how to prepare research poster

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• Cal Poly Humboldt Library
• Research Guides

Creating a Research Poster

• Creating your poster step by step
• Getting Started
• Citing Images
• Creative Commons Images
• Printing options
• More Resources

Preparing your poster

There are three components to your poster session:

• Your poster

All three components should complement one another, not repeat each other.

Poster: Your poster should be an outline of your research with interesting commentary about what you learned along the way.

You: You should prepare a 10-30 second elevator pitch and a 1-2 minute lightning talk about your research. This should be a unique experience or insight you had about your research that adds depth of understanding to what the attendee can read on your poster.

Handout: Best practices for handouts - Your handout should be double-sided. The first side of the paper should include a picture of your poster (this can be in black and white or color). The second side of the handout should include your literature review, cited references, further information about your topic and your contact information.

Creating your poster by answering 3 questions:

• What is the most important and/or interesting finding from my research project?
• How can I visually share my research with conference attendees? Should I use charts, graphs, images, or a wordcloud?
• What kind of information do I need to share during my lightning talk that will complement my poster?
• *Title (at least 72 pt font).
• Research question or hypothesis (all text should be at least 24 pt font).
• Methodology. What is the research process that you used? Explain how you did your research.
• Your interview questions.
• Observations. What did you see? Why is this important?
• *Findings. What did you learn? Summarize your conclusions.
• Pull out themes in the literature and list in bullet points.
• Consider a brief narrative of what you learned - what was the most interesting/surprising part of your project?
• Interesting quotes from your research.
• Turn your data into charts or tables.
• Use images (visit the "Images" tab in the guide for more information). Take your own or legally use others.
• Recommendations and/or next steps for future research.
• You can include your list of citations on your poster or in your handout.
• *Make sure your name, and Cal Poly Humboldt University is on your poster.

*Required. Everything else is optional - you decide what is important to put on your poster. These are just suggestions. Use the tabs in this guide for more tips on how to create your poster. 

Poster Sizes

You can create your poster from scratch by using PowerPoint or a similar design program.

Resize the slide to fit your needs before you begin adding any content. Standard poster sizes range from 40" by 30" and 48" by 36" but you should check with the conference organizers. If you don't resize your design at the beginning, when it is printed the image quality will be poor and pixelated if it is sized up to poster dimensions. 

The standard poster sizes for ideaFest are 36" x 48" and 24" by 36".

To resize in PowerPoint, go to "File" then "Page Setup..." and enter your dimensions in the boxes for "width" and "height". Make sure to select "OK" to save your changes.

To resize in Google Slides, go to "File" then "Page setup" and select the "Custom" option in the drop down menu.  Enter the dimensions for your poster size and then select "Apply" to save your changes.

Step Four: Final checklist

Final checklist for submitting your poster for printing:.

• Proofread your poster for spelling and grammar mistakes. Ask a peer to read your poster, they will catch the mistakes that you miss. Print your poster on an 8 1/2" by 11" sheet of paper - it is easier to read for mistakes and to judge your design. 
• Make sure you followed Step 3 and resized your PPT slide correctly.
• Does your poster have flow? Did you "chunk" information into easily read pieces of information?
• Do your visualizations (e.g. charts, graphs, tag clouds, etc.) tell a story? Are they properly labeled and readable?
• Make sure that your images we not resized in PPT. You should use the original size of the image or try an image editor (e.g. Photoshop). Did you cite your image?
• Is your name, department, and affiliation on your poster?
• Did you want to include acknowlegments on your poster? This may be appropriate if your advisor and a graduate student provided leadership during the research process. 
• Most importantly- Save your PPT slide to PDF before you send to the printer in order to avoid any printing mishaps. You should also double-check the properties to make sure it is still sized correctly in PDF.
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University Library

Research Posters

• Elements of a poster

CREATING YOUR POSTER

What to include in your poster, color scheme choices, more helpful tips.

• Visualizations & images
• Illinois logo
• Archiving - Grad Students
• More Resources
• Oral Presentations
• 2024 Undergraduate Research Symposium This link opens in a new window

You have two choices when creating a research poster:

• You can create your poster from scratch by using PowerPoint, Adobe InDesign, or a similar design program. 
• You can use one of the  University of Illinois Research Poster Templates .

Sizing your Poster

• If you are presenting for the  Undergraduate Research Symposium , resize your slide to width 48 inches by height 36 inches.
• If you are presenting at a  professional conference , your instructions should indicate the size limits of your poster. Standard U.S. conference poster size is 48" by 36". 

​ IMPORTANT: You must change the size of your slide before you start working on your poster. This will ensure that your images and text do not become pixilated when the poster is printed. See below for specific instructions. 

How to correctly size your poster in PowerPoint:

• Select the "Design" tab
• Click "Slide Size"
• Select "Page Setup"
• Under the "Slides sized for:" dropdown menu, select "Custom"
• Set the "Width" and "Height" to what is needed for your poster
• Click "OK" 

How to correctly size your poster in Adobe InDesign:

When a new document is created in Adobe InDesign, a dialogue box prompts you to enter dimensions:

• Change the dimension metric to inches from the drop down box.
• Margins are intentional space from an object to the edge of the poster, intended not to be trimmed. You can set this to 0 inches on all sides unless you have a specific plan to use margins in your design.
• Bleed shows the printer where to trim white space that occurs when printing color onto white poster paper. If you are printing your poster, include at least a 0.25 inch bleed on each side; remember not to place any content in the bleed as it will be trimmed by the printer.
• Slug is a space for the creator to leave any notes for the printer. You can set this to 0 inches unless you have notes. 

If you ever want to change your poster dimensions after starting the poster, you can do so through the Document Setup Menu .

All posters MUST have:  

• Title: Make it catchy and use at least 72 pt. font. 
• Your name and contact information.
• Institutional affiliation, see the  Illinois logo  tab above.

You many also include:

• Research question or hypothesis: Do not copy your abstract if it is included in the program. 
• Methodology: What is the research process that you used? Explain how you did your research.
• Your interview questions.
• Observations: What did you see? Why is this important?
• Findings: What did you learn? Summarize your conclusions.
• Themes: Pull out themes in the literature and list in bullet points.
• Consider a brief narrative of what you learned - what was the most interesting/surprising aspect of your project?
• Add interesting quotes from your research.
• Data: Use your data to generate charts or tables.
• Images: Include images (visit the  Visualization & Images  tab in the guide for more information). Take your own or legally use others.
• Recommendations and/or next steps for future research.
• Citations: Only list 3-5 on your poster. If you have more, put them on your handout.
• Acknowledgements: Don't forget to thank your advisor, department, or funding agency.

Using multiple font styles can really make your poster stand out and look professional. Consult this graphic to understand different font styles, what fonts work best together, and what fonts to avoid.

Sticking to a color scheme can help your poster look professional. Consistent use of color can help your viewer understand how information is organized on your poster. Not sure where to start with color?

• Pick colors from an image (including a custom one you're planning to use on your poster)
• Use Illinois branding colors

Not sure what to do with the hex code from a brand guide or color palette generator?

• Adobe InDesign

Always check that your text is accessible on background colors using WebAIM's free contrast checker.

If printing your poster, it's a good idea to do a small-scale test print of your poster before getting it printed. Colors often appear brighter and more vibrant on a screen than when printed. There still might be some variation in color depending on the color scale the printer uses, but it will be a closer match on paper than what you see on screen.

• Read Colin Purrington's suggestions for successful poster design.
• Be creative in your display, think beyond the text of your paper. You can use boxes, formatting, font, and images to break up the sections of your research poster.
• Think carefully about your title. If you would like a longer, more descriptive title, consider a subtitle. Brainstorm several titles and have a peer/colleague/friend/teacher rank them. The title needs to highlight your subject matter, but it does not need to state all your conclusions. Some good titles simply ask questions, others answer them.
• You can section your poster according to the major points about your research you want to convey. For example: title, abstract, methodology, data, results, and conclusion. Consider the flow of your poster--these should be in a logical, easy-to-read order. Remember that most people read from left to right and top to bottom.
• Qualitative data (e.g. quotes from references and/or interviews) can also be shared on your poster. Make sure you include captions, legends, annotations, citations, and footnotes, if necessary.
• Design your poster as if you were designing for a professional publication. Be consistent with your layout, color choices, fonts and sizes.
• All text of your poster should be *at least* 24 font size and an easy-to-read font style (e.g. Arial or Verdana). Anything smaller is too difficult to read.
• Remember the “KISS Principle”: Keep It Simple, Stupid! In succinct, brief, jargon-free terms, your poster must explain: 1) the scientific problem in mind (what’s the question?), 2) its significance (why should we care?), 3) how your particular experiment addresses the problem (what’s your strategy?), 4) the experiments performed (what did you actually do?), 5) the results obtained (what did you actually find?), 6) the conclusions (what do you think it all means?), and, optionally, 7) caveats (any reservations?) and/or 8) future prospects (where do you go from here?).
• What is the number one mistake made in poster presentations? Too much information! Try to keep your poster to the point and and clear. You can always include more information in your handout or on a website.
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• Next: Visualizations & images >>
• Last Updated: May 13, 2024 2:05 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.illinois.edu/poster

The Ultimate Guide: How to Create a Standout Research Poster

Craft standout research posters with this guide. Learn how to make research posters that captivate and inform effectively.

Are you a scientist or researcher looking to create a research poster that will grab attention and make an impact? Look no further – in this ultimate guide, we will walk you through the steps to make a research poster that stands out. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned professional, Mind the Graph.com is an online platform designed to help you create visually appealing scientific figures, infographics, graphical abstracts, presentations, and posters. With its user-friendly interface and access to over 75,000 scientifically accurate illustrations in 80+ fields, Mind the Graph makes it easy for researchers to communicate their complex data in a visually engaging way. Say goodbye to the challenge of visualizing your research without specialized design skills – Mind the Graph is here to revolutionize scientific communication.

Understanding Research Posters

Importance of research posters.

In the world of scientific research, research posters play a crucial role. They are a popular medium for the presentation of scientific findings at scientific conferences, seminars, and symposia. Research posters provide a snapshot of your work, enabling fellow researchers, students, and the general public to understand the scope, methods, results, and implications of your research.

Moreover, research posters allow for interactive communication. Presenters get the opportunity to discuss their work one-on-one with interested viewers, explain complex concepts, generate discussion, and receive instant feedback. This interactive nature of poster presentations fosters scientific dialogue and collaboration.

Importantly, a well-designed research poster can attract attention and create a lasting impression on conference attendees. With so many posters on display at scientific gatherings, having a standout research poster is critical. It’s not just about presenting your research—it’s about making your research memorable.

What Constitutes a Good Research Poster?

A good research poster is a careful balance of content and design. It succinctly presents the results section your research in a visually appealing and easy-to-read format. Here are the key elements of how to make a research poster:

• Clarity : Your poster should concisely convey your research objective, methods, results, and conclusions. Avoid overly technical jargon and ensure your content is accessible to a broad audience.
• Structure : Your poster should have a logical flow. The layout should guide the viewer from the introduction and objectives, through the methods and results, to the conclusions and implications.
• Visual Appeal : Use figures, graphs, and diagrams to illustrate your points. These visuals should be simple yet informative, helping viewers understand your research at a glance.
• Readability : Choose fonts and colors that are easy on the eyes. Ensure there is sufficient contrast between the text and the background.
• Engagement : Aim to stimulate conversation. Pose thought-provoking questions or highlight surprising findings to draw in viewers and spark discussions.

Remember, the aim is not to cram as much information as possible onto the white space of the paper or poster. It’s about communicating your research effectively and engagingly.

Creating a Standout Research Poster

Essential elements of a research poster.

Creating a standout research poster involves incorporating several essential elements into your design:

• Title : Your title should be brief yet informative, clearly indicating the focus of your research. It’s the first thing viewers see, so make it captivating.
• Authors and Affiliations : List the names of all authors involved in the research and their respective affiliations. The lead author’s name is typically listed first.
• Introduction/Objectives : This section provides a context for your research, outlines your research question, and states your objectives.
• Methods : Describe your research design and the methods you used to collect and analyze data. Be succinct but clear.
• Results : Present your findings using clear and concise text, supplemented by graphs, charts, or images.
• Conclusions : Summarize the key findings and their implications. What does your research mean in the larger context?
• References : Cite any sources or research that informed your study.
• Acknowledgments : Recognize those who assisted in your research or funded your study.
• Contact Information : Include your email or other contact information for viewers who wish to follow up.

Remember, simplicity is key. Your poster’s content layout should be visually engaging, but not cluttered or overwhelming.

