Language and Marketing How to Design a Scientific Poster 1
Example of a student poster conference 2
Objective of poster conference Present your research project in a concise and attractive way and demonstrate what you have learned about your topic and experimental/empirical research in class. To achieve this, answer the following questions with your poster: - What was your research question / topic? - Why is it relevant, i.e., what is the practical or theoretical, methodological, or practical problem and how does your work link in with previous research? What is your contribution to the field? - What have you done to investigate the research question(s)? - What were the results of your study? - What do your results means for your research question/ hypotheses? - What do your results mean if compared to previous reseach? - What are the practical implications, if any? The poster should be self-explanatory and target your peer students as audience. 3
Organization of poster conference All posters are on display throughout the whole conference. Your team briefly presents their poster for 5 minutes standing in front of it (no Powerpoint presentation or similar, just the poster). For another 5 minutes your team answers questions about the poster from the audience. Ideally, you get questions from each of the other teams. After each poster presentation, the other teams in the audience rate the poster just presented on evaluation scales. The peer rating determines who will win the Best Poster Award. In between (blocks of) poster presentations, we have short coffee breaks where at least one team member should stay close to their poster to answer additional questions. Apart from the poster plotted in A0, your provide a copy of your poster scaled down to A4 (miniposter) as a handout for the class. 4
General structure of content on a poster 1. Title - The name of the project, names of the authors and affiliation (institution) 2. Introduction [here you may vary the order] - Research question - Relevance, aims & contribution of the research - Background, very brief reference to/ summary of previous research - Hypotheses (make sure the variables are defined / explained in the previous text or here) 3. Methods - Participants - Design of study (experimental or empirical, conditions), method and materials used - Procedure (What did the particpants do?) 4. Results / findings - Report data and statistics, try to be neurtal and don t interpret the data - Use visualizations (charts, figures) 5. Discussion / implications - Interpretation of results with respect to the research question - Implications / consequences for theory, research, practice 6. Conclusion - Brief summary / implications / outlook 7. References - Bibliography and other references; follow ABC s of Style/ APA Style 8. Footer - (for seminar posters): Name of teacher, semester, title of course 5
Title The title contains the core message of the poster / research. It it is the most prominent element (still readable from a distance of 5 meters ). It helps the audience to quickly orient with regard to the poster s content. The pictures on the poster serve as means of orientation and as eyechaters, too. 6
Text Limit the text to essential information. Leave out details, as long as they are not necessary for the sense of the your work. Use comprehensible and clear phrasing. Use short sentences. Use headlines for separates paragraph to provide additional structure. 7
Layout and legibility Format: portrait is better than landscape because it requires less wall space at the poster conference. Font size: at least 36 pt should be readable from 1-1.5 meters (exception: References can be much smaller). Fonts: Use standard (e.g., Arial, Helvetica, Times, Cambira etc.) rather than a playful fonts. Don t underline anything as it may impair readability, use bold, italics or color instead. There must be a clear contrast between background and text. 8
Background, images, blocks/columns The background should accentuate the information on the poster, but should not distract from the content. Use figures and images to underline and explain research methods and results. Use short footers below figures and images that provide a title and a very brief description (picture story for very busy readers). The arrangement of the text on the poster should support the structure of the content. Blocks or columns help to give the reader a better overview. Take the reading-order into account. 9
Powerpoint und Ausdruck Sie können Ihr Poster in Powerpoint erstellen - Neue Datei, Menü: Entwurf > Seite einrichten > Papierformat einstellen auf Benutzerdefiniert, 84,1 x 118,9 cm (entspricht A0-Format) - Sie können dann die Folie auf Posterformat entsprechend ausgestalten. Zahlreiche Vorlagen finden Sie auch im Internet. Zum Ausdruck, Plotten - Erzeugen Sie aus dem Powerpoint-Poster eine PDF-Datei in A0 - Erzeugen Sie aus dem Powerpoint-Poster ein Miniposter indem Sie es auf A4 skalieren (PPTX: Drucken> Ganzseitige Folien > Auf Seitenformat skalieren) Ausdruck und Druckkosten für A0-Poster - Möglich im Rechenzentrum Uni Mannheim für 5-7 (nur PDF); wie steht hier: http://www.uni-mannheim.de/rum/ueber_uns/arbeitsgruppen/ivs/benutzerverwaltung/plotten/ - Copy Shops: 34-46 - Diverse Online-Services 10
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