Guidelines on Poster Preparation and
Presentation
(View PDF of these guidelines)
Every
year some details change in the meeting's organization and requirements, so it
is important to be updated. Even if you are an "old hand", please be
sure to read this guide.
At
the Florida Chapter meetings in
Poster
setup is from 5:00-7:00 pm on Tuesday, but posters can be set up throughout the
Tuesday afternoon session. The official poster viewing period will begin
Tuesday evening at 7:00 pm. You should
plan to be near your poster to answer questions as long as attendees are
present. All (Student and Professional)
posters will be judged and awards will be presented Thursday afternoon. We will provide snacks and drinks in the
vicinity of the posters to ensure the best possible audience.
The
posters should remain mounted for viewing throughout the morning session on
Thursday, and should be taken down between 12:00 and 1:10 on Thursday
afternoon. If you cannot attend for the entire meeting, please arrange to have
someone remove your poster after the meeting, rather than taking it down
prematurely.
Helpful Hints:
What
sections to include and what to put in them (summarized from Purrington, C.B.
2009. Advice on designing scientific posters. http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/posteradvice.htm)
Giving
a poster presentation is an important event for you and a critical means of providing
information to the scientific community. An audience of your peers will view
your poster because they are interested in your work and what you have to
present. A well-organized and well-presented poster reflects positively on you,
your work, and your organization. The quality of your presentation is very
important for getting your points across to a large audience and can only be
assured by adequate preparation.
Posters
are as important as oral presentations as a means of communicating scientific
information. Posters will be similarly
represented by abstracts on our web site and in the program. Please give due consideration to making your
posters informative and attractive. Furthermore, you should spend some time
considering the types of questions that are likely to be asked during the
principal viewing period.
Title:
Should
convey the "issue," the approach, and the system (organism); needs to
be catchy in order to "reel in" intoxicated passersby. [Maximum
length: 1-2 lines.]
Abstract:
Do not
include an abstract on a poster!
If
you are presenting your poster at a meeting, you will probably be asked to
submit an abstract; this abstract is included in the program.
Introduction:
Get
your viewer interested in the issue or question while using the absolute
minimum of background information; quickly place your issue in the context of
published, primary literature; provide description and justification of general
experimental approach, and hint at why your study organism is ideal for such
research; give a clear hypothesis. [Maximum length: approximately 200 words.]
Materials and methods:
Briefly
describe experimental equipment and methods, but not with the detail used in a
manuscript; use figures and tables to illustrate experimental design; include
photograph or labeled drawing of organism; mention statistical analyses that
were used and how they allowed you to address hypothesis. [Maximum length:
approximately 200 words.]
Results:
First,
mention whether experiment worked; in same paragraph, briefly describe
qualitative and descriptive results, refer to supporting figures; provide
extremely engaging figure legends that could stand on their own (i.e., could
convey some point to reader if viewer skipped all other sections, which they
usually do); place tables with legends, but opt for figures whenever possible.
This is always the largest section. [Maximum length: approximately 200 words,
not counting figure legends.]
Conclusions:
Remind
(without sounding like you are reminding) the reader of hypothesis and result,
and quickly state whether your hypothesis was supported; discuss why your
results are conclusive and interesting (attempt to convince reader of these
points); relevance of your findings to other published work; relevance to real
organisms in the real world; future directions. [Maximum length: approximately
200 words.]
Literature cited:
Abbreviated
citations are recommended (e.g Smith, J. 2000. J. Fish Bio. 200: 101-103). [Maximum
length: approximately 10 citations.]
Acknowledgments:
Thank
individuals for specific contributions to project; mention who has provided funding.
[Maximum length: approximately 40 words.]
Other information:
Include
your e-mail address, your web site address, and perhaps a URL where they can
download a PDF version of the poster. [Maximum length: approximately 20 words.]
Further references:
S.
Block. 1996. Do’s and Don’ts of Poster Presentation. Biophysical Journal 71:3527-3529. (view pdf)
J. Smith, J.
Myers, and
http://www.indiana.edu/~halllab/GradRes/Smithetal_2007_BESA.pdf
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