finally, remember that an abstract/poster does not have to represent all of the data for a study and can just present an interesting piece of the story.

Most submissions require several rewrites. These can become frustrating, but it is important to realize that there is a very specific language for these types of submissions that your mentor should know and that you will learn over time. The most common issue is the need to shorten the abstract to fit the word limit. Strategies to ensure brevity include using the active voice, employing generic rather than trade names for drugs and devices, and avoiding jargon and local lingo. Use no more than two or three abbreviations and always define the abbreviations on first use. Do a spelling/grammar check and also have someone proofread the document before submitting. References are generally not included on abstracts. Most importantly, be concise, write lean, and avoid empty phrases such as “studies show.” A review of 45 abstracts submitted to a national surgical meeting found that concise abstracts were more likely to be accepted, 12 and this small study certainly reflects our experiences as submitters and reviewers.

The Abstract for an Original Research Study

The styles of abstracts for original studies vary. Guidelines exist for manuscript abstracts reporting various types of original research (CONSORT, 13 – 15 IDCRD, 16 PRISMA, 17 QUOROM, and STROBE 18 ) and review of these guidelines can be helpful to provide a format. There are also guidelines that exist for evaluating conference abstracts that may be informative, such as the CORE-14 guidelines for observational studies. 19 In general, a structured abstract style is favored. 20 – 21 In this paper, we will present general styles for each type of abstract that will need to be adapted to the type of study and the rules of the conference. Table 3 outlines the general format for an abstract for original research. Each section contains tips for how to write the section, rather than example text from a study. Therefore, you may find it most helpful to review the figures alongside examples of previously accepted abstracts.

Abstract for an Original Research Study

In any abstract, it is particularly important to focus on the title as it is often the only item people will look at while scanning the meeting program or wandering through the poster session. It should be no more than 10–12 words 2 and should describe what was investigated and how, instead of what was found. It should be engaging, but be cautious with too much use of humor as this can become tiresome and distracting. Below the title, list authors and their affiliations. The remaining sections of the abstract are discussed in the figure.

The Abstract for a Case Study

The abstract for a case study contains many of the same elements as the abstract for original research with a few important differences. Most importantly, you need to use the abstract to highlight the importance of the issue the case raises and convince the reader that both the case and the issue are interesting, novel, and relevant. A general format is provided in Table 4 .

Abstract for a Case Study

Preparing Posters

Once the abstract is prepared, submitted, and, hopefully, accepted, your next job is to prepare the presentation. Whereas a few select abstracts are typically selected for oral presentation (usually 8–10 minutes followed by a short question-and-answer period), the majority of submitted abstracts will be assigned to poster sessions. (Readers interested in advice for oral presentations are referred to reference 22 ). Posters are large (generally approximately 3 × 6 ft) visual representations of your work. Most posters are now one-piece glossy prints from graphics departments or commercial stores, although increasingly academic departments have access to printing facilities that may be less expensive than commercial stores. Additionally, many meetings now partner with on-site printing services, which are convenient and reasonably priced. Generally, the material is prepared on a PowerPoint (or equivalent) slide and this is given to the production facility. The easiest way to prepare your first poster is to ask your institution if it has a preferred or required template. If such a template does not exist, ask for a trusted colleague's slide from an accepted poster. This gives you the format and institutional logos, and you simply need to modify the content. In preparing your poster for printing, review the meeting instructions and try to make your poster as close to the maximum dimensions as possible. Try to complete the poster early to allow for production delays. Consider shipping your poster to the conference or carry it in a protective case and check with the airline regarding luggage requirements. On-site printing eliminates travel hassles but does not allow much time for any problems that may arise.

What goes on the poster?

Both the content and the visual appeal of the poster are important. In fact, one study found that visual appeal was more important than content for knowledge transfer. 23 Although the poster expands the content of your abstract, resist the urge to include too much information. It is helpful to remember the rule of 10s: the average person scans your poster for 10 seconds from 10 feet away. When someone stops, you should be able to introduce your poster in 10 seconds and they should be able to assimilate all of the information and discuss it with you in 10 minutes. 3 Figures 1 and ​ and2 2 show the layouts of posters for a case and for an original study. The general rule is to keep each section as short and simple as possible, which allows for a font large enough (nothing smaller than 24 point 4 ) for easy reading of the title from 10 feet away and the text from 3–5 feet away. Leave blank space and use colors judiciously. Easily read and interpretable figures and simple tables are more visually appealing than text, and they are typically more effective in getting one's message across. It is helpful to get feedback on one's poster before finalizing and printing—ideally from people not familiar with the work to get a true objective view.

