Creating an Academic Poster
This lesson plan was a part of the "EDUC 198 Directed Research in Education course" which I started teaching in Fall 2021. Course participants are Research Assistants (RAs) for the UCI Working Memory and Plasticity Lab (WMP Lab). This course is an introductory and supplementary class for undergraduate/new RAs who are doing research for course credit. In addition to their lab responsibilities, RAs are required to complete the assigned readings and a final project.
In preparation and participation in the 2023 WMP Lab Symposium, you are required to submit AND present a poster about:
an academic poster/proposal poster where you present your research and finding/hypothesis
a project poster where you discuss a project you've been really involved in (i.e. former RA Leah presented how she helped graduate student Yi in designing graphics for a study survey)
Introduction: What is an academic poster?
According to a 2011 article published by Rowe and Ilic:
Posters display a ‘snap-shot’ overview of a topic. This may be viewed as a combination of creativity and scholarly activity, with the aim to disseminate information. In common with advertising, the provision of key-point information or messaging to passers-by is paramount. Additionally, the issue of ‘selling’ the presenter's work is undeniably a prime objective of poster presentation. To this end, the visual impact of the end-product plays an important role in capturing the attention of the viewer. In the professional setting, the objective of a poster is to stimulate interest and participation, with an aim to developing understanding and practice within a given area. Whereas academic papers have the capacity to provide a greater depth of information to support an issue, posters are often supported orally by the presenter, in response to an expressed interest or enquiry. Although this may include an initial opportunity to outline work in a brief formal presentation, more often than not, it relies on the ‘passing trade’ that is encountered during scheduled poster viewing sessions. These allow further discussion and an informal provision of supporting or clarifying information.
Rowe, N., & Ilic, D. (2011). Poster presentation - a visual medium for academic and scientific meetings. Paediatric respiratory reviews, 12(3), 208–213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prrv.2011.01.011 (Links to an external site.)
In other words, a good poster should achieve the following goals:
Give the audience a concise but clear overview of your study and its findings.
Describe what’s interesting about your study.
Look visually pleasant.
To achieve each of these goals, you will need to:
Have a good understanding of your study.
Be able to write up a concise summary of your study framework, method, findings, and discussions.
Use the given template and instructions to develop your poster.
Selecting a Project & Developing a Timeline
To help RAs with developing and managing their poster timeline, I created a worksheet with the following questions. Answering these questions can help students to reflect and plan for the logistics and time management associated with creating an academic poster.
Please describe the project you’d like to present. Would this be a research poster, research proposal poster, or project poster?
Please list the tentative title of your presentation.
Please list out the date and name of the conferences and symposiums you will be presenting this quarter.
What type of printing services you will use? How much and how long would it take based on the website information?
Looking at the presentation timeline, and considering the time you need for 1) data analysis, 2) poster writing, 3) mock presentation and feedback, and 4) printing timeline. Please include specific deadlines and dates for the specific task you are looking to complete. (I.e. Acceptable - Finish writing the lit review section by XX/XX, email Ariel the draft poster by XX/XX for feedback on the writing content; Unacceptable - Finish the poster by week 4, ask XXX for feedback)
What would you do to ensure that you are meeting all of these internal deadlines accordingly?
If you are presenting with someone else, what is the responsibility delegation and what is the authorship order?
What type of help you will need from other grad students and lab staff? How will you be getting those help and assistance? What would be the timeline for communication and coordination?
What are the on-campus resources you can access if you want to get feedback and insights on your poster? In looking through school writing center calendar, which workshops are you planning on attending to ensure you are prepared for your poster?
Poster Writing
Read these articles to gain a section-by-section overview of what your poster needs to include:
Rowe, N., & Ilic, D. (2011). Poster presentation - a visual medium for academic and scientific meetings. Paediatric respiratory reviews, 12(3), 208–213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prrv.2011.01.011
Gundogan, B., Koshy, K., Kurar, L., & Whitehurst, K. (2016). How to make an academic poster. Annals of Medicine and Surgery, 11, 69–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amsu.2016.09.001
Optional: Miller, J. E. (2007). Preparing and Presenting Effective Research Posters. Health Services Research, 42(1 Pt 1), 311–328. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6773.2006.00588.x
Read these essays to understand the trend and tips when it comes to postering writing.