Designing with Mind the Graph

Designing a research poster can be a daunting task, especially if you don’t have a background in graphic design. That’s where Mind the Graph comes in. This online platform offers a user-friendly interface and a vast library of scientifically accurate illustrations, making it easy for researchers to create visually engaging scientific posters themselves.

To start, choose from a variety of pre-designed templates or create your own design from scratch. Then, drag and drop your desired illustrations onto your poster. With over 40,000 illustrations in 80+ fields, you’re sure to find images that perfectly represent your own research project.

Next, add your text. Mind the Graph allows you to customize the font, size, and color, ensuring your text complements your visuals and is easy to read.

Finally, use the platform’s tools to arrange your content in a logical, visually pleasing manner. You can easily adjust the size and position of each element, ensuring a balanced layout.

With Mind the Graph, you don’t need to be a design expert to create a professional, eye-catching research poster.

Making Use of Mind the Graph

Navigating the mind the graph platform.

Navigating the Mind the Graph platform is straightforward, even for beginners. Here’s a simple guide to help you get started:

First, sign up for a free account on the Mind the Graph website. Once logged in, you’ll be directed to the dashboard. From here, you can create a new project, view your saved projects, or explore the platform’s vast library of scientific illustrations.

To create a new research poster, click on the “New Infographic” button. You’ll be prompted to choose a template. Mind the Graph offers a variety of templates tailored to different scientific fields and presentation types.

Once you’ve selected a template, you’ll be taken to the editor. Here, you can add text, change fonts and colors, and insert illustrations. The platform’s drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to add and rearrange elements on your poster.

On the left-hand side, you’ll find the tools menu. Here, you can access more design options, such as shapes, lines, and backgrounds.

Remember, the Mind the Graph team is always ready to assist if you have any questions or need help navigating the platform.

Utilizing Scientific Illustrations

Scientific illustrations are a powerful tool for visualizing complex research data. Mind the Graph offers a wealth of scientifically accurate illustrations to enhance your research poster.

To access the illustrations library, navigate to the “Illustrations” tab in the editor. Here, you can browse through over 40,000 illustrations in 80+ fields. You can search for specific illustrations using the search bar at the top or filter by categories.

Once you’ve found an illustration you’d like to use, simply click on it and drag it onto your poster. You can resize and reposition the print, entire poster or illustration as needed.

Using illustrations can help break up text-heavy sections well-designed posters, making your poster more engaging and easier to digest. They can also help to highlight key points, demonstrate processes, and represent results visually.

Remember, while illustrations can greatly enhance your poster, they should not be overly complex or confusing. The goal of visual representation is to aid understanding, not to complicate it. Use illustrations judiciously and ensure they directly support your research message.

Advantages of Using Mind the Graph

Using Mind the Graph to create your research poster has several key advantages.

Firstly, it democratizes great poster design for scientists and researchers. With its user-friendly interface, you don’t need to be a graphic design expert to create a professional-looking scientific poster either.

Secondly, it offers a vast library of scientifically accurate illustrations good poster make. This resource saves you the time and effort of creating visuals from scratch and ensures your poster is both visually appealing and scientifically sound.

Thirdly, it’s customizable. You can easily adjust the font, color, size, and positioning of every element on your poster, ensuring your poster design aligns with your research and personal style.

Lastly, it’s efficient. With Mind the Graph, you can create a poster in less time than it would take using traditional design software. Plus, with the ability to save and edit your project, you can work on your poster at your own pace.

In short, Mind the Graph equips you with the tools to effectively communicate your research in a visually engaging way.

Finalizing Your Research Poster

Reviewing your research poster.

Once you’ve completed your initial design, it’s essential to take the time to review your research poster thoroughly. Here are some points to consider:

• Clarity : Is your message clear and concise? Does your poster effectively communicate your research objective, methods, results, and conclusions?
• Flow : Check the logical progression of your content. Can viewers easily follow the flow from the introduction to the conclusion?
• Visuals : Review your illustrations and charts. Do they accurately represent your data and enhance understanding?
• Typography : Check your text for readability. Is the font size large enough? Is there sufficient contrast between the text and the background?
• Errors : Proofread your text for any spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors. Also, check your data for any inaccuracies.
• Feedback : Consider getting feedback from colleagues or mentors. They can provide a fresh perspective and may spot errors or areas for improvement that you might have missed.

Remember, a little extra time spent reviewing and refining your poster can make a significant difference in the poster display final outcome. It’s worth the effort.

Making Your Research Poster Accessible

Accessibility should be a priority when finalizing your research poster. Ensuring your effective poster presentation is accessible to all viewers, regardless of their ability, is not just ethical – it enhances the reach and impact of your research.

Here are some simple ways to make your poster more accessible:

• Color Contrast : Use colors that contrast well to ensure your text and illustrations are clear and distinguishable. Avoid using color as the only means of conveying important information, as this can be problematic for viewers with color vision deficiencies.
• Font Size : Use a large, easy-to-read font size. This not only helps viewers with visual impairments but also makes your poster easier to read from a distance.
• Clear Language : Use clear, concise language and avoid unnecessary jargon. This makes your research accessible to viewers from different backgrounds and knowledge levels.
• Captioning : Provide captions or alternative text for images and diagrams. This helps viewers with visual impairments understand the content of your visuals.
• Layout : Arrange the elements of your poster in a logical, linear order. This helps viewers with cognitive impairments follow your content more easily.

Remember, an accessible academic poster, is an effective poster. Make sure the poster title of your research can be appreciated by everyone.

Promoting Your Research Poster with Mind the Graph

Once you’ve created your standout research poster, it’s time to share it with the world. Mind the Graph can aid in promoting your research poster to a wider audience.

Firstly, you can download your poster in a high-resolution format suitable for printing or digital viewing. You can also share a direct link to your online poster or embed it in your website or blog.

Furthermore, Mind the Graph has a continually growing community of scientists and researchers from around the world. Becoming part of this community allows you to share your work, get feedback, and engage in scientific discussions. You can also explore and get inspired by the work of others.

Remember, promoting your research is an integral part of the scientific process. It’s not enough to do good research; you need to communicate it effectively and make it accessible to others. Whether you’re presenting at a conference, a poster session, a seminar, or online, Mind the Graph is here to help you make your research and poster sessions stand out and be seen.

Enhance your research with compelling visuals through Mind the Graph

The Mind the Graph platform provides customizable scientific illustrations, templates, and design tools, empowering scientists to create engaging figures that convey findings effectively. With features for data integration and customization of colors, fonts, and styles, researchers can personalize their visuals to match their unique research style, ensuring broader accessibility and memorability.

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Fabricio Pamplona is the founder of Mind the Graph - a tool used by over 400K users in 60 countries. He has a Ph.D. and solid scientific background in Psychopharmacology and experience as a Guest Researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry (Germany) and Researcher in D'Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR, Brazil). Fabricio holds over 2500 citations in Google Scholar. He has 10 years of experience in small innovative businesses, with relevant experience in product design and innovation management. Connect with him on LinkedIn - Fabricio Pamplona .

Content tags

Reference management. Clean and simple.

The key parts of a scientific poster

Why make a scientific poster?

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

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

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

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

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

In this guide post, you will learn:

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

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

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

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

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

Some events allow for a combination of both formats.

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

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

➡️ Learn more about how to write an abstract

The technical elements of a scientific poster are:

• Images and Illustrations

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here we provide a checklist for your presentation day:

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

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

➡️ How to prepare a scientific poster

➡️ Conference presentations: Lead the poster parade

➡️ Designing conference posters

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

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

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

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

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

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How to prepare an effective research poster

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• Peer review
• Lucia Hartigan , registrar 1 ,
• Fionnuala Mone , fellow in maternal fetal medicine 1 ,
• Mary Higgins , consultant obstetrician 1 2
• 1 National Maternity Hospital, Dublin
• 2 Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Medicine and Medical Sciences, University College Dublin
• mhiggins{at}nmh.ie

Being asked to give a poster presentation can be exciting, and you need not be daunted by the prospect of working out how to prepare one. As Lucia Hartigan and colleagues explain, many options are available

The long nights are over, the statistics have been run, the abstract has been written, and the email pops into your inbox: “Congratulations! You have been accepted for a poster presentation.”

All that work has been worthwhile. Your consultant congratulates you and your colleagues are envious of your having a legitimate excuse to go away for a couple of days, but now you have to work out how to prepare a poster. Do not despair, for you have many options.

Firstly, take this seriously. A poster is not a consolation prize for not being given an oral presentation. This is your chance to show your work, talk to others in the field, and, if you are lucky, to pick up pointers from experts. Given that just 45% of published abstracts end in a full paper, 1 this may be your only chance to get your work out there, so put some effort into it. If you don’t have access to the services of a graphic designer, then some work will be entailed as it normally takes us a full day to prepare the layout of a poster. If you are lucky enough to have help from a graphic designer, then you will need to check that the data are correct before it is sent to the printer. After all, it will be your name on the poster, not the graphic designer’s.

Secondly, check the details of the requirements. What size poster should you have? If it is too big, it may look arrogant. If it is too small, then it may seem too modest and self effacing. Should it be portrait or landscape? Different meetings have different requirements. Some may stay with traditional paper posters, so you need to factor in printing. Others present them electronically, but may have a deadline by which you need to have uploaded the poster. When planning a meeting the organisers work out how many poster boards there will be and then the numbers, so follow their requirements and read the small print.

Then make a template. It can be tempting to “borrow” a poster template from someone else, and this may buy you some time, but it is important to check what page set-up and size have been selected for the template. If it’s meant for an A2 size and you wish to print your poster on A0 paper, then the stretching may lead to pixillation, which would not look good.

Next, think about your layout. Use text boxes to cover the following areas: title (with authors, institution, and logo), background, methods, results, and conclusions. Check that the text boxes are aligned by using gridlines, and justify your text. Use different colours for titles, and make sure you can read the title from 3 metres away. Some people will put their abstract in a separate box in the top right hand corner underneath the title, and then expand a little in the other areas. That is fine, so long as you follow the golden rule of writing a poster: do not include too much text. One study showed that less than 5% of conference attendees visit posters at meetings and that few ask useful questions. 2 The same research found that, in addition to the scientific content of a poster, the factors that increase visual appeal include pictures, graphs, and a limited use of words. 2 The ideal number of words seems to be between 300 and 400 per square metre.

Now make it look pretty and eye catching, and use lots of graphics. Outline text boxes or fill them with a different colour. If you can present the data using a graph, image, or figures rather than text, then do so, as this will add visual appeal. If you want to put a picture in the background, and it is appropriate to do so, fade the image so that it does not distract from the content.

Fonts are important. Check whether the meeting has set criteria for fonts; if they have, then follow them. You do not want to stand out for the wrong reason. If there are no specified criteria, then the title should be in point size 72-84, depending on the size of the poster. The authors’ names should be either the same size, but in italics, or else a couple of sizes smaller.

If you are including the hospital logo, don’t take a picture that will not size up properly when enlarged. Instead, obtain a proper copy from the hospital administrators.

References can be in small writing. No one is likely to read them, and you are including them only to remind yourself what you learnt in the literature review. One intriguing possibility is the use of a trigger image to link the poster to online content. 3

Finally, there are also things you should not do. Don’t leave your figures unlabelled, include spelling errors, use abbreviations without an explanation, or go outside the boundaries of the poster. Don’t be ashamed that you “only” have a poster. At a good meeting you may find that the comments from passers by are an amazing peer review. We have presented at meetings where world experts have given feedback, and with that feedback we have written the paper on the flight home.

Competing interests: We have read and understood the BMJ Group policy on declaration of interests and have no relevant interests to declare.

• ↵ Scherer RW, Langenberg P, von Elm E. Full publication of results initially presented in abstracts. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2007 ; 2 : MR000005 . OpenUrl PubMed
• ↵ Goodhand JR, Giles CL, Wahed M, Irving PM, Langmead L, Rampton DS. Poster presentations at medical conferences: an effective way of disseminating research? Clin Med 2011 ; 1 : 138 -41. OpenUrl
• ↵ Atherton S, Javed M, Webster S, Hemington-Gorse S. Use of a mobile device app: a potential new tool for poster presentations and surgical education. J Visual Comm Med 2013 ; 36 (1-2): 6 -10. OpenUrl

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Creating Successful Research Posters

For researchers in the natural sciences who would like to learn how to create and present an effective research poster

5 experts in science communication and research poster design and presentation

4.5 hours of learning

10–35-minute lessons

1-module course with certificate

• About this course

In today’s fast-paced world of research, effective communication is key. An engaging research poster is a great way to visually share your findings concisely and broaden your professional network with other researchers. Learn how to craft great engaging research posters and prepare a handout and conversation that will captivate your audience. Whether you’re a student presenting your first poster at a conference or an early career researcher seeking feedback and collaborations, this course will provide you with the knowledge, skills, and confidence and improve your chances of success.