Poster for original research.

Poster for case study.

Although it may seem simple enough to prepare a good poster, many fall short. One author reviewed 142 posters at a national meeting and found that 33% were cluttered or sloppy, 22% had fonts that were too small to be easily read, and 38% had research objectives that could not be located in a 1-minute review. 5 Another study of an evaluation tool for case report posters found that the areas most needing improvement were statements of learning objectives, linkages of conclusions to learning objectives, and appropriate amount of words. 24

The Poster Presentation

Posters are presented at “Poster Sessions,” which are designated periods during the meeting when presenters stand by their posters while conference attendees circulate through the room. Refreshments are often served during these sessions and the atmosphere is generally more relaxed and less stressful than during oral presentations. Additionally, the one-on-one contact allows greater opportunity for discussion, feedback, and networking. Awards are often presented to the best posters and ribbons may designate these posters during the session.

The first step to a successful poster presentation is to simply show up. Surveys of conference attendees clearly indicate that it is necessary for the presenter to be with his/her poster for effective communication of the results. 23 This is also your time to grow your reputation, network, and get feedback, so do not miss the opportunity to reap the rewards of your hard work. In preparation, read any specific conference instructions and bring business cards and handouts of the poster or related materials. While standing at your poster, make eye contact with people who approach but allow them to finish reading before beginning a discussion. 4 As noted above, you should be prepared to introduce your poster in 10 seconds then answer questions and discuss as needed. Practicing your introduction and answers to common questions with colleagues before the meeting can be invaluable. Before your presentation, your mentor should also contact important people in the field related to your topic and ask them to come by your poster. You should have a list of these people and know who they are and when they are coming. Standard questions you may ask are included in Table 1 . You should also have prepared questions targeted specifically for each of the people your mentor has contacted. You should then suggest these people as reviewers when you submit your manuscript.

After the Presentation

After the presentation, key steps remain to get the most out of the process. First, ask for feedback so you can make adjustments for the next presentation. Also, think about what parts of the poster you can use for other reasons. It is often helpful to export a graph or figure to use in future presentations. The key is to “double-dip” and use everything to its fullest extent. In addition, to make the maximal use of the networking opportunities you should follow up with anyone who asked for more information or inquired about collaborations. In the excitement of the meeting anything seems possible, but it is easy to lose that momentum when you get home. In one study, only 29% of presenters replied to requests for additional information, and they generally took over 30 days to respond. 25

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it is critical to write up your work for publication. Although posters are important, publications are the true currency of academia. Unfortunately, the percentage of abstracts that are eventually published is low. 26 When asked why they had yet to publish, respondents in one study 27 cited: lacked time (46%), study still in progress (31%), responsibility for publication belonged to someone else (20%), difficulty with co-authors (17%), and low priority (13%). Factors that have been shown to increase the likelihood of abstract publication include: oral presentation (as opposed to a poster), statistical analysis, number of authors, and university affiliation. 28 – 31 Time to publication is generally about 20 months. 29

Conclusions

Writing abstracts and developing posters for national meetings benefit the field in general and the junior clinician in particular. This process develops critical skills and generates innumerable opportunities. We have presented a stepwise approach based on the literature and our personal experiences. We have also highlighted the hidden curriculum that separates the successful submissions from the rest of the pack. Hopefully, these tools will help palliative care fellows and junior faculty more easily navigate the process and benefit the most from the work they put into their projects.

Acknowledgments

Dr. Morrison is supported by a Mid-Career Investigator Award in Patient Oriented Research from the National Institute on Aging (K24 AG022345). A portion of this work was funded by the National Palliative Care Research Center.

Author Disclosure Statement

No competing financial interests exist.

ASCO Connection

The professional networking site for asco's worldwide oncology community, search form, the framework to create a successful abstract and poster.