Flaherty, C. (2019, June 24). #betterposter. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/06/24/theres-movement-better-scientific-posters-are-they-really-better
Price, M. (n.d.). The perfect poster. Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2011/01/poster
If you do not have a particular research study that you are presenting, you can refer to the following examples for other types of research proposals or project-based posters:
History - https://ur.umbc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2016/06/kimSuHyoungSm.pdf
Design/IT - https://ur.umbc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2016/06/schumacherErikaSm.pdf
UX - https://urca.msu.edu/files/resources/29/document/Facebook%20Mobile%20Poster.pdf
Literature - https://urca.msu.edu/files/resources/31/document/ChaucersFloodMotif.pdf
Poster Design & Template
Download one of the poster templates from one of these websites and use it for your poster:
https://guides.library.yale.edu/academic-poster-resources/alternative-templates
https://www.posterpresentations.com/free-poster-templates.html
Morrison, M. (2019). Better Scientific Poster. https://osf.io/ef53g/
Note that you can use a variety of designing platforms (Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Canva etc.), although the most commonly used platform is Microsoft PPT. Depending on your preference, you can also design your poster horizontally or vertically. The lab recommends that you use PPT or Google slides as it’s easier to give feedback via the comment feature on these platforms, however, the choice is ultimately yours!
You can include lab logos on your poster header
As you might have observed from different posters, they often time include different but similar sections. Some of it is due to style preferences, and some of it is due to discipline norms.
Your content should be CONCISE and INFORMATIVE, this means no long and massive paragraphs. Short sentences, bullet points, and even pictures are welcome to convey your point.
Here are some poster examples from our lab for you to use as a reference:
Here are some other general tips and instructions:
The poster should be “stand-alone” - this means that if you are taking a water break and are away from your poster, your audience should still be able to understand your study/project by reading it.
It is okay to use bullet points and phrases rather than complete sentences! Just make sure that your content is understandable. Avoid complex sentences to maximize readability.
Understand that your font, color, picture, format, borders, and other design elements should help you organize your poster and improve its ability to communicate with the audience. Rather than focus on how to make your poster “fancy”, focus on how to make your poster “clear”.
Avoid using colors that are too noisy such as it makes the visuals messy, or too bright/saturated such as it hurts your eye
Align all of your texts and boxes
Make sure your format is unified
Some fonts for you to consider -
Myriad, Franklin Gothic, Gil Sans, Arial, Calibri
Minion, Baskerville, Garamond, Calson, New Times Rome
Letter sizes for you to consider -
72 pt for Titles
48 pt for Headings
36/24 pt for Texts
Though it might vary based on your font
Authorship
You are encouraged to connect with someone from the same project to create your poster together. If you have a co-author, you should discuss your authorship early in the creation of your poster, as this will help you delegate who will be responsible for writing which section. When it comes to publication, there are a lot of additional considerations, such as those discussed in these articles:
Publication practices and responsible authorship. (n.d.). Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://www.apa.org/research/responsible/publication
Authorship Determination Scorecard: https://www.apa.org/science/leadership/students/authorship-determination-scorecard.pdf
Optional: Allen, L., O’Connell, A., & Kiermer, V. (2019). How can we ensure visibility and diversity in research contributions? How the Contributor Role Taxonomy (CRediT) is helping the shift from authorship to contributorship. Learned Publishing, 32, 71–74. https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1210
For the purposes of this poster project, what you need to know is that:
If the work is distributed evenly between you and your co-author, both will be credited as the first author.
If the work is not distributed evenly, the one that did more heavy lifting will be the first author.
Given that you will be receiving guidance and approval from Ariel/Theresa/Alisha, you will list one of us as the author coming after you and your co-author depending on the project.
Given that the study design and data collection are supported and facilitated by other researchers (e.g. Susanne or other graduate students), you will list them as additional authors after me.
APA Format
Please refer to the following resources on how to create in-text citations and add references to your poster.
Basic principles of citation. (n.d.). Https://Apastyle.Apa.Org. Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/basic-principles
References. (n.d.). Https://Apastyle.Apa.Org. Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references
Tables and figures. (n.d.). Https://Apastyle.Apa.Org. Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/tables-figures
Poster Printing
There are many different ways for you to print posters, you may check out these services and resources. Note that if you have received UROP funding for poster printing, it is the easiest to print via ImageWorks here at UCI. If you do not have UROP funding, you can find more affordable printing options on Spoonflower or even DIY it using trifold cardboard.
Preparing for Poster Presentation
Here are some tips on giving poster presentations:
For a complete version of this poster assignment/resource guide, please refer to this document.