If you would like to preview lessons from the course, you can try a free sample .

What you’ll learn

• Set communication goals for your poster presentations
• Identify your audience and select your key message and supporting material
• Select the visual elements and supporting text for your poster
• Design a poster that will communicate your key message effectively
• Use your poster to spark great conversations about your research.

Free Sample Creating Successful Research Posters - section

11 Lessons 4h 30m

Free Sample Creating Successful Research Posters: Free Sample

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Start this module

Select the dropdown to explore an overview of the course content

• Welcome to the course
• What makes a great poster?
• Identify your goal and audience
• Select your key message and supporting material
• Structure your poster, conversation and handout
• Prepare the text for your poster
• Decide on the layout of your poster
• Design and format your poster
• Prepare your conversation and handout
• Course summary

Developed with experts in poster design and presentation

The course was developed and refined by an international panel of academics, science artists and poster design and presentation experts.

Meet the expert panel that have helped shape and refine the content of the course:

Jean-luc Doumont

Founding Partner, Principiæ

Beata Mierzwa

Postdoctoral fellow, University of California San Diego and science artist, Beata Science Art

Nuria Melisa Morales García

Founder and graphic designer, Science Graphic Design

Advice from experienced science communicators

The course contains additional insights from other research posters and science communication experts

Michael Dahlstrom

LAS Dean's Professor and Director, Greenlee School of Journalism, Iowa State University

Amina Yonis

Founder & CEO, The Page Doctor

Why should you take this course?

Discover related courses, advancing your scientific presentations.

Communicate your results in an engaging and memorable way

Effective Science Communiation

Learn new communication skills to maximise the impact of your research 

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How to Make a Science Research Poster: Design

• Example Posters and Critiques

Design: Text

• Text – less is more!
• Use graphics to tell the story when possible
• Use just a few sentences to describe the figures

Design: Fonts

• Large text – should be able to read it from a few feet away (~ 80 pts or larger for title, 36 or larger for headings, 24 or larger for text, 18 or larger for captions)
• a san serif font such as helvetica, arial, or calibri often used for title and headings
• serif fonts such as times new roman, cambria, georgia, or palatino often used for text
• don’t use comic sans.
• Use bolding , not all caps, for emphasis and use sparingly (once or twice on the poster, if at all). Italics should be saved for species names.

Design: Clean Background

• Large background images are usually distracting and not recommended

Design: Spacing

• The poster should have white space around all text and figures – it shouldn’t look crammed 

Image credit: https://colinpurrington.com/tips/poster-design

Design: Colors

• About 8% of men and 0.5% of women are color-blind. It's therefore critical to choose colors that will readable to your entire audience.
• Use color-blind friendly colors. Avoid certain combos such as green & red or blue & purple (see the chart below)
• The blue boxes illustrate that color combos can look very different in color-blinded and non-color-blinded vision. For non-color-blinded vision, green and bluish green is almost indistinguishable but for a color-blinded person, red and green are similarly difficult to tell apart.

Image credit: http://jfly.iam.u-tokyo.ac.jp/color/#see

Design: Alignment

• Make sure everything is properly aligned and evenly spaced. PowerPoint and other graphics software packages such as Adobe Illustrator and Inkscape have alignment functions.
• Below is an example of a poster that has poor alignment. Aligning boxes, figures, and text boxes helps keep the reader focused on the science rather than distracting design.

Poor alignment

Good alignment

How to align in PowerPoint: 

• Select two or more objects
• Find the alignment tool under the Arrange Objects icon of the Home tab 
• Choose which edges you want to align (i.e. top, bottom, left, right)

• << Previous: Content
• Next: Example Posters and Critiques >>
• Last Updated: Aug 16, 2022 9:44 AM
• URL: https://guides.library.cmu.edu/scienceposters

Research Posters

What are research posters, what should a research poster look like, what software can i use to make one, where can i print my poster.

• Themes, Colors, and Emphasis
• Text Formatting
• Writing Style
• Hyperlinks and URLs
• Including Images
• Actual Examples
• How to Present Posters

Acknowledgements

This guide is based off of Librarian Professor Ashley Orehek Rossi's presentation at the 2024 Student Scholar Showcase Workshop series .

Research posters provide general (or detailed) overviews about research either you are currently working on or already completed. Think of them like "mini research papers" or a summarized version of your research -- You want to discuss your research project in a short, concise narrative (with pictures!).

• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Google Slides
• Microsoft Publisher

PowerPoint is versatile! You have the freedom to place objects wherever you want on a page. It will also help you line up and space content evenly. PowerPoint is a very popular software to make posters in.

How do I adjust the slide size to my poster size?

For example, let's say you need a poster that is 36 inches by 48 inches. In the menu ribbon: 

Design > Slide Size > Custom Slide Size. Change the  Slides sized for:  to  Custom . Enter the dimensions as 36 inches wide by 48 inches high. Click  OK .

Just like PowerPoint, Google Slides is versatile and you have the freedom to place objects wherever on a page.

File > Page Setup > Custom. Change the Page Setup  to  Custom . Enter the dimensions as 36 inches wide by 48 inches high. Click Apply .

Publisher is a graphic design app from Microsoft. It allows users to create various types of documents using templates provided, downloaded templates, or starting from a blank canvas. Like PowerPoint, you can place objects anywhere you want on a page.

PRO:  What makes it preferred than Microsoft Word is that page layout is emphasized, so you don't need to fret about adjusting alignments or line spacing -- You have the freedom to place objects wherever you need to on the document.

CON: It is only available on desktop or laptop computers - You cannot access it from Microsoft 365 online.

How do I resize my Publisher page?

Page Design > Page Setup > Change Width and Height values and/or units.

Canva is like an online version of Microsoft Publisher. It allows user to make designs for both online content and printed materials. Media types include, but not limited to, videos, social media posts, documents, and websites. You can also invite others to collaborate on projects, just like Google Docs.

Canva offers two plans for account holders: Free and Pro.

Information from Canva.com (Accessed 25 Oct 2023). 

The WKU Print Center (ground floor DSU) can print posters for you for a fee. You can also check with your academic major department if they have a poster printer available. 

Stores like Staples and Office Depot / OfficeMax  offer poster printing services. 

• Next: Themes, Colors, and Emphasis >>
• Last Updated: Jun 5, 2024 3:37 PM
• URL: https://libguides.wku.edu/posters

How to Create a Research Poster

• Poster Basics
• Design Tips
• Logos & Images

Poster Design Guides and Tips

• Academic Posters Edinburgh Napier University student success how-to guide for academic posters.
• Designing Conference Posters Colin Purrington, a PhD and former professor, breaks down how to design conference posters and a list of do's and don'ts.
• Creating an Effective Scientific Poster (PDF) University of Guelph, Integrative Biology Undergraduate Curriculum Committee 2011/2012. Covers preparation, design principles, software guide, and a checklist for assessing your poster.
• Poster Presentations: Designing Effective Posters University at Buffalo research guide by Fred Stoss, Biological Sciences Librarian.

Free PowerPoint Templates

• Genigraphics
• MakeSigns.com
• Poster Presentations
• << Previous: Poster Basics
• Next: Logos & Images >>
• Last Updated: Jul 9, 2024 5:34 PM
• URL: https://guides.nyu.edu/posters

We're Here To Help You Make The Best Scientific Poster

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PosterNerd.com is easiest way to print your poster.

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5 Minute Overview

At its core, a scientific poster is a visual representation of data that has been organized and consolidated into an easily-digestible format. A good poster should be able to be understood in a few minutes, so it’s of the utmost importance to make sure your poster is logical, consistent, and designed well.

Sections and Organization

It’s easiest to break down all the information you want into distinct sections, such as Background , Objectives , Methodology , Results , and Recommendations . A typical poster will have 4-8 of these sections laid out in 3 or 4 columns , but the specifics of your research will dictate which sections are important to include. Posters are read from left-to-right and top-to-bottom, so make sure to lay out your sections so they can be read in order.

We have many free scientific poster templates to get you started, and you can also check if your school or organization has a standard template they can provide you. Otherwise, you can come up with your own layout for your information.

Design Guidelines

When it comes to design, there are a few basic rules to follow:

Simple is Good

Your background should be plain white or a very subtle gradient/pattern that is not distracting and your text should be clear and easy to read. Any charts or graphics should be able to be understood quickly and not include unnecessary elements.

Make Important Information Stand Out

Section headings should be obvious and important research should draw attention.

Line Things Up

Try to fit everything to a basic grid and align each section with another. If you have a set of charts or photos, it looks best to have them equally-sized and distributed evenly.

Don't Make it Crowded

A viewer may only spend a minute or two looking at your poster so they should immediately be able to make sense of the organization and be able to identify the distinct sections.

Layout and Design »

Final Check

Before giving us your poster to print, it’s helpful to do one last check of everything to make sure your poster will look as good as possible. Here are 5 questions to answer:

• 1 Do my poster sections flow logically? The sections of your poster should be organized and follow the general structure of introduction → data → conclusion.
• 2 Is all my text readable? All the text on your poster should stand out against its background, use a legible font, and be large enough to be read from a reasonable distance. Also, check for spelling mistakes!
• 3 Are all my graphics good quality? Zoom in on your file to 100% and make sure all photos, charts, and illustrations look clear and crisp. (If you are going to be ordering a poster that is larger than your file, zoom in farther).
• 4 Is my data understandable? All your tables, charts, and graphs should be able to be looked at and understood in a few seconds.
• 5 Does the most important information stand out? When skimming over your poster, the most important parts should catch your eye and be very obvious. If someone reads your poster for a minute or so, they should be able to fully understand your presentation.

Questions, Comments, or Concerns

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

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Blog Beginner Guides How to Make a Research Poster (2024)

How to Make a Research Poster (2024)

Written by: Krystle Wong Jul 28, 2024

Did you know the average conference attendee only spends about 10 seconds glancing at a poster from a distance? That means you have mere seconds to capture their attention. No pressure, right?

Creating a standout research poster is more than just presenting data; it’s about effectively communicating your research. 

This guide will walk you through the steps of creating a compelling research poster, from initial planning to final design. I’ll even share some tips on using research poster templates to get you started. 

Now, let’s make your next poster a standout.

Click to jump ahead:

• What is a research poster? 

Why do research posters matter?

How to plan a research poster, how to design a research poster, how to craft your research poster content, finalizing your research poster, research poster design tips and best practices, 8 research poster templates for effective presentation, what is a research poster.

A research poster is a visually interesting display that quickly summarizes a research project. You’ll often find them at conferences and research events. These posters combine text, charts, and images to clearly explain the research question, methods, findings and conclusions.

Research posters are important because they allow researchers to share their work with a wider audience. At conferences, researchers can discuss their posters with others, get feedback and even start working together on future projects. 

The secret to creating a research poster that sparks interest lies in presenting your project’s key points clearly and visually. But how exactly do you achieve that? Don’t worry, I’ll cover everything you need to know about creating a winning research poster, so keep reading!

Conferences can be a whirlwind, with lectures and workshops vying for your attention. But tucked amongst the activity are research posters. 

Imagine condensing your entire research project into a visually appealing format. That’s the power of a research poster. It allows researchers to effectively disseminate their findings to a wider audience. 

Think of it as a mini-summary explaining what they investigated, how they did it and what they discovered, all in an easily digestible format.

That said, research posters are more than just information boards. A well-designed one can be a conversation starter. It’s like an invitation for other researchers to approach, ask questions, and share their insights. 

These conversations can be incredibly valuable, offering new perspectives and potentially leading to exciting collaborations.

Before you unleash your inner designer, take a moment to map out the core of your research poster: its purpose and content.

1. Define your objectives

A winning poster has a clear mission: inform, persuade, or spark discussion. Figuring out this objective will guide the overall message and tone of your poster.

Next, consider your audience – who will be viewing your poster? Are they experts in your field or a mix of students and the general public? Tailoring the language and complexity of your information to your target audience ensures they understand the key takeaways.

2. Gather and organize your research content

Now it’s time to assemble the building blocks of your research poster – the data, figures and key findings from your research project. Think of it as picking the most compelling parts of your research story to share.