Oct 25, 2013

A. Craig Lockhart, MD, and Jeffrey Clarke, MD

Abstracts and poster presentations are an important modality of communication, networking, and professional development for fellows, junior faculty, and even senior investigators. While producing abstracts or posters may come naturally to some, many people find conveying complex information in a succinct and limited format quite challenging. We had the great opportunity this summer to hear Vicki A. Morrison, MD, and George W. Sledge, MD, at the ASCO/American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Workshop: Methods in Clinical Cancer Research, discuss ways to deliver an effective presentation.

It occurred to us while listening to them that a lot of their advice for presentations applied directly to writing abstracts and creating posters as well. In our experience, and building on their comments, here is some advice on creating a reliable framework for a successful presentation and an effective abstract or poster:

Simple is better

As physicians, we are programed to be thorough and detail-oriented; however, we routinely overestimate the level at which our audience becomes fatigued with the dense content of abstracts and posters. Given the time, energy, and attention-span constraints on the audience at national meetings, including only essential information pertinent to your abstract and poster is critical to ensuring your results are conveyed properly. Avoid digressions and focus on the conclusions you wish to communicate to the reader. Structure your methods and results to support only your important concluding points. Provide a succinct rationale to your abstract, minimize text throughout your poster, delete extraneous language, and simplify descriptions. 1

Don’t be overly ambitious.

The burden of data required for an abstract or poster is inherently different from a full journal publication. The amount of original data needed is in many cases substantially less for abstracts or posters. Furthermore, the results are frequently preliminary or hypothesis generating. Accordingly, narrow the spectrum of questions addressed by the abstract or poster to avoid diluting your message. By streamlining your methods and results sections, you can also avoid having your audience gloss over important elements of your data and conclusions. 2

Aesthetics are important.

The physical appearance of your poster can be a double-edged sword. Although bold colors, bright pictures, and captivating graphs certainly confer character and enthusiasm to your poster, overuse of these elements can also appear busy, cluttered, and even chaotic to your audience. Methodically use clean, simple graphs and pictures to draw the audience’s attention to the most important parts of your message. Well-designed figures can many times help explain complex methods or results and allow you to eliminate crowded text. Do not be afraid to ask for the assistance of a medical illustrator at your institution to help create figures or adjust the aesthetics of your poster (which is usually worth paying the nominal fee). Finally, use numbers, bullets, and arrows liberally to help you readers follow the logical progression of your poster and help minimize long, droning paragraphs.

Remember your audience.

Always be cognizant of the rule of tens with abstracts and posters: the average attendee will read your poster from 10 feet away for 10 seconds. 1,3 The title and section headings should be brief and descriptive with uniform font that is easily readable from 10 feet away. Furthermore, you should be able to describe your topic succinctly in about 10 seconds. 3 Place emphasis on using concise, efficient language in your abstract and poster to avoid audience fatigue.

Finally, your friends, colleagues, and mentors make the best practice audience and can be extraordinarily helpful in editing and critiquing your abstract and poster prior to the conference. Perhaps most important, the audience will most likely remember you, not your poster. Strive to be approachable, engaging, and confident during the poster session, yet open to discussion, criticism, and feedback from others. 1,2 Additionally, use your abstract and poster presentation as a networking opportunity with faculty at other institutions; have contact information visible and business cards available. Ultimately, your abstract and poster should convey your data and ideas. Follow these principles and your abstract and poster will be an effective tool for communication, networking, and professional growth. References 1. Hamilton CW. Chest . 2008;134:457-9. PMID: 18682467. 2. Erren TC, Bourne PE. PLoS Comput Biol . 2007;3:e102. PMID: 17530921. 3. Wood GJ, Morrison RS. J Palliat Med . 2011;14:353-9. PMID: 21241194.

Recent Articles

Duke Hospitalists Well-Represented at Annual SHM Meeting

The Society of Hospital Medicine meeting (SHM Converge) was held in San Diego this past week (Apr 12-15). This is the largest conference for hospitalists annually, with several thousand attending nationwide.  Many Duke hospitalists and trainees attended the meeting, with several selected to give a platform or poster presentation.  Here are some of the presenters at this year’s meeting (compiled by Dr. Suchita Shah Sata). Abstracts will be published in an online supplement of the Journal of Hospital Medicine . Congratulations to all for being recognized for your excellence in clinical practice and research.

