36 Parts of a scientific poster

• Title
• Authors
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Materials and methods
• Results and discussion
• References
• Acknowledgements

Title

The poster title should appear at the very top of the poster. The title should be brief (e.g. less than 15 words), descriptive and summarise the most important results and findings. Words, adjectives and phrases that covey bias or human feelings should be avoided. Scientists strive to let the data speak for itself and allow the reader the chance to make up their own mind about an issue based on the data that is presented.

For example, a poor title for a scientific poster would be something along the lines of: “Evil coal-fired power plants linked to dangerous mercury levels ruthlessly harm thousands of poor and defenseless children”. A much better title would be: “Mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants have been linked to decreased cognitive function in children”. The first title certainly catches your eye, but it presents the research in a biased manner before the reader even has a chance to examine the poster. The latter title tells the reader exactly what the poster is about while still allowing the reader the chance to read the poster and make up their own minds about the issue based on the data presented in the poster.

Authors

Authors are typically listed in order of prominence, with the person who completed most of the research appearing first in the author list and referred to as “first author”. The “second author” would be the person who appears second in the author list and so on. The corresponding author is also often indicated on the poster and may appear as the last name in the author list. The corresponding author is the senior scientist who designed the research, supervised the work and obtained the funding to conduct the research.

The name of the university or institution where the research was conducted is also provided with the authors’ names. For example, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072. The email addresses and phone number of the corresponding author is also provided.

Abstract

The abstract is a paragraph of text that appears at the top-left side of the poster. It is a summary of the entire poster. It should stand alone such that a person can read the abstract and understand all the research described in the poster. An abstract contains four parts that should be written in the following order:

• Introduction
• Materials and methods
• Results
• Discussion.

Each part typically consists of 2-4 sentences and the entire abstract will contain 200-300 words. An abstract consists strictly of text, it contains no figures, no tables, and typically it does not contain citations.

Introduction

The Introduction section of the poster appears immediately after the Abstract. It is used to introduce the reader to the topic and provides all the necessary information needed to understand the topic or issue. It describes the importance of the research, especially in context to previous work that has been conducted in this area. It helps to set the stage for the research described in the poster and provides clear objectives for why the work was conducted. If the work is being conducted in the environment, the introduction often provides information (e.g., biological and physical properties) about the ecosystem, its location on Earth (e.g., map) and other pertinent history about the field site. If the work is being conducted in a laboratory setting, the introduction can provide information about the institution (e.g., name, location, mission, funding agency). The Introduction section frequently contains photographs of the organism and ecosystem that are being studied, a detailed map of the study site, diagrams or equations describing the topic or issue, and tables that help to organise especially complex data for the reader to better understand.

Most posters are divided into four columns with the Introduction section typically taking up 20% of the total area on the poster. You will likely want to use 22-point to 26-point font in the Introduction section so that your audience can comfortably read the text. The total number of words contained in the Introduction will likely be around 200 words and you will also want to include 1-2 figures (or tables) in this part of the poster.

The audience will stand 2-3 feet away from the poster when viewing it. Figures, tables and text should be created so that they are easy to read and understand from this distance. To ensure that the Introduction section is easy to read, you should view the poster on your computer monitor at 100%, stand 1 metre (2-3 feet) away from the monitor and see if you can read the text, figures and tables. Anything that is difficult to read should be adjusted on your computer prior to printing the poster on paper, thus saving time and money. A font size of 22 to 26 points is a comfortable size for most people to read on a poster from a distance of 1 metre (2-3 feet) away.

There may be a tendency to provide as much text and information as possible in your Introduction. You should avoid this temptation because you would need to decrease the font size below 22-point in order to fit more information on your poster. This will only serve to frustrate the reader with text that is too small to read. Remember that poster presentations consist of: (i) the poster itself and (ii) the person who is presenting the research. A presenter does not need to include all information in the poster, because they will be standing beside their poster talking to an audience and verbally communicating the information to the audience. Posters are tools that are used by scientists to explain their research using both visual and verbal communication. Some information will be visually communicated, some information will be verbally communicated to an audience.

Materials and methods

The Materials and Methods section appears in the poster immediately after the Introduction section. It contains all the information needed to understand how data was collected, which instrument or equipment was used to collect data, what method or technique was used to conduct the research, when the work was conducted, who conducted the research, where the research was conducted, what material (e.g., chemical compound, organism, molecule, mineral) was used in the experiments and how or where the material was obtained. This information is important so that the audience can understand how the research was conducted and that another scientist can attempt to reproduce the results. Reproducibility is a key component of the scientific process and a way that scientists can create new knowledge and understanding in their field.