Clarity and focus are key — break down your content into sections like Introduction, Methods, Results and Conclusion. This structure guides viewers through your research journey, helping them understand the context, your methods and the important findings.

3. Choose the right design tools

With your goals and content defined, it’s time to choose a tool to bring your poster to life. Many online platforms offer various templates and features, but the “best” tool depends on your needs.

Consider your design skills: do you prefer starting from scratch or using pre-designed layouts? Budget is another factor – some tools are free, while others require a subscription. Think about how much customization you need as well.

Venngage’s user-friendly editor allows you to design your research poster without any prior design experience. Our platform offers a range of customizable templates and features, making it a versatile choice for any team.

By evaluating these factors, you can select the design tool that best suits your skills and project requirements.

A well-designed poster is not just a static display of information; it’s a visual story that unfolds as viewers engage with it. Before you begin, check out our blog on how to make a poster in 10 simple steps to learn the basics.

Once you’re ready, follow these tips to create an engaging visual narrative:

1. Set up your document

Start by choosing the right size and orientation for your poster. While standard sizes like 36×48 inches or A0 are common, always check the event guidelines for specific requirements. A portrait orientation usually works best for research posters as it offers more vertical space.

Once you’ve determined the size, create a clean poster layout by adjusting your document’s margins and using a grid or layout tool. Give your poster some breathing room by adding space around the edges. This makes it easier to read, and you can balance everything by arranging your text and pictures nicely.

2. Structure your content

A well-structured poster guides viewers through your research journey. Typically, a research poster includes the following sections:

• Title: A concise and engaging statement summarizing your research.
• Introduction: Briefly outline the research problem, its significance, and your research objectives.
• Methods: Summarize the research methodology, including participants, materials, and procedures.
• Results: Present your key findings using clear and concise language, supported by visuals.
• Conclusion: Summarize the implications of your findings and their contribution to the field.
• References: List key references cited in your poster.

Remember, the goal is to create a logical flow that is easy to follow. Mix informative text with eye-catching visuals and plenty of white space to keep people interested and help them understand your research.

3. Add text to your poster

Effective text presentation is crucial for conveying your research clearly. Choose professional fonts that are easily readable from a distance. Larger fonts are suitable for titles, while slightly smaller fonts work well for body text.

Use text boxes to organize your content and maintain a clean layout. Write in a concise, active voice to ensure easy understanding. Avoid long paragraphs; instead, use bullet points or short, impactful sentences to convey your message effectively.

4. Inserting images, charts and graphics

Visuals can make a big difference in your poster. Use clear and well-labeled images, charts and graphs to explain your research. For example, bar charts are great for comparing things, while line graphs show trends over time.

Use images strategically to strengthen your message. Choose visuals that clearly illustrate your key points and provide supporting evidence. High-quality images can enhance your poster’s overall appeal, so select images that are both informative and visually pleasing.

Venngage makes design easy with professional icons, illustrations, and images. The drag-and-drop editor also includes accessibility features, letting you add alt text, check color contrast and create accessible tables and charts—all in one place.

5. Enhance your visuals with design tools

Utilize design tools like Venngage to add finishing touches to your poster. Borders, shadows, and other effects can add a polished look, but use them sparingly to avoid overwhelming the viewer. 

Strategic use of color gradients and transparency can also enhance visual interest, but maintain a consistent and professional color palette throughout. This ensures that your poster looks cohesive and visually appealing. 

Designing for all audiences is also essential today. Venngage’s accessibility checker and visual simulator allow you to see how your design appears to individuals with visual impairments. Now you can easily check contrast ratios and ensure your content meets Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

Now that you have an overview of designing a research poster, let’s focus on an essential aspect: the content. A well-crafted research poster serves as a visual summary of your research, effectively communicating your key findings to a broad audience. 

Here’s a breakdown of the essential elements and tips for crafting compelling poster content:

Title and introduction

Your title is your poster’s first impression. It should be captivating, informative, and accurately reflect your research. Incorporate keywords relevant to your field to enhance discoverability.

In the introduction, briefly describe the research problem and your main objectives. This sets the stage for what your poster will cover.

Methodology

A clear understanding of your methodology is crucial. Outline the key steps involved in your research process using bullet points or numbered lists for easy readability. This section should provide enough detail for readers to grasp your approach without overwhelming them.

Results and findings

Present your results visually using charts, graphs, and images to highlight key findings clearly. These visuals should be clear, well-labeled and directly relevant to your results.

Text plays a crucial role in providing context and interpretation for these visuals. Use clear and concise text to highlight the importance of your findings and how they answer your research question. This helps viewers understand the data you’re presenting.

In the conclusion section, summarize the main takeaways from your research and their implications. 

Additionally, briefly suggest potential next steps or areas for further investigation based on your findings. This helps to frame your research within the broader context and provides direction for future work.

References and acknowledgments

Academic integrity demands proper citation. List all sources and references in a consistent format (e.g., APA, MLA) at the end of your poster. This allows viewers to follow up on your sources and verify your information.

Also, acknowledge any contributions or funding sources that supported your research. This not only gives credit to those who helped but also provides transparency about the support behind your work.

Creating a research poster involves more than just assembling your findings into a visual format. The final steps of reviewing, printing, and saving are crucial for ensuring your poster is professional and impactful. Here’s a guide to help you finalize your research poster effectively.

Reviewing and editing

Before you print or share your poster, it’s essential to review and edit it thoroughly. Here are some steps to follow:

• Proofreading : Carefully check for spelling and grammatical errors. Ensure all information is accurate and clear.
• Visual check : Make sure charts, graphs, and images are well-aligned and balanced. Labels and legends should be clear.
• Layout review : Ensure the overall layout is easy to read and visually appealing, with a logical flow and appropriate white space.

Printing your poster

Once your poster is thoroughly reviewed, the next step is printing. Here’s what to consider:

• Paper size and quality : Choose a paper size that fits standard dimensions or event guidelines. Select high-quality paper with a glossy or matte finish.
• Adjusting printer settings : Adjust printer settings for the best resolution and color accuracy. Use the highest DPI and appropriate color profile.
• Printing options : Consider using university printing services or online print shops if you don’t have access to a high-quality printer.

Saving and sharing digitally

In addition to printing, saving and sharing your poster digitally can help you reach a wider audience. Here’s how:

• File formats : Save your poster as a PDF or high-resolution image file (PNG or JPEG) to preserve quality.
• Digital sharing : Share your poster via email or academic networks for broader visibility.
• Cloud storage and repositories : Upload your poster to cloud storage (like Google Drive or Dropbox) or academic repositories (such as ResearchGate) for easy access and sharing.

Venngage simplifies this process by allowing you to download your poster in various formats, including PDF and high-resolution images, making it easy to print or share digitally.

A well-designed research poster is a powerful tool for communicating your research effectively. It should be visually appealing, easy to navigate, and accessible to a diverse audience. Here are some essential design principles and best practices to guide you in creating a standout poster.

Design Principles

• Achieving balance : Distribute headings, images, and text evenly to avoid clutter and create a cohesive look.
• Hierarchy : Make the title and key information stand out using different font sizes and boldness to guide viewers.
• Using whitespace : Use empty space effectively to highlight important sections and keep the poster readable.

Accessibility considerations

• Readable text : Ensure all text is easily readable. Use larger fonts for titles and headings, and maintain a high contrast between text and background. Avoid excessive jargon to make your poster accessible to a broader audience.
• Accessible color combinations : Choose color combinations that are easy on the eyes and considerate of those with color vision deficiencies. Avoid using colors that clash or make text difficult to read. Tools like color contrast checkers can help you select accessible color schemes.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Overloading with text or data : Don’t overload your poster with text or data. Focus on key points and use visuals to convey information.
• Inconsistent alignment and design : Keep alignment and design consistent for a professional look. Use grids to maintain order.
• Skipping proofreading : Always proofread for spelling, grammar, and accuracy before printing or sharing your poster.

Choosing the right poster background is crucial for designing just any poster. Unsure how to pick the perfect one? Our blog on the best poster backgrounds can guide you through.

Now that you’ve mastered the essentials of creating a research poster, it’s time to put your knowledge into practice. Not sure where to start? Begin with one of these research poster templates to kick off your design.

1. Placebo effect academic poster

Understanding your audience is crucial when crafting an effective research poster. It’s important to tailor your content to match the expertise and interests of your viewers.

For example, in this research poster about the placebo effect, simplifying the content ensures clear and effective communication. This approach makes the research accessible and engaging.

In addition to presenting research findings, posters are an excellent tool for medical professionals to educate patients, particularly on mental health. Explore our selection of mental health poster templates or read our blog on medical poster ideas to learn more.

2. Alcohol addiction study research poster

This study on alcohol addiction emphasizes key findings by highlighting the most important results and their implications. Visual aids like graphs, charts and images are used to illustrate data effectively.

The poster’s design features a visually pleasing composition with clear sections, creating a narrative that guides viewers through the research seamlessly.

3. Animal yawning study research poster

Selecting complementary colors can greatly enhance the readability of your research poster. In this template for a study on animal yawning, blue and yellow are used to create a high-contrast, visually striking and eye-catching design.

Additionally, the poster acknowledges contributors and sources, giving credit to those who helped and providing transparency to the audience.

Have a scientific finding you want to share with the world? Check out our blog on the best scientific poster ideas or get started with one of our scientific poster template s today.

4. Cognitive behavior research poster

The layout of this research poster on cognitive behavior effectively tells a story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Each section is thoughtfully designed to guide viewers through the research journey, highlighting key points and findings along the way. 

This structured flow ensures that the audience can easily follow and understand the progression of the study, making the information both accessible and engaging.

5. Hormone therapy for breast cancer research poster

By highlighting key research objectives, methodologies, results and implications, this research poster can be used to educate healthcare professionals, patients and the public about the latest advancements in hormone therapy for breast cancer treatment and prevention.

6. Cancer immunotherapy and cells research poster

When creating a medical-related research poster, use concise, jargon-free language to clearly explain your research. This cancer immunotherapy and cells research poster template for example incorporates high-quality visuals such as flow charts, cell images and data graphs to illustrate complex concepts.

Be ready to discuss and elaborate on your work, making your poster a springboard for deeper conversations with viewers.

7. Impact of habitat loss on bird breeding research poster

Especially for science-related research posters, it’s important to give your audience context about your topic. This template provides background information on habitat loss and its general impact on bird populations, helping to explain the importance of your research and its contribution to the field of ecology.

8. Student project research poster

For school students presenting research in the classroom, this poster template includes all the essential sections to highlight your key findings. 

It features areas for your introduction, methodology, results, and conclusion, helping you present your research clearly and effectively. 

For more research poster ideas, explore our blog featuring over 10 of our favorite research poster templates or browse our poster templates gallery for additional inspiration.

Conclusion: Crafting an impactful research poster

Making a great research poster is about careful planning. Choose the right size, organize your information clearly and use pictures and text to explain your work. 

That said, don’t be afraid to experiment with design elements to make your poster visually appealing. Remember, balance is key: a poster should be both creative and easy to understand.

Last but not least, share your completed poster with others to gather feedback. Constructive criticism can help you refine your poster design and improve your communication skills.

By following these steps and seeking input, you can create a research poster that effectively communicates your findings to a wide audience.

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How to design a research poster.

Presenting your scholarly work and research can take a number of different formats, all of which have pros and cons associated with them. While some fields use live performances or oral presentations to display their work, others use research journals or written manuscripts, while others still implement the use of research posters or gallery displays. Below is a comparison of some of the more common methods for displaying and presenting research and scholarly work.

Creating an effective research poster

We have provided a 6 step guide for you to follow. We also encourage you to attend one of our workshops “Presenting Your Research I: Story Design” and “Presenting Your Research II: Poster Design” for assistance. You may find the dates/times for these workshops (along with others) in MU Engage .

This short 5-minute video takes you through some pointers on how to create a research poster.

Consider the following questions before designing your poster. Depending on your event/audience, the poster content may be different. Presenting your work at a discipline specific conference means an audience who will have more understanding of the terminology and processes used in your work – meaning more use of discipline specific vocabulary. Whereas, presenting at an event with more laypeople (think the Spring Forum), means that most in the audience will not understand discipline specific vocabulary or graphics, so your poster content would be different as it would need to be understood by that audience.

Take time to brainstorm what you want the viewer to get from your poster (whether you are standing by it to present the information or not).

• What is your goal ?
• Who is your audience ?
• What is the most interesting/compelling part of your work?
• What will be interesting to others ?
• How can you make it interesting to others?