Presentations:

• Lecture - Navigating the Pace of Change: Insights for Thriving through Evolving Practice Management
• Workshop - Building Inpatient Co-management Programs and Pathways
• Plenary  Session- Updates in Hospital Medicine
• Workshop - Planning for Dissemination of your QI Innovations: from Project to Publication, insider advice from Journal of Hospital Medicine
• Workshop - Care Traffic Control: Optimizing team collaboration in high-acuity healthcare settings

Research & Innovation Abstract presentations:

• Oral abstract - V Press, A Jenkins, A Sumarsono, MT Prochaska, SK Mueller, Juliessa Pavon MD, JD Harrison, S Dugani, BP Golden, N Caravelli, A Jackson-Sagredo, VM Vaughn, A McWilliams: Research priorities for adult hospital medicine - a survey of US hospital medicine leaders.
• Finalist poster –   Judith Vick MD MPH , Ben Berger MD, HyunBin You MSN RN, Jessica Ma MD, Marie Haverfield PhD, Christopher Cox MD MHA MPH , Deepshika Ashana MD MBA MS : Shared decision-making and surrogate prognostic misunderstanding after family meetings.
• Anivarya Kumar BA, Lucy Cummins BA BS, Ryan Slauer MD, Dana Clifton MD : Drivers of self-directed discharge in patients with opioid use disorder
• Parisa Farahana MD MPH, Atoosa Bigvand, Felicia Ruffin, Christopher Leo MD, Yiran Yang MD PhD, Grace Dreyer PA-C, Neil Stafford MD , David Edelman MD , Lana Wahid MD , Valerie Renard NP, Hui-Jie Lee, Truls Ostbye, Hanzhang Xu, David Gallagher MD, Tatyana Der MD, Emily Ko MD PhD , Nkiruka Azuogalanya: Sepsis readmission prediction: pilot study of social determinants of health.
• Nadia Pasha MD , Ruwan Gamarallage MD, Eliseu Chuang MD MHA, Zahra Mahbooba MPH, Amal Youssef MD : Improving hospital admission time by 35%
• Ryan Duffy MD, Suchita Shah Sata MD, Joel Boggan MD MPH, Brian Schneider MD, Alex Linares BS, David Simel MD: Reducing low-value CBCs: audit and feedback using resident defined standards
• J Ramesh,  Michael Pignone MD MPH , C Moriates, A Boulton, R Holliman, FJ Ibarra, O Dede-Bamfo, N Kluz, K Von Sternberg, M Velasquez: Screening and treatment of unhealthy alcohol use during acute hospitalization.
• A Fried, D Bynum, S Dorn, W Leland, E Mullen, D Williams, Aimee Zaas MD MHS : Generative Artificial Intelligence use among internal medicine residents.

Clinical Vignette presentations:

• Sanjay Adi MD, Ruwan Gamarallage MD . Can rifaximin trigger rhabdomyolysis despite long-term use of atorvastatin?
• Eleanor Bate MD, Pahresah Roomiany MD MS: Catatonia in systemic lupus erythematosus: a multifaceted clinical presentation.
• Katrina Guardino BA, River Jordan, Jenny Van Kirk MD : Cutaneous cytomegalovirus as a harbinger of dissemination in immunocompromised patients.
• Roshini Srinivasan MS, Joanna Cavalier MD, Aubrey Jolly Graham MD : Something in the water: curious case of peritoneal dialysis-associated peritonitis.
• Alexandra Lee MD, Mary-Nel Saarloos DO : Beware of the loitering goiter
• James R Watson MD, Suchita Shah Sata MD, Tara Spector MD : Lactobacillus bacteremia and endocarditis presenting as a lower-extremity rash.

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Student Presentation Information

Student abstract submissions are accepted from February 12 to April 5, 2024.

The annual hydrologic sciences symposium welcomes research into all aspects of hydrologic sciences; interdisciplinary entries are particularly encouraged (e.g. hydrogeology, hydroecology, aquatic biology, biogeochemistry, environmental and water resource engineering, etc.). 

Presentations will be in two formats:

• 10-minute Oral Presentations
• 4-minute Lightning Talks

register to attend

Please join us for the Symposium

For further details and questions not answered below please contact us at  [email protected] .   

Abstract submission guidelines

Here is advice from the Geological Society of America :

"If you’ve never been to a [Hydrological Sciences Symposium] or read a bunch of abstracts, start by reading  5 to 10 abstracts from previous meetings.   These can be accessed here .

The purpose of an abstract is not to tell the reader the topic of the study, but rather it is to deliver the findings of the study.  In other words, a good abstract should have all the elements found in a good peer‐reviewed published paper.  This includes background/introduction, methods, results, discussion, and conclusions. The following is a general formula, although of course deviations may be necessary:

• 1 sentence:  Summary statement to place your study in context, define the overall purpose or problem being addressed.
• 1 sentence:  Summary statement of your approach to the problem – mapping done,  analyses performed, methods, etc.
• 3‐5 sentences:  Meat of the abstract.  Results/Data.
• 3‐5 sentences:   Interpretive discussion.
• 1 sentence:  Summary statement listing the conclusions of your study.
• 1 sentence:  Statement relating your study back to the “big picture” – why does this  work matter? How will it impact science and society?"

Yes! There is an archive of student abstracts going back to 2006.

The abstract title should be less than 300 characters including spaces.

The abstract limit is 3000 characters of main text including spaces (about 400 words) and up to 3 figures. This character limit excludes references, which should be included in a bibliography at the end of the abstract. References can be in any format. Complex mathematical equations should be submitted as figures. All text, figures, and references should fit within 2-2.5 pages (8.5 x 11 inch), using single-spaced, 12-pt Times New Roman font. If you have large figures you may have to submit less text.

Figures are encouraged, but optional. We particularly encourage participants to include up to 3 figures to illustrate their abstract. Figures might include data plots, data tables, maps, equations, or photographs (ie. fieldwork, lab work). All figures must be submitted in gif, jpg, or png image format (use .gif, .jpg, or .png file endings). If you have problems outputting to one of these formats, you may want to enlarge your figure and then use screen capture. When possible, figures should be at high resolution with the longest dimension at least 1000 pixels long (so the printed version looks good).

Only an abstract is required for submission, but please provide your poster (as a figure in the application) if you would like it to be available as an e-poster during the symposium.

Submitting a talk that you have already presented at another conference is fine, as long as it does not violate an agreement you made with the other conference.

Making a presentation of a collaborative study for which you are not the first author is fine too, as long as you made a substantial contribution and are familiar with all aspects of the study.

Abstracts will be accepted from February 12 to April 5, 2024.

Abstracts may be submitted for 10-minute presentations, Lightning Talks, or Posters.

RESISTER TO PRESENT

Presentation guidelines

Presentations will be organized in the conventional format of a 10-minute talk, including time for questions. 

Your presentation will be loaded on the Symposium laptop.

Be sure to practice with a friend before you present!

Lightning Talk guidelines

In lieu of a poster session, the Symposium will hold lunch-hour Lightning Talks. Each talk is four minutes long.

Lightning Talks are 4 minutes long, presenting 4 slides.

• Introduction
• Research question
• Conclusions 

At the end of the hour of talks, questions will be invited on all the Lightning Talks. There will be no time for questions at the end of each Lightning Talk.

Poster guidelines

Common tools that are used are: Powerpoint, Google Slides, LibreOffice Impress, Adobe In-Design, Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, and LaTeX. 

Additionally, some best practices for poster design can be found here:  https://www.agu.org/fall-meeting/pages/present/presenter-resources#poster

Posters will be in SEEC C120D on both April 11 and April 12.

No more than 1.8 meters W x 1.2 meters H (6 feet W x 4 feet H)

General Questions about student presentations

The symposium is open to anyone interested in the hydrologic sciences. 

Registration to attend will open on February 12 and remain open until April 12, 2024.

REGISTER TO ATTEND

Please register. The Zoom link will be emailed the day before the conference.

