Building a scientific poster can be one of the quickest and most practical tasks of showing your results and arousing interest in your work by others. The general appearance of the poster should be able to capture the audience's attention quickly, at least until the central message is delivered. This communication must take place in a period of time that should not exceed 30 seconds.
After a long laboratory work, processing data and, who knows, writing of a project or thesis, it is easy to get the best content for a poster, right?
What is the biggest barrier that you can encounter in the production of a scientific poster? The structuring, right?
Well, first of all, we want to remind you about some essential points that can never be missing on your poster:
1. Poster and letter size - Usually organizations provide instructions for producing the poster. There, you can find the dimensions, format, font size and text composition. It is important to follow these directions strictly.
2. In the poster header, you must put the logo of the event and your institution.
3. Right below you must present the title, which must be short, clear, concise and attractive - The font size must be the largest of the entire poster.
4. Below the title you must put the name of the authors and the institution they belong to.
5. The structure of your poster should involve: Introduction; Goals; Materials and methods; Results; Conclusions; References; Thanks; (In this reading order).
6. The introduction must be short and have a maximum of three paragraphs.
7. The objective must be a simple and objective phrase.
8. Materials and methods can be easily shown in a flowchart and using the illustration to facilitate reading and become attractive.
9. The results must be shown in the format of graphs, tables or photos illustrating the final result or visible differences with the adopted methods. Here, the main results should be highlighted so that the reader can easily conclude them with a simple observation.
10. The conclusions can be written in a single paragraph or by topics - the latter being more inductive and facilitating for the reader.
11. References are mandatory; however, you must choose the main references on which you are based, at most the five main references.
12. Acknowledgments are also important because the investigation is based on sponsorships, donations and projects.
13. Finally, you can also add a QR code with the direct link to your poster in digital format or, for example, to your resume or research gate, this is a way to promote yourself and, who knows, a job opportunity may arise.
What is the ideal font size for a poster?
For an A1 poster - for example, 24 pt for the text, 34 pt for the headings and 70 pt for the title.
The poster letters must be at least 10 mm high (font sizes between 36 and 40) to be read at a distance of 1.5 - 2 meters, for the size of the document formatting.
If you work with a computer, it is easy to check that the text is legible: zoom in 100% and move away from the screen by about 2 meters. Reading should be easy at this distance. Then, just increase the font size of the subtitles and the poster title. Don't forget to use contrasting colours and choose the best combination.
Other important tips:
Put few photos and be critical when choosing them. They must be sharp, bright and large enough to be able to understand what they represent.
Put a short caption, but you need the photo / image. Many people only read this caption because it is shorter and more practical, so this is where important information can be placed.
The schemes are very important, words are saved by converting part of the message into drawings or schemes. They are the perfect visual attraction.
Graphs and tables should be as simple as possible to facilitate reading and interpretation.
If the table has complicated numbers to display, use graphs instead. They are easier and faster to read and the public doesn't have much time.
When you ask for the final print of the poster, do not forget that the surface must be matte or satin to avoid glare from the reflection when the poster is photographed with flash by the audience that wants to study it better.
As for the structure, you can use templates that already exist on the internet or, often, your research group already has its own template. But, if by chance you need to use your imagination, here are some examples that you can find to use or take ideas and make your own template.
In the powerpoint, there are some templates that you can use.If you want to show your creative vein you can use canva.com, a website where you can find countless templates, from resumes, posts, letters, business cards, invitations, to posters (and much more).And if you want to know a little secret… we are CANVA fans.
On this website you can find templates for scientific posters.
We hope you enjoyed these tips and we will continue to work to give you the best tips, not only in academic life, but also in your professional life.
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