Before you can begin designing the poster, you have to consider a few things. And the first thing is:

Poster Size

Before you go plugging in data, text and images you need to decide on the overall size of YOUR poster. Some conferences/events have specific size limitations – VERIFY THIS FIRST! Otherwise, you may find yourself scrambling to redesign a poster last minute.

Here, however is some standard information for you to consider:

Mizzou’s Spring Forum – the boards and easels used are 2 sizes: 45in x 45in (square), or 36in x 60in (wide rectangle). Poster sizes vary, however we have found that 36in x 42in, or 42in x 48in are typical.

Poster Orientation

Your poster may be a rectangle in portrait orientation (‘hotdog’), or landscape orientation (‘hamburger’); OR, you may have a square poster. This is where you consider how to communicate your work and how it will best ‘flow’.

Mizzou poster templates

Mizzou has some poster templates (branded with Mizzou logos and colors), that you may download to use. You may find them at the Mizzou Branding & Licensing website here (scroll down to ‘Research Posters’ and please note that they are automatically sized to 56in x 36in – so you should resize them based upon what YOU want your poster size to be. You do NOT have to use these templates, but you may find them helpful. Check with your mentor .)

Now that you have determined what you want to communicate to your audience, and the poster size in which you will do this – you have to consider the content itself. How will the information be placed on the page to best flow and be understood by the viewer?

Consider the following items to include:

• Abstract, if appropriate
• Background/Introduction
• Research Question/Problem/Hypothesis
• Methodology (Materials & Methods)
• Conclusions, Future Studies
• Acknowledgements

Remember to:

• Make it easy for the reader to follow
• Anchor your information with something familiar
• Label figures and images
• Use sections, headlines
• What can be visual about your work?
• What needs to be explained ? ( And can it be explained more clearly using visuals? )
• What context do you need to provide?
• Biography/influences on your authors
• Lists, timelines
• Key quotations/text
• Cultural context
• Graphs, charts
• Illustrations
• Resist temptation to overuse color
• Use color for meaning and significance
• Use color to highlight important content
• Frames around poster components
• Bullet points
• Headlines of text, headings
• Check the University of Missouri Identity Standards website to download Mizzou logos and confirm your color of “Mizzou gold.”
• Determine title that is understandable to an audience outside of your field/major
• List authors of poster
• Consider font type, size, color, etc.
• Include the MU logo (and other logos depending on the nature of your work)

You should plan for your poster to take a minimum of 2-4 business days ( 48-72 hours ) to be printed. You must plan in advance for your poster pickup – we recommend that you consult the printer and ask for their timeline as you are not their only customer, and each printer will have different turnaround times.

Poster printing costs range depending on the size and type of material which you select for your poster – the average poster costs about $60.00.

BEFORE YOU PRINT! Check your poster for typos and grammatical errors. Has your mentor given you the ‘okay?’

• FedEx has partnered with us to provide presenters a special price for printing posters. To get this special price you MUST use this online portal to submit your poster, in PDF format. You will required to provide your contact information and pay for your poster in advance by credit card.
• 36in x 48in poster (landscape or portrait layout) = $30.00
• 36in x 36in poster = $22.50
• Custom size poster, the price will be $2.50/sq foot
• Staples (115 Conley Road)
• UPS Store – three locations 503 E. Nifong, Ste H 2000 E. Broadway 2101 W. Broadway #103
• Ellis Library has created a list of additional printers in the Columbia area.

We also recommend that you view past posters in your category to get a sense of what has been done. Click here to view the 2020 and 2021 online Spring Forum presentations.

Other resources.

• NYU Libraries How to Create a Research Poster
• Colin Purrington: tips for making posters
• UC Davis: How to Make and Effective Poster
• Science: How to prepare a scientific poster
• Fresh Spectrum: How to design a research poster using CANVA

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Preparing and Presenting Effective Research Posters

Associated data.

APPENDIX A.2. Comparison of Research Papers, Presentations, and Posters—Contents.

Posters are a common way to present results of a statistical analysis, program evaluation, or other project at professional conferences. Often, researchers fail to recognize the unique nature of the format, which is a hybrid of a published paper and an oral presentation. This methods note demonstrates how to design research posters to convey study objectives, methods, findings, and implications effectively to varied professional audiences.

A review of existing literature on research communication and poster design is used to identify and demonstrate important considerations for poster content and layout. Guidelines on how to write about statistical methods, results, and statistical significance are illustrated with samples of ineffective writing annotated to point out weaknesses, accompanied by concrete examples and explanations of improved presentation. A comparison of the content and format of papers, speeches, and posters is also provided.

Each component of a research poster about a quantitative analysis should be adapted to the audience and format, with complex statistical results translated into simplified charts, tables, and bulleted text to convey findings as part of a clear, focused story line.

Conclusions

Effective research posters should be designed around two or three key findings with accompanying handouts and narrative description to supply additional technical detail and encourage dialog with poster viewers.

An assortment of posters is a common way to present research results to viewers at a professional conference. Too often, however, researchers treat posters as poor cousins to oral presentations or published papers, failing to recognize the opportunity to convey their findings while interacting with individual viewers. By neglecting to adapt detailed paragraphs and statistical tables into text bullets and charts, they make it harder for their audience to quickly grasp the key points of the poster. By simply posting pages from the paper, they risk having people merely skim their work while standing in the conference hall. By failing to devise narrative descriptions of their poster, they overlook the chance to learn from conversations with their audience.

Even researchers who adapt their paper into a well-designed poster often forget to address the range of substantive and statistical training of their viewers. This step is essential for those presenting to nonresearchers but also pertains when addressing interdisciplinary research audiences. Studies of policymakers ( DiFranza and the Staff of the Advocacy Institute 1996 ; Sorian and Baugh 2002 ) have demonstrated the importance of making it readily apparent how research findings apply to real-world issues rather than imposing on readers to translate statistical findings themselves.

This methods note is intended to help researchers avoid such pitfalls as they create posters for professional conferences. The first section describes objectives of research posters. The second shows how to describe statistical results to viewers with varied levels of statistical training, and the third provides guidelines on the contents and organization of the poster. Later sections address how to prepare a narrative and handouts to accompany a research poster. Because researchers often present the same results as published research papers, spoken conference presentations, and posters, Appendix A compares similarities and differences in the content, format, and audience interaction of these three modes of presenting research results. Although the focus of this note is on presentation of quantitative research results, many of the guidelines about how to prepare and present posters apply equally well to qualitative studies.

WHAT IS A RESEARCH POSTER?

Preparing a poster involves not only creating pages to be mounted in a conference hall, but also writing an associated narrative and handouts, and anticipating the questions you are likely to encounter during the session. Each of these elements should be adapted to the audience, which may include people with different levels of familiarity with your topic and methods ( Nelson et al. 2002 ; Beilenson 2004 ). For example, the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association draws academics who conduct complex statistical analyses along with practitioners, program planners, policymakers, and journalists who typically do not.

Posters are a hybrid form—more detailed than a speech but less than a paper, more interactive than either ( Appendix A ). In a speech, you (the presenter) determine the focus of the presentation, but in a poster session, the viewers drive that focus. Different people will ask about different facets of your research. Some might do policy work or research on a similar topic or with related data or methods. Others will have ideas about how to apply or extend your work, raising new questions or suggesting different contrasts, ways of classifying data, or presenting results. Beilenson (2004) describes the experience of giving a poster as a dialogue between you and your viewers.

By the end of an active poster session, you may have learned as much from your viewers as they have from you, especially if the topic, methods, or audience are new to you. For instance, at David Snowdon's first poster presentation on educational attainment and longevity using data from The Nun Study, another researcher returned several times to talk with Snowdon, eventually suggesting that he extend his research to focus on Alzheimer's disease, which led to an important new direction in his research ( Snowdon 2001 ). In addition, presenting a poster provides excellent practice in explaining quickly and clearly why your project is important and what your findings mean—a useful skill to apply when revising a speech or paper on the same topic.

WRITING FOR A VARIED PROFESSIONAL AUDIENCE

Audiences at professional conferences vary considerably in their substantive and methodological backgrounds. Some will be experts on your topic but not your methods, some will be experts on your methods but not your topic, and most will fall somewhere in between. In addition, advances in research methods imply that even researchers who received cutting-edge methodological training 10 or 20 years ago might not be conversant with the latest approaches. As you design your poster, provide enough background on both the topic and the methods to convey the purpose, findings, and implications of your research to the expected range of readers.

Telling a Simple, Clear Story

Write so your audience can understand why your work is of interest to them, providing them with a clear take-home message that they can grasp in the few minutes they will spend at your poster. Experts in communications and poster design recommend planning your poster around two to three key points that you want your audience to walk away with, then designing the title, charts, and text to emphasize those points ( Briscoe 1996 ; Nelson et al. 2002 ; Beilenson 2004 ). Start by introducing the two or three key questions you have decided will be the focus of your poster, and then provide a brief overview of data and methods before presenting the evidence to answer those questions. Close with a summary of your findings and their implications for research and policy.

A 2001 survey of government policymakers showed that they prefer summaries of research to be written so they can immediately see how the findings relate to issues currently facing their constituencies, without wading through a formal research paper ( Sorian and Baugh 2002 ). Complaints that surfaced about many research reports included that they were “too long, dense, or detailed,” or “too theoretical, technical, or jargony.” On average, respondents said they read only about a quarter of the research material they receive for detail, skim about half of it, and never get to the rest.

To ensure that your poster is one viewers will read, understand, and remember, present your analyses to match the issues and questions of concern to them, rather than making readers translate your statistical results to fit their interests ( DiFranza and the Staff of the Advocacy Institute 1996 ; Nelson et al. 2002 ). Often, their questions will affect how you code your data, specify your model, or design your intervention and evaluation, so plan ahead by familiarizing yourself with your audience's interests and likely applications of your study findings. In an academic journal article, you might report parameter estimates and standard errors for each independent variable in your regression model. In the poster version, emphasize findings for specific program design features, demographic, or geographic groups, using straightforward means of presenting effect size and statistical significance; see “Describing Numeric Patterns and Contrasts” and “Presenting Statistical Test Results” below.

The following sections offer guidelines on how to present statistical findings on posters, accompanied by examples of “poor” and “better” descriptions—samples of ineffective writing annotated to point out weaknesses, accompanied by concrete examples and explanations of improved presentation. These ideas are illustrated with results from a multilevel analysis of disenrollment from the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP; Phillips et al. 2004 ). I chose that paper to show how to prepare a poster about a sophisticated quantitative analysis of a topic of interest to HSR readers, and because I was a collaborator in that study, which was presented in the three formats compared here—as a paper, a speech, and a poster.

Explaining Statistical Methods

Beilenson (2004) and Briscoe (1996) suggest keeping your description of data and methods brief, providing enough information for viewers to follow the story line and evaluate your approach. Avoid cluttering the poster with too much technical detail or obscuring key findings with excessive jargon. For readers interested in additional methodological information, provide a handout and a citation to the pertinent research paper.

As you write about statistical methods or other technical issues, relate them to the specific concepts you study. Provide synonyms for technical and statistical terminology, remembering that many conferences of interest to policy researchers draw people from a range of disciplines. Even with a quantitatively sophisticated audience, don't assume that people will know the equivalent vocabulary used in other fields. A few years ago, the journal Medical Care published an article whose sole purpose was to compare statistical terminology across various disciplines involved in health services research so that people could understand one another ( Maciejewski et al. 2002 ). After you define the term you plan to use, mention the synonyms from the various fields represented in your audience.

Consider whether acronyms are necessary on your poster. Avoid them if they are not familiar to the field or would be used only once or twice on your poster. If you use acronyms, spell them out at first usage, even those that are common in health services research such as “HEDIS®”(Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set) or “HLM”(hierarchical linear model).

Poor: “We use logistic regression and a discrete-time hazards specification to assess relative hazards of SCHIP disenrollment, with plan level as our key independent variable.” Comment: Terms like “discrete-time hazards specification” may be confusing to readers without training in those methods, which are relatively new on the scene. Also the meaning of “SCHIP” or “plan level” may be unfamiliar to some readers unless defined earlier on the poster.

Better: “Chances of disenrollment from the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) vary by amount of time enrolled, so we used hazards models (also known as event history analysis or survival analysis) to correct for those differences when estimating disenrollment patterns for SCHIP plans for different income levels.” Comment: This version clarifies the terms and concepts, naming the statistical method and its synonyms, and providing a sense of why this type of analysis is needed.

