Scholarly Publication and Posters

Where do I present posters?

To identify potential meetings, watch listervs or professional journals for “Call for Participation” notices. Read and review the proposal guidelines and selection criteria carefully.

Your topic should fit with the meeting’s audience and theme. It should be something that you are excited about and that will stimulate interest and discussion.  A review of past poster session topics and the relevant literature will suggest whether or not the topic has been covered to saturation or whether your colleagues and peers are still interested.

What are the guidelines?

The conference/meeting sponsor will issue guidelines, typically available at the meeting website, for the appearance of the poster, what should be included, time frames for setting it up / taking it down and when the presenter must be available, how to submit proposals, etc. 

Most conferences will require the submission of an abstract in order for you to present a poster. Be sure to check the specific abstract guidelines specified by the conference or meeting, as they may vary from one organization to the next. The abstract is a paragraph of text that usually appears at the top-left side of the poster. It should stand alone such that a person can read the abstract and understand all the research described in the poster.

In general, most abstracts have the following characteristics:

• One paragraph of text, typically 200-300 words long.

• A summary of the entire poster.

• Organized into four distinct sections that appear in order:  Introduction, Materials & Methods, Results, Discussion.

• Each section typically consists of 2-4 sentences.

• No tables and no figures.

Here are some resources to help you write effective abstracts: