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Designing Scientific Research Posters By Dan Kenzie and Mary McCall. Designing a Scientific Poster. Content of a Scientific Poster. Title An effective title should clearly communicate the subject of the poster in a way that appeals to a reader. Keep the length of your title to 1 to 2 lines.
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Designing Scientific Research PostersBy Dan Kenzie and Mary McCall
Content of a Scientific Poster • Title • An effective title should clearly communicate the subject of the poster in a way that appeals to a reader. Keep the length of your title to 1 to 2 lines. • Abstract • An abstract is often not necessary, because a poster presents similar material as an abstract. Refer to the guidelines for your conference. • Introduction • Generate interest in your topic with a minimum of background detail and jargon.
Content of a Scientific Poster • Materials and Methods • Include a rationale for why you chose the methods you did and, if they would help, tables or figures. • Results • Start with a summary of your results. Then, discuss the relationship between the data and your research question. • Conclusions • Explain the significance of major findings. (Connecting this study to previous research can help).
Content of a Scientific Poster • References • See conferences guidelines for appropriate format. • If this section becomes too long, decrease the font size. • Acknowledgements • Acknowledge anyone who gave you feedback or otherwise contributed to the project, including financial contributors. This section can also disclose any conflicts of interest or commitment.
Visual Design of a Scientific Poster • Layout • Maintain sufficient white space, keep column alignments logical, and provide clear cues to your readers how they should read your poster elements. • Content • Do not overload the poster with text. It should be roughly 20% text, 40% figures, 40% space. • Left-align your text. (Fully justified creates gaps) • Font • Use a non-serif font for the title and headings and a serif font for body text to promote readability.
Visual Design of a Scientific Poster • Color • Use 2-3 colors for your poster design and make sure the background and text have a high contrast. • Do not chose a dark and/or busy background. • Avoid very bright color combinations. • Diagrams • Give your graphs titles and labels for each axis. • Never give your graphs colored backgrounds, grid lines, or boxes. • Avoid displaying 2-D data in 3-D graphs. • Make sure that details on graphs and photographs can be comfortably viewed from 6 feet away.
Considering Conference Guidelines • Always carefully read conference guidelines, which may or may not give specifics on: • What to include • Size of the poster • Available materials (Should you post to a board yourself?) • Which documentation style to use • Other expectations
Where Can Students Find More Help? Purdue University Writing Lab Heavilon 226 • Web: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ • Phone: (765) 494-3723 • Email: owl@owl.english.purdue.edu
Works Referenced Design and Layout. (2011). Retrieved from: https://www.makesigns.com/tutorials/poster-design-layout.aspx Graves, L. Scientific poster design [PDF document]. Retrieved from: www.cns.cornell.edu/documents/ ScientificPosters.pdf The Parts of a Scientific Poster. (2011). Retrieved from: https://www.makesigns.com/tutorials/scientific-poster-parts.aspx Purrington, C. (n.d.) Designing conference posters. Retrieved from http://colinpurrington.com/tips/academic/posterdesign Schlamadinger, D. How to make a scientific research poster. [PDF document]. Retrieved from: acssa.ucsd.edu/forms/ACSSA_posters_howto2_DES.pdf