To explain a statistical method or assumption, paraphrase technical terms and illustrate how the analytic approach applies to your particular research question and data:

Poor : “The data structure can be formulated as a two-level hierarchical linear model, with families (the level-1 unit of analysis) nested within counties (the level-2 unit of analysis).” Comment: Although this description would be fine for readers used to working with this type of statistical model, those who aren't conversant with those methods may be confused by terminology such as “level-1” and “unit of analysis.”

Better: “The data have a hierarchical (or multilevel) structure, with families clustered within counties.” Comment: By replacing “nested” with the more familiar “clustered,” identifying the specific concepts for the two levels of analysis, and mentioning that “hierarchical” and “multilevel” refer to the same type of analytic structure, this description relates the generic class of statistical model to this particular study.

Presenting Results with Charts

Charts are often the preferred way to convey numeric patterns, quickly revealing the relative sizes of groups, comparative levels of some outcome, or directions of trends ( Briscoe 1996 ; Tufte 2001 ; Nelson et al. 2002 ). As Beilenson puts it, “let your figures do the talking,” reducing the need for long text descriptions or complex tables with lots of tiny numbers. For example, create a pie chart to present sample composition, use a simple bar chart to show how the dependent variable varies across subgroups, or use line charts or clustered bar charts to illustrate the net effects of nonlinear specifications or interactions among independent variables ( Miller 2005 ). Charts that include confidence intervals around point estimates are a quick and effective way to present effect size, direction, and statistical significance. For multivariate analyses, consider presenting only the results for the main variables of interest, listing the other variables in the model in a footnote and including complex statistical tables in a handout.

Provide each chart with a title (in large type) that explains the topic of that chart. A rhetorical question or summary of the main finding can be very effective. Accompany each chart with a few annotations that succinctly describe the patterns in that chart. Although each chart page should be self-explanatory, be judicious: Tufte (2001) cautions against encumbering your charts with too much “nondata ink”—excessive labeling or superfluous features such as arrows and labels on individual data points. Strive for a balance between guiding your readers through the findings and maintaining a clean, uncluttered poster. Use chart types that are familiar to your expected audience. Finally, remember that you can flesh out descriptions of charts and tables in your script rather than including all the details on the poster itself; see “Narrative to Accompany a Poster.”

Describing Numeric Patterns and Contrasts

As you describe patterns or numeric contrasts, whether from simple calculations or complex statistical models, explain both the direction and magnitude of the association. Incorporate the concepts under study and the units of measurement rather than simply reporting coefficients (β's) ( Friedman 1990 ; Miller 2005 ).

Poor: “Number of enrolled children in the family is correlated with disenrollment.” Comment: Neither the direction nor the size of the association is apparent.

Poor [version #2]: “The log-hazard of disenrollment for one-child families was 0.316.” Comment: Most readers find it easier to assess the size and direction from hazards ratios (a form of relative risk) instead of log-hazards (log-relative risks, the β's from a hazards model).

Better: “Families with only one child enrolled in the program were about 1.4 times as likely as larger families to disenroll.” Comment: This version explains the association between number of children and disenrollment without requiring viewers to exponentiate the log-hazard in their heads to assess the size and direction of that association. It also explicitly identifies the group against which one-child families are compared in the model.

Presenting Statistical Test Results

On your poster, use an approach to presenting statistical significance that keeps the focus on your results, not on the arithmetic needed to conduct inferential statistical tests. Replace standard errors or test statistics with confidence intervals, p- values, or symbols, or use formatting such as boldface, italics, or a contrasting color to denote statistically significant findings ( Davis 1997 ; Miller 2005 ). Include the detailed statistical results in handouts for later perusal.

To illustrate these recommendations, Figures 1 and ​ and2 2 demonstrate how to divide results from a complex, multilevel model across several poster pages, using charts and bullets in lieu of the detailed statistical table from the scientific paper ( Table 1 ; Phillips et al. 2004 ). Following experts' advice to focus on one or two key points, these charts emphasize the findings from the final model (Model 5) rather than also discussing each of the fixed- and random-effects specifications from the paper.

Presenting Complex Statistical Results Graphically

Text Summary of Additional Statistical Results

Multilevel Discrete-Time Hazards Models of Disenrollment from SCHIP, New Jersey, January 1998–April 2000

Source : Phillips et al. (2004) .

SCHIP, State Children's Health Insurance Program; LRH, log relative-hazard; SE, standard error.

Figure 1 uses a chart (also from the paper) to present the net effects of a complicated set of interactions between two family-level traits (race and SCHIP plan) and a cross-level interaction between race of the family and county physician racial composition. The title is a rhetorical question that identifies the issue addressed in the chart, and the annotations explain the pattern. The chart version substantially reduces the amount of time viewers need to understand the main take-home point, averting the need to mentally sum and exponentiate several coefficients from the table.

Figure 2 uses bulleted text to summarize other key results from the model, translating log-relative hazards into hazards ratios and interpreting them with minimal reliance on jargon. The results for family race, SCHIP plan, and county physician racial composition are not repeated in Figure 2 , averting the common problem of interpreting main effect coefficients and interaction coefficients without reference to one another.

Alternatively, replace the text summary shown in Figure 2 with Table 2 —a simplified version of Table 1 which presents only the results for Model 5, replaces log-relative hazards with hazards ratios, reports associated confidence intervals in lieu of standard errors, and uses boldface to denote statistical significance. (On a color slide, use a contrasting color in lieu of bold.)

Relative Risks of SCHIP Disenrollment for Other * Family and County Characteristics, New Jersey, January 1998–April 2000

Statistically significant associations are shown in bold.

Based on hierarchical linear model controlling for months enrolled, months-squared, race, SCHIP plan, county physician racial composition, and all variables shown here. Scaled deviance =30,895. Random effects estimate for between-county variance =0.005 (standard error =0.006). SCHIP, State Children's Health Insurance Program; 95% CI, 95% confidence interval.

CONTENTS AND ORGANIZATION OF A POSTER

Research posters are organized like scientific papers, with separate pages devoted to the objectives and background, data and methods, results, and conclusions ( Briscoe 1996 ). Readers view the posters at their own pace and at close range; thus you can include more detail than in slides for a speech (see Appendix A for a detailed comparison of content and format of papers, speeches, and posters). Don't simply post pages from the scientific paper, which are far too text-heavy for a poster. Adapt them, replacing long paragraphs and complex tables with bulleted text, charts, and simple tables ( Briscoe 1996 ; Beilenson 2004 ). Fink (1995) provides useful guidelines for writing text bullets to convey research results. Use presentation software such as PowerPoint to create your pages or adapt them from related slides, facilitating good page layout with generous type size, bullets, and page titles. Such software also makes it easy to create matching handouts (see “Handouts”).

The “W's” (who, what, when, where, why) are an effective way to organize the elements of a poster.

• In the introductory section, describe what you are studying, why it is important, and how your analysis will add to the existing literature in the field.
• In the data and methods section of a statistical analysis, list when, where, who, and how the data were collected, how many cases were involved, and how the data were analyzed. For other types of interventions or program evaluations, list who, when, where, and how many, along with how the project was implemented and assessed.
• In the results section, present what you found.
• In the conclusion, return to what you found and how it can be used to inform programs or policies related to the issue.

Number and Layout of Pages

To determine how many pages you have to work with, find out the dimensions of your assigned space. A 4′ × 8′ bulletin board accommodates the equivalent of about twenty 8.5″ × 11″ pages, but be selective—no poster can capture the full detail of a large series of multivariate models. A trifold presentation board (3′ high by 4′ wide) will hold roughly a dozen pages, organized into three panels ( Appendix B ). Breaking the arrangement into vertical sections allows viewers to read each section standing in one place while following the conventions of reading left-to-right and top-to-bottom ( Briscoe 1996 ).

• At the top of the poster, put an informative title in a large, readable type size. On a 4′ × 8′ bulletin board, there should also be room for an institutional logo.

Suggested Layout for a 4′ × 8′ poster.

• In the left-hand panel, set the stage for the research question, conveying why the topic is of policy interest, summarizing major empirical or theoretical work on related topics, and stating your hypotheses or project aims, and explaining how your work fills in gaps in previous analyses.
• In the middle panel, briefly describe your data source, variables, and methods, then present results in tables or charts accompanied by text annotations. Diagrams, maps, and photographs are very effective for conveying issues difficult to capture succinctly in words ( Miller 2005 ), and to help readers envision the context. A schematic diagram of relationships among variables can be useful for illustrating causal order. Likewise, a diagram can be a succinct way to convey timing of different components of a longitudinal study or the nested structure of a multilevel dataset.
• In the right-hand panel, summarize your findings and relate them back to the research question or project aims, discuss strengths and limitations of your approach, identify research, practice, or policy implications, and suggest directions for future research.

Figure 3 (adapted from Beilenson 2004 ) shows a suggested layout for a 4′ × 8′ bulletin board, designed to be created using software such as Pagemaker that generates a single-sheet presentation; Appendix C shows a complete poster version of the Phillips et al. (2004) multilevel analysis of SCHIP disenrollment. If hardware or budget constraints preclude making a single-sheet poster, a similar configuration can be created using standard 8.5″ × 11″ pages in place of the individual tables, charts, or blocks of text shown in Figure 3 .

Find out well in advance how the posters are to be mounted so you can bring the appropriate supplies. If the room is set up for table-top presentations, tri-fold poster boards are essential because you won't have anything to attach a flat poster board or pages to. If you have been assigned a bulletin board, bring push-pins or a staple gun.

Regardless of whether you will be mounting your poster at the conference or ahead of time, plan how the pages are to be arranged. Experiment with different page arrangements on a table marked with the dimensions of your overall poster. Once you have a final layout, number the backs of the pages or draw a rough sketch to work from as you arrange the pages on the board. If you must pin pages to a bulletin board at the conference venue, allow ample time to make them level and evenly spaced.

Other Design Considerations

A few other issues to keep in mind as you design your poster. Write a short, specific title that fits in large type size on the title banner of your poster. The title will be potential readers' first glimpse of your poster, so make it inviting and easy to read from a distance—at least 40-point type, ideally larger. Beilenson (2004) advises embedding your key finding in the title so viewers don't have to dig through the abstract or concluding page to understand the purpose and conclusions of your work. A caution: If you report a numeric finding in your title, keep in mind that readers may latch onto it as a “factoid” to summarize your conclusions, so select and phrase it carefully ( McDonough 2000 ).

Use at least 14-point type for the body of the poster text. As Briscoe (1996) points out, “many in your audience have reached the bifocal age” and all of them will read your poster while standing, hence long paragraphs in small type will not be appreciated! Make judicious use of color. Use a clear, white, or pastel for the background, with black or another dark color for most text, and a bright, contrasting shade to emphasize key points or to identify statistically significant results ( Davis 1997 ).

NARRATIVE TO ACCOMPANY A POSTER

Prepare a brief oral synopsis of the purpose, findings, and implications of your work to say to interested parties as they pause to read your poster. Keep it short—a few sentences that highlight what you are studying, a couple of key findings, and why they are important. Design your overview as a “sound byte” that captures your main points in a succinct and compelling fashion ( Beilenson 2004 ). After hearing your introduction, listeners will either nod and move along or comment on some aspect of your work that intrigues them. You can then tailor additional discussion to individual listeners, adjusting the focus and amount of detail to suit their interests. Gesture at the relevant pages as you make each point, stating the purpose of each chart or table and explaining its layout before describing the numeric findings; see Miller (2005) for guidelines on how to explain tables and charts to a live audience. Briscoe (1996) points out that these mini-scripts are opportunities for you to fill in details of your story line, allowing you to keep the pages themselves simple and uncluttered.

Prepare short answers to likely questions about various aspects of your work, such as why it is important from a policy or research perspective, or descriptions of data, methods, and specific results. Think of these as little modules from an overall speech—concise descriptions of particular elements of your study that you can choose among in response to questions that arise. Beilenson (2004) also recommends developing a few questions to ask your viewers, inquiring about their reactions to your findings, ideas for additional questions, or names of others working on the topic.

Practice your poster presentation in front of a test audience acquainted with the interests and statistical proficiency of your expected viewers. Ideally, your critic should not be too familiar with your work: A fresh set of eyes and ears is more likely to identify potential points of confusion than someone who is jaded from working closely with the material while writing the paper or drafting the poster ( Beilenson 2004 ). Ask your reviewer to identify elements that are unclear, flag jargon to be paraphrased or defined, and recommend changes to improve clarity ( Miller 2005 ). Have them critique your oral presentation as well as the contents and layout of the poster.

