CAROLYN R. AHLERS-SCHMIDT, PH.D. Scientific Poster Design
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Posters serve as An advertisement of your hard work Wow! Check
this out! Cool! You must be smart!!!
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Scientific Poster Design A poster can be better than an oral
presentation More efficient because: you totally bomb at giving
talks a large quantity of research to be presented it allows for
more personal interaction it can be viewed while you get a drink it
can hang in the department for years it can reach folks not in your
field of research
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Scientific Poster Design How do I get months or years of
research into my poster? Tell a short story Describe a few major
points Arouse interest Limit to 250 - 350 words
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Scientific Poster Design Repeat after me: Less is best!
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Scientific Poster Design Its basically an illustrated
abstract
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Scientific Poster Design Simplify your paper into poster format
Find out the size requirement!
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Scientific Poster Design Start putting together your 2 main
elements My Amazing Poster Figure 1 here Objective here 1) Simple,
effective data displays 2) Small blocks of supporting text
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Scientific Poster Design 1) Simple, effective data displays
Dont make them stand on their heads to read your graphs! Bad!
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Scientific Poster Design 1) Simple, effective data displays
Better. Best!
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Scientific Poster Design 2) Small blocks of supporting text The
need for chairs in front of your poster will not go over well.
Bad!
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Scientific Poster Design 2) Small blocks of supporting text
This version looks less like a novel but the text could still be
reduced substantially.
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Scientific Poster Design 2) Insert text boxes onto the KUSM-W
template to add text. Under the Insert tab, you will see an option
for Text Box. Use the curser to draw the box in the desired
location. Once I added this text box, I used the Drawing Tools:
Format Tab to make the background white and add a border around the
text. Then I created a 2 nd box and used the paint brush under the
Home tab to match the format of the 1 st box. I adjusted the size
under the Format Tab.
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Scientific Poster Design Remember, most of your audience may be
there for the wine and cheese so make your fonts at LEAST these
sizes: My Amazing Poster By ME!! Same font, same style, left
justified Title: 85 pt Authors : 56 pt Introduction This is an
example poster. It will help you learn about design elements.
Sub-headings: 36 pt Body text: 24 pt Example graph Captions: 18
pt
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Scientific