The Materials and Methods section is matter-of-fact and simply states the facts of the research. For example, an author might explain how samples were collected from a field site: “One week after the August 2018 forest fire, 165 soil samples were collected from a depth of 0-5 cm at the White Wolf Campsite in Yosemite National Park. The samples were packed in ice, transported to the laboratory and then stored at -20oC until processing. Samples were separated by size using a Wildco 78-700 Sieve Set (63 micron to 4000 micro, Cole-Parmer) and Meinzer II Sieve Shaker (Fisher Scientific).”

These sentences contain detailed information about where the samples were collected (i.e. Yosemite National Park, White Wolf Campsite) when (i.e. 1 week after the August 2018 fire) and how the samples were collected (i.e., at a depth of 0-5 cm) and handled (i.e., soil samples were stored frozen until they were separated by size using a sieve set and shaker). This is the type of information that should be contained in the Materials & Methods section of a poster.

When describing a particular technique or method you should always provide a citation for the reference(s) that describes the technique or method in detail. This way your reader will be able to find detailed information about how experiments were conducted. You will be limited in the amount of information that can be provided in your Materials and Methods section because you will use 20-point font size or larger larger on your poster. You will also want to leave plenty of space on your poster for figures and tables because these are very important visual tools that you can use to describe your research to the audience.

Results and discussion

The Results and Discussion sections can be written as separate sections but are often combined in a poster into one section called Results and Discussion. This is done in order to (1) save precious space on a poster for the many pieces of information that a scientist would like to tell their audience and (2) by combining the two sections, it becomes easier for the audience to understand the significance of the research. Combining the Results section and Discussion section in a poster is different for what is typically done for a scientific journal article. In most journal articles, the Results section is separated from the Discussion section. Journal articles are different from posters in that a scientist is not standing next to their journal article explaining it to a reader. Therefore, in a journal article, an author needs to provide more detailed information so that the reader can understand the research independently. Separating the Results section and Discussion section allows an author the space necessary to write a lengthier description of the research. Journal articles typically contain more text and more content (e.g. figures, tables) than posters.

The Results and Discussion section should contain data, typically in the form of a graph, histogram, chart, image, color-coded map or table. Very often data means numbers that scientists collect from making measurements. These data are typically presented to an audience in the form of graphs and charts to show a reader how these numbers change over time, space or experimental conditions. Numbers can increase, decrease or stay the same and a graph, or another type of figure, can be effectively used to convey this information to a reader in a visual format.

The Discussion section should state the importance of the research that is presented in the poster. It should provide an interpretation of the results, especially in context to previously published research. It may propose future experiments that need to be conducted as a result of the research presented in the poster. It should clearly illustrate the significance of the research with regards to new knowledge, understanding and/or discoveries that were made as part of the research.

References

The References (or Bibliography) section should list all the sources of information that were used in the poster. This section appears at the end of the poster. The References section (Figs. 2 and 8) typically contains all journal articles (i.e. primary sources) but it can also contain secondary sources (e.g. newspapers, documentaries, government reports). References tell the reader where the original data, information, technique, and/or method can be obtained, who conducted the work and when the paper was published.

In posters, in-text citations are used to tell the reader where information was obtained. An in-text citation should appear after every sentence in the poster that describes the work of others. This includes all sentences that describe discoveries, findings, data, information, experiments, results, techniques, methods, dates, locations, etc.

In-text citations can be done using either superscript numbers or authors last name, followed by year published.

Formatting references

There are many different professional societies around the world and each society has its own preferred formatting style that they use in publications for their journals and conferences. Therefore, citation styles will vary depending on where a poster is presented.

Citing primary sources

Peer-reviewed journal articles are considered primary sources. Patents and published technical reports from government agencies and universities are also considered primary sources of information.

Citing secondary sources

Secondary sources report on and interpret results that have been presented in primary sources. Secondary sources include books, documentaries, magazines, newspapers, podcasts, webpages from government agencies and universities.

Visit the Vancouver referencing guide for examples on how to reference different sources with superscript numbers.

Acknowledgements

One of the hallmarks of good science is to be open about the research and provide as much information as possible. This is also true when acknowledging the funding source for the research and names of scientists who contributed to the research. The Acknowledgements section typically appears last in a poster and is where an author will list the people who contributed to the research, but did not provide substantial contribution to the work that they should appear as a co-author on the poster. The Acknowledgments is also the section of the poster where the authors list the financial support for their research. These can include grants, contracts, fellowships or scholarships. The name of funding agencies who provided support for the research should be listed in this section. For example, an author may write: “Financial support was provided by the Australian Research Council, grant number RN123765”.