Prepare handouts to distribute to interested viewers. These can be produced from slides created in presentation software, printed several to a page along with a cover page containing the abstract and your contact information. Or package an executive summary or abstract with a few key tables or charts. Handouts provide access to the more detailed literature review, data and methods, full set of results, and citations without requiring viewers to read all of that information from the poster ( Beilenson 2004 ; Miller 2005 ). Although you also can bring copies of the complete paper, it is easier on both you and your viewers if you collect business cards or addresses and mail the paper later.

The quality and effectiveness of research posters at professional conferences is often compromised by authors' failure to take into account the unique nature of such presentations. One common error is posting numerous statistical tables and long paragraphs from a research paper—an approach that overwhelms viewers with too much detail for this type of format and presumes familiarity with advanced statistical techniques. Following recommendations from the literature on research communication and poster design, this paper shows how to focus each poster on a few key points, using charts and text bullets to convey results as part of a clear, straightforward story line, and supplementing with handouts and an oral overview.

Another frequent mistake is treating posters as a one-way means of communication. Unlike published papers, poster sessions are live presentations; unlike speeches, they allow for extended conversation with viewers. This note explains how to create an oral synopsis of the project, short modular descriptions of poster elements, and questions to encourage dialog. By following these guidelines, researchers can substantially improve their conference posters as vehicles to disseminate findings to varied research and policy audiences.

CHECKLIST FOR PREPARING AND PRESENTING AN EFFECTIVE RESEARCH POSTERS

• Design poster to focus on two or three key points.
• Adapt materials to suit expected viewers' knowledge of your topic and methods.
• Design questions to meet their interests and expected applications of your work.
• Paraphrase descriptions of complex statistical methods.
• Spell out acronyms if used.
• Replace large detailed tables with charts or small, simplified tables.
• Accompany tables or charts with bulleted annotations of major findings.
• Describe direction and magnitude of associations.
• Use confidence intervals, p -values, symbols, or formatting to denote statistical significance.

Layout and Format

• Organize the poster into background, data and methods, results, and study implications.
• Divide the material into vertical sections on the poster.
• Use at least 14-point type in the body of your poster, at least 40-point for the title.

Narrative Description

• Rehearse a three to four sentence overview of your research objectives and main findings.
• Summary of key studies and gaps in existing literature
• Data and methods
• Each table, chart, or set of bulleted results
• Research, policy, and practice implications
• Solicit their input on your findings
• Develop additional questions for later analysis
• Identify other researchers in the field
• Prepare handouts to distribute to interested viewers.
• Print slides from presentation software, several to a page.
• Or package an executive summary or abstract with a few key tables or charts.
• Include an abstract and contact information.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Ellen Idler, Julie Phillips, Deborah Carr, Diane (Deedee) Davis, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this work.

Supplementary Material

The following supplementary material for this article is available online:

APPENDIX A.1. Comparison of Research Papers, Presentations, and Posters—Materials and Audience Interaction.

Suggested Layout for a Tri-Fold Presentation Board.

Example Research Poster of Phillips et al. 2004 Study.

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How to Make a Successful Scientific Poster

Published on 18 Apr 2023

Good science goes nowhere if it’s not communicated well.

Poster sessions at scientific conferences are a hub for knowledge dissemination and research networking. So, knowing how to design a good conference poster is a big part of becoming a successful scientific communicator and sharing your work with a larger community.

Making a scientific poster can be an exciting and rewarding experience. A well-designed poster can help you showcase your research to attract the attention of fellow scientists and potential collaborators or sponsors.

So, to help you get started, this scientific poster guide covers all the bases. From a step-by-step poster creation process to useful examples and templates, you’ll find everything you need here to put together a successful scientific poster.

Students discussing during a scientific poster session.

What is a scientific poster?

A scientific poster is a visual representation of research or scientific work presented at a conference or other professional gathering. The goal is to present complex research information in a way that is easy to understand and visually engaging for conference attendees. You want to concisely tell the story behind your science, all while making it accessible to non-expert audiences.

Scientific posters can include text, figures, tables, graphs, infographics, charts, and images to convey the key findings of a research project (these elements may also be used to highlight the significance or implications of the research). A scientific poster typically consists of a large, printed sheet of paper or fabric, on which the presenter displays the results of their research in a clear, concise, and visually appealing manner. If you’re presenting at a virtual poster session , your “poster” might be a digital file, a presentation, or a recorded video.

During a conference poster session, a researcher usually stands by their poster display while other conference participants wander through the room, viewing presentations and interacting with various authors as they go.

What is a good size for a scientific poster?

The ideal size for a scientific poster will vary depending on your conference or event requirements. However, the most common size is 48 inches (122 cm) wide by 36 inches (91 cm) tall. This size allows for easy transportation and can fit on most poster boards or display areas.

Regardless of the common size given here, it's still important that you check the specific requirements of the event where you will be presenting, as they may have different size limitations or guidelines (the event or conference website is usually a good place to find this information). Resizing a finished poster can be a real pain. So, it’s best to check the conference requirements first thing so you can start your poster off on the right track.

One important thing to keep in mind when designing your academic poster with any digital software: It’s better to start bigger (when it comes to pixels). Also, make sure to send a high DPI image (eg. 300 DPI) for printing to ensure a high quality print.

What is the best software to make a scientific poster?

Microsoft PowerPoint and Google Slides are two of the most common and easy-to-use programs for making scientific posters. Adobe Illustrator is sometimes used by individuals with more advanced design skills. The best software to make an effective poster will depend on your personal preference and/or familiarity with the tools available.

Here’s a handful of popular software options for making scientific posters (and their benefits):

Microsoft PowerPoint : PowerPoint is a widely used software for creating presentations, and it can also be used to create scientific posters (by designing an entire poster on a single presentation slide). It also offers a variety of design templates and tools to create visually appealing posters. Many university computers give students and staff access to the Microsoft suite of tools, so this can be a good free option.

Google Slides : Similar to PowerPoint, Google Slides is a popular software for creating presentations (with the added ability to create scientific posters). It’s free to use which makes it one of the preferred options for early-career researchers.

Adobe Illustrator : Illustrator is a vector-based design software that is ideal for creating high-quality graphics and images. It offers advanced features for typography, color management, and image editing. However, using any Adobe software often comes with a hefty subscription price (and a steep learning curve if you’re unfamiliar with the tools).

Canva : Canva is a web-based graphic design platform that offers a variety of templates and tools for creating posters and other visual media. It is user-friendly and requires no design experience. You can get a free personal account (or pay for upgraded features).

LaTeX : LaTeX is a document preparation system that is often used for scientific publications and presentations. It offers advanced features for typesetting equations and mathematical symbols.

Mac Pages : I made 3 posters during my PhD using Mac Pages. I found it quite easy to work with to add text boxes and colored sections. It’s very similar to PowerPoint in many ways. This is an excellent option for Mac users since it’s free.

InkScape : InkScape is a great tool for students on a budget (it’s free). It offers a simple and efficient way to create vector designs or scientific illustrations.

If you’re attending a virtual conference, you may have additional options for creating a virtual scientific poster. In this case, recording on Zoom, adding audio to a slideshow on PowerPoint, or recording on Quicktime are all good options to consider. Check out our article on guidelines for a virtual poster presentation for more advice.

How to make a good scientific poster for a conference

A well-designed and informative poster that effectively communicates the key findings of your research is your primary goal.

You’ll want to make sure you tailor your poster to the context you’ll be presenting in (i.e. the size of the space, your presentation format, and the level of knowledge your audience is likely to have about your research topic). You’ll also want to give yourself enough time to finish your poster (anywhere between 5 days to a few weeks depending on how much experience you have).

Before we dive into the details of the scientific poster creation process, here’s a highlight of what makes a great scientific poster (and common mistakes to avoid):

So, keeping the above highlights in mind, here’s our step-by-step guide to help you make a scientific poster that will stand out at any conference:

1) Decide on the poster narrative and key messages

Before you begin designing your poster, plan the core content. Start by considering the purpose of your poster and the key message that you want to convey. Identify the main findings of your research and the most important conclusions that you want your audience to take away from your poster. Keep these messages in mind and then think of the varied ways you could weave them into a connected narrative (both visually and verbally) when presenting your poster. This is a great exercise to help you get better at storytelling in science in general.

Later on, when you design your poster and format it, these key messages will need to visually stand out so that someone walking by or scanning your poster can pick them up without stopping to read the full thing.

2) Decide on the sections of your scientific poster

Once you’ve determined your key message(s), you’ll need to organize your research content into sections that make logical sense. Like the abstract in a scientific paper, your poster should have sections summarizing the background and rationale, methodology, results, and the implications of your work. Some common sections included in a scientific poster include:

Title, Key Finding or Takeaway - Highlight the core message in a catchy way.

Introduction - Provide background information and a clear research question or hypothesis. Introduce only what’s necessary to address any knowledge gap.

Methods - Explain the methodology used in your research. This is often the easiest section to skip (or merge with the results to save space and tell your story better).

Results - Present the key findings of your research in a visually appealing way in the results section. Use graphs and tables with legends and titles.

Discussion - Interpret and discuss the implications of your findings.

Conclusion - Summarize your research and its significance. Comment on possible future research. This section can easily be combined with the discussion section.

Citations & Acknowledgements - Reference important materials, your institutional affiliation and thank individuals for specific contributions to your research. This can be smaller than other text so as not to distract from the core message, but it should be included somewhere.

Prompt to Find Out More - Give interested readers an easy option to dive further into your research. Include a resource link (or a QR code) to additional materials.

Keep in mind: these are common sections included in a poster, NOT required sections. Feel free to get creative with more descriptive headings or combine sections if it helps you communicate your message better (and in fewer words). And, wherever possible, think of ways to tell your story through figures and illustrations rather than through text. Biorender and the Noun Project are both great resources to help you find and create visuals for your poster.

3) Create your poster layout and structure

Once you have a clear idea of the content that you want to include, create a rough layout of your poster. Decide on the overall structure of your poster and the placement of each section. This is a great time to pull out a sketchbook and a pencil to mess around with a few different ideas. Or, if you prefer a digital drafting process, you can start making your layout in your software of choice right away.

To make the design process easier, you might want to choose a poster template to customize. There are heaps of useful scientific poster templates available online that you can use ( this collection is a good starting point). Some universities and research centers even provide poster templates that use a specific color scheme and already include the necessary logos. Check whether your institution has a template like this and consider using it if they do - it will save you a lot of time!

Your poster layout should be well-organized, with each section following clearly from the previous one, creating a visual path that tells a coherent story. Decide what will be the direction that the information flows (i.e. left to right and then down? OR top to bottom and then to the right?). Someone who is looking at your poster should not have to jump from one side to the other in order to understand your work. Consider the use of numbers or arrows to indicate the flow of what comes next. Or get creative with eye-catching visuals that naturally draw the reader's eye through the sections in a logical order.

4) Spruce up your scientific poster with a bit of style

The visual design elements (especially colors and fonts) that you choose for your poster can have a big impact on its effectiveness. When choosing a font, consider both the font type and the font size. Picking to read and size is important to help to structure the poster content.

Choose a color scheme that is visually appealing and easy to read (free generators like Material Palette are handy for this if you don’t have an eye for design). Be sure to use high-contrast colors to make important information stand out and to help visually impaired visitors.

Choose fonts that are easy to read and make sure your chosen font size is readable from a distance. Also, consider using a pattern of varying font sizes and/or types to help visually differentiate between poster title, body text, headings, and poster highlights. Use no more than two or three different fonts in your poster overall to avoid clutter and confusion.

If you’re planning to feature a specific image or illustration in your poster, consider using it for inspiration for your color scheme or fonts. It will ensure that your final poster has a more cohesive and less cluttered look.

5) Put all the pieces of your poster together

If you’re using software like Powerpoint: First, choose your page size. Then, start to create content blocks and insert text where appropriate.

If you’re uploading pictures of any sort to your poster design, be sure to use high-quality, high-resolution images. Only import images with 300 dpi resolution (saved in PNG or TIFF formats) to your poster. Double-check to be sure you’ve uploaded good pictures: a high-quality image should not appear blurry or pixelated at 100% zoom.

Once you have your template and design elements in place, it's time to add your content. Begin with the main sections of your poster, such as the introduction, results, and discussion. Use graphs, charts, tables, and images to present your data in a clear and visually appealing way.

When adding text, use short sentences and bullet points to make it easy to read. Use headings and subheadings to break up the content and make it more visually appealing.

6) Print your scientific poster and get ready to present it

Once your poster is complete, it's time to print it so it’s ready to present at the conference. Again, it’s important that you read the conference guidelines very carefully and print your poster in the correct size and orientation. Make sure you print in the highest-quality as well.