• 2024 Symposium Schedule
• 2024 Invited Speakers
• 2024 Abstracts
• Networking and Social Activities
• Student Abstract Submission Information
• 2024 Symposium Steering Committee
• Past Symposia
• Abstracts Archive

Kamari Pharma Announces Abstracts Accepted for Presentation at the 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for Investigative Dermatology

Late breaking poster presentation includes Phase 1b clinical trial results demonstrating the safety and preliminary efficacy of KM-001, a topical TRPV3 inhibitor, for the treatment of palmoplantar keratoderma

Oral presentation highlights favorable in vitro and in vivo safety and efficacy data of novel TRPV3 inhibitors KM-001(topical) and KM-023 (oral) in preclinical 3D skin and mouse models

NESS ZIONA, Israel, April 16, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kamari Pharma, a privately-held clinical stage biotechnology company developing first and best-in-class treatments for rare and severe genetic skin diseases, today announced two abstracts reporting results for its novel TRPV3 inhibitors, KM-001(topical) and KM-023 (oral), have been selected for presentation at the 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for Investigative Dermatology (SID), being held May 15-18, 2024 in Dallas, TX, USA.

TRPV3 plays a central role in skin disease as it regulates proliferation, differentiation and barrier function of human skin. KM-001 and KM-023 are specific and selective TRPV3 inhibitors that address both molecular and local damage to the skin by regulating Ca²⁺ influx into the cell, thereby reconstructing the skin barrier and reducing inflammation. Kamari is currently developing KM-001 for the treatment of palmoplantar keratoderma and KM-023 for the treatment of Olmstead syndrome, severe keratoderma and Ichthyosis.

The details of the presentations are as follows:

Title: KM-001, a novel TRPV3 inhibitor, demonstrates safety and preliminary efficacy in Phase 1b clinical study for the treatment of palmoplantar keratoderma Final ID Number: LB941 Session Type: Poster Presentation Category: Clinical Research - Interventional Research Session Date & Time: Thursday, May 16, 2024, 4:30-6:30pm CT

Title: Novel TRPV3 inhibitors developed for the treatment of palmoplantar keratodermas, demonstrate safety and efficacy in preclinical models Final ID Number: 771 Session Type: Oral Presentation Category: Translational Studies and Early Preclinical to Clinical Session Date & Time: Friday, May 17, 2024, 4:30-6:00pm CT

About Kamari Pharma

Kamari Pharma is a privately-held clinical stage biotechnology company developing first and best in class treatments for rare and severe genetic skin diseases. Kamari’s lead molecules, KM-001 (topical) and KM-023 (oral) are novel, highly specific and selective TRPV3 inhibitors that are initially being developed to treat palmoplantar keratodermas, Olmstead syndrome and Ichthyosis. Kamari’s management team is comprised of industry leaders highly experienced in drug discovery, dermatological pharmaceutical development and rare disease drug development.

Contact Information

Investors and Media Marcy Nanus Managing Partner Trilon Advisors, LLC [email protected]

Center for Transformative Undergraduate Experiences

• Undergraduate Research Conference
• TTU URC 2024

URC Award Recipients

Leda outstanding commercialization awards.

Thank you Lubbock Economic Development Alliance (LEDA) , for your generous contribution! They are—by far—the largest individual awards in the history of the TTU Undergraduate Research Conference.

• 1 st  Place: $7,500
• 2 nd Place: $5,000
• 3 rd Place: $3,000
• 4 th Place: $1,500
• 5th Place: $1,000

Visit our Abstract Directory for details on these outstanding student projects.

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LEDA Commercialization Potential Awards

Also new in 2024, the Lubbock Economic Development Alliance (LEDA) Commercialization Potential Awards offer our commercialization judges the opportunity to celebrate projects that show evidence of potential for future commercialization. 10 abstracts were selected as potenial commercialization projects and presenters will receive $75. 

LEDA Outstanding Impact Awards

Thank you, Lubbock Economic Development Alliance, for 5 years of support and for making these awards possible!

• 1st Place: $500
• 2nd Place: $300
• 3rd Place: $200

TTU Writing Center Outstanding Abstract Award

The 3 rd Annual Undergraduate Writing Center Abstract Award 

Award Scholarships

• First place: $150
• Second place: $100
• Third place—$50

TrUE Scholar Toreador Special Poster Session Award Recipients

These students were selected as top presenters within the TrUE Scholar Toreador Special Poster Session by reviewers.

• 2nd Place: $400
• 3rd Place: $300
• 4th Place: $200
• 5th Place: $100
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