Some institutions have dedicated printing facilities, but you can also visit a copy shop that has a large-format printer. If you haven’t had to get a poster printed before, it’s worth asking a colleague for recommendations on a good local spot. Or, if you are feeling creative, you might want to go a different route and print your poster on fabric (this gives you the option to reuse it as a unique table cloth or picnic blanket in the future).

Whatever your printing format, make sure you budget enough time for a reprint if disaster strikes (a week or more of buffer time is a good bet). It’s also worth testing printing out with a “dummy poster” on a small piece of paper. This will allow you to check that everything looks okay when printed before you spend a good chunk of change on the final, full-sized poster.

Finally, when preparing for the conference, be sure to bring all of the necessary materials with you, such as pins or velcro strips, to hang your poster. It doesn’t hurt to also have a digital copy of your poster on a thumb drive just in case something happens to yours in transit. Many conferences have onsite printing services that you could resort to in the event of a mishap.

A few extra tips to help you make a scientific poster

Just a few more helpful things to keep in mind when designing your scientific poster:

1) Quality over quantity

A little bit of text goes a long way on a poster - in fact, the fewer words the better. Posters with less text are more inviting and easier to absorb. Don’t forget that you will be there to explain your work, so there is no reason to try to include everything in the text. Shorten your text by summarizing sections with bullet points and highlighting the key messages.

As mentioned in this article on designing conference posters: If all of your text is kept to a minimum (500 words), an average person could fully read your poster in about 5 minutes. Think about how long you’d want to spend reading through a poster, and use that as motivation to chop your content down to even less than that 5-minute reading mark.

2) Use color, visuals, and white space strategically

Great posters maintain a good amount of white space around the text boxes and figures. A cramped poster is hard to read (and intimidating to passing attendees looking for catchy, quick takeaways). A safe bet is to always include more white space than you think you’ll need.

As much as graphics and visuals can help, they should only be used if they truly are helpful. Don’t get too wrapped up in “decorating your poster.” Get rid of any images or illustrations that aren’t directly related to your research and that don’t help you highlight the key messages you want to deliver.

Finally, resist the urge to use a blown up photo as your poster background. All it adds is confusion and clutter. You’re better off using a light, neutral tone in the background and adding interest with relevant, informational graphics.

This image from brightcarbon shows how good visuals and spacing can make a poster catchier and better at quickly delivering information. They’ve also got great templates for posters if you’re looking.

3) Get picky about your poster fonts and formatting

After you’ve looked at the big picture design and made sure your key message is coming across clearly, dive into the details to perfect your poster:

• Try to make all of your text boxes the same width. It keeps things visually consistent.
• If possible, keep paragraphs to 1-2 sentences rather than big blocks of text.
• Use italics instead of underlining. Underlining draws too much attention to a word.
• Don't use fancy fonts. They make your poster look busy and can make it harder to read (especially for people with dyslexia). In general, sans serif fonts are easiest to read.
• Except for a few words that you might want to highlight, ensure that all of your text is black or a dark color to create better contrast and readability.

4) Don’t be afraid to get a bit creative

We’ve listed some common poster elements and templates in this article, but that doesn’t mean you should hesitate to be creative. Think about design elements or images that are relevant to your research and that could make your poster stand out from the crowd. A few ideas to get your creative brainstorming started:

• Add hidden informational panels behind paper flaps on your poster to make the experience more interactive.
• Attach objects or physical things to add some dimension/interest to your poster.
• Bring props or handouts to supplement your poster beyond what exists on it.

The same goes for your poster layout. Don’t be afraid to completely switch things up in a way that suits your research. A twitter-famous example of this was Mike Morrisons take on the best conference poster layout:

Mike displays his poster layout (Image Source: NPR )

Mike’s innovative take on the research poster template prompted other researchers to think about how to reinvent the wheel. His video on poster sessions captures the need for this kind of creative approach perfectly. A few conferences even adopted it as their required template.

5) Get a second (and third) opinion on your scientific poster

Before you finalize your poster, make sure to review it carefully for accuracy, completeness, and visual appeal. Check for spelling and grammar errors and make sure that all of your data is presented accurately.

Print out a draft of your poster and ask a colleague or mentor to review it and provide feedback. It’s also worth getting feedback from someone with limited understanding of your research topic (they’ll be able to give you an idea of how accessible the wording is and a good review on your design without being bogged down in the technical details). Based on the feedback you receive, make any necessary revisions before finalizing your poster.

Some scientific poster examples (and reviews)

So far, this article has outlined the theory behind making a great poster. But, putting it into practice isn’t always as simple as a 6-step process. You might still be having difficulty visualizing what a good poster looks like (or thinking of ideas for your own). So, take this next section as a bit of creative inspiration. I’ve gathered a handful of posters from my network and given them a quick review based on the design recommendations above.

POSTER ONE - A Fine Figure (or a Few)

Made with: Mac Pages Shared by: Matthieu Chartier (Founder, Fourwaves)

Poster highlights:

• The use of figures and visuals helps to explain the method developed.
• Paragraphs are short and highlight key information.
• The poster isn’t divided into the classic scientific poster sections (let that creativity through!). Instead, because it’s describing a newly developed method, it’s divided into an introduction, method, validation, and applications.

Pieces to improve:

• There are a lot of different colors used. This makes it hard to identify the different sections and the structure of the poster at a glance. Converting the figures and fonts to a more uniform color scheme could help with the visual appeal to people walking by.
• The use of white space could be better (it feels a bit cramped). It would be better to leave some text out and simply mention that information when speaking with visitors during the poster session.

POSTER TWO - An Effective Contrast

Made with: Powerpoint (and figures with BioRender) Shared by: Simon Fournier (Business Development, CQDM)

• The poster contains clear sections with headings that have good contrasting colors to draw the eye (dark blue on white).
• The figure generated with Biorender is clear and is a good support material to use during the actual poster presentation.
• The use of bullet points helps distinguish the key messages.
• The title of the poster could be a bit more punchy to attract attention.
• Figures could be incorporated more to illustrate the data and draw the eye to the poster.

POSTER THREE - Colorful

Made with: Inkscape Shared by: Vincent Nault (CEO, Lumed)

• The use of figures helps to illustrate the data and break up the paragraphs.
• A good amount of information is delivered with a relatively small amount of text.
• The combination of colors is distracting at times. It’s not a complementary palette.
• The font sizes seem to vary widely and the bright yellow font is difficult to read.
• Sections don’t flow in a continuous logical order (gives the sensation of jumping around a bit when you’re trying to find the next section).

POSTER FOUR - Beauty in Simplicity

Made with: Adobe Illustrator (contains 3D rendered images created in Autodesk Maya). Shared by: Mouhanad Babi (PhD, Microscopist and Scientific Illustrator)

• The best thing about this poster is its simplicity. It only has 3 main sections.
• It’s not cramped with text and data and has a lot of white space.
• Easily read and understood in a short period of time.
• Bullet points are used well to share key information.
• The title could be a tad bit catchier.
• There is no contact information if someone wanted to reach out to the presenter.

FUN FACT: This poster was presented at the Biophysical Society of Canada in Montreal in 2017 and won the best poster prize 🏆!

POSTER FIVE - Room to Breathe

Made with : PowerPoint Shared by: Maxime Descoteaux (CSO at Imeka, Research chair in neuroinformatics)

• This poster really breathes! It’s mostly white with only darker colors used to clearly delineate the different sections.
• The content is straight to the point. It highlights the problems with existing compression formats then goes straight into the developed method and results.
• A short sentence to summarize the key conclusions would be helpful. However, leaving it out could also encourage the reader to ask the presenter and spark a conversation!

POSTER SIX - Curiosity and QR Codes

Made with: PowerPoint Shared by: Natália Teruel (from the Najmanovich Research Group )

• The presenter used small lines to link each bordered section. This guides the viewer well from one section to the next.
• The quality of the figures is high and gives a good first impression.
• The use of QR codes with a small label is a handy way to get people to dive deeper.
• A larger font-size or unique section header style would help make the structure clearer.
• The font color is far too light. It’s hard to read.

Conclusion: Making a great scientific poster

You’ve read the advice. You’ve reviewed the examples. You’ve heard what NOT to do.

What’s next?

As daunting as the task may seem, creating a scientific poster can be a lot of fun. It’s extremely rewarding to set up on the day of the poster session and see your work summarized and displayed in one big, visually appealing package.

So, plan your content carefully, choose a template that works for you, experiment with design elements, and present your research in a clear and visually appealing way. And, as always, don’t be afraid to get creative as you work toward your finished poster!

Acknowledgements

I'd like to thanks all those who contributed some tips and poster examples: Maxime Descoteaux, Natália Teruel, Rafael Najmanovich, Mouhanad Babi, Vincent Nault and Simon Fournier.

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What is a Research Poster?

A research poster is like a short story (or haiku) of your abstract. It should summarize information or research concisely and attractively to help publicize it and generate discussion. Typically a poster is a mixture of a brief text mixed with tables, graphs, pictures, and other presentation formats. At the ASMS annual conference, each poster is assigned a day (Mon, Tues, Wed, or Thurs) and during the poster session (10:30 am - 2:30 pm) the presenting author stands by their poster and 'presents'. ASMS has devised shifts for poster presenters within the full poster session which are described on the  Presenter Guidelines  page.

Key Points for a Well-Designed Poster

• Important information should be readable from 8-10 feet away
• Title is short and draws interest
• Text is clear and to the point
• Use of bullets, numbering, and headlines to make reading easy
• Effective use of graphics, color, and fonts
• Consistent and clean layout
• Includes acknowledgments, your name and institutional affiliation

Image credit: Poster Session Tips by [email protected],  via Penn State

Sample of a poorly-designed poster

Resources & Inspiration for Your ASMS Poster

These resources may give you a fresh perspective on designing you poster.

How to design an award winning poster by Dr. Tullio Rossi founder of Animate Your Science

How to create a better research poster in less time a viral YouTube video by Mike Morrison. 

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The WOCN Society & the WOCNCB are separate entities. If you have certification questions, email [email protected]. If you have membership questions, email [email protected]

Catch up on our noteworthy happenings and other timely WOC industry-related information. If you have a story you would like to share, please email us at [email protected] .

Want to be the first to hear announcements and important news?

Submit your abstract for wocnext ®.

Posted By Jenna Bertini , September 3, 2024

WOCNext® 2025 will be held from June 1-3, 2025, in Orlando, Florida. If you’re ready to share your insights and research in wound, ostomy, continence, and foot/nail care, submit an abstract now !

Abstract Submission Deadline: November 4, 2024, at 11 AM EST.

How to Prepare

Review submission guidelines.

• Visit the WOCNext 2025 website for essential info on deadlines, formatting, review process, scoring, and more.

Choose Your Abstract Category

• Research Study : Present original research focusing on wound, ostomy, continence, foot care, or professional practice
• Case Series : Present THREE cases that present a clinical challenge managed with a unique solution that pertains to wound, ostomy, continence, or foot care
• Practice Innovation : present innovative practice changes that demonstrate a new way to approach a problem that pertains to wound, ostomy, continence, foot care, or professional practice. Quality Improvement projects will be presented in this category

Leverage Resources

• Bite-Size Learning CE Course : Step-by-step guide to submitting an abstract
• PowerPoint Instructions : Slides of the process, instructions, and FAQs
• WOCTalk Podcast : Strategies for successful abstracts and poster design
• 2024 Accepted Abstracts : Examples of successful submissions to guide you
• Mentoring Program : Connect with experienced authors by emailing [email protected]

Presentation Formats

Poster hall.

• ePoster : All abstracts will be presented in a digital ePoster format. Authors may also opt to present as a Paper Poster
• Paper Poster : Traditional posters are displayed on large boards with a dedicated viewing time
• Oral Presentations : Selected abstracts will be presented by the primary author, with details provided in advance

Publication

• Peer-reviewed journal : Accepted abstracts will be published in the international, peer-reviewed Journal of Wound, Ostomy, and Continence Nursing ( JWOCN ®), the official journal of the WOCN Society

Prepare your submission and be part of the knowledge exchange at WOCNext 2025! Start your submission at wocnext.org/abstracts .

Join us virtually for WOCN ® Ostomy Education Day on Saturday, October 5, 2024 , from 10:00 AM – 5:30 PM EDT. This FREE online experience aims to celebrate ostomy awareness, dispel myths, and increase ostomy education to improve patient outcomes.

Experience a full day of engagement with 10 sessions led by expert wound, ostomy, and continence (WOC) subject matter experts, offering 6.5 Contact Hours and 0.25 hours of Pharmacology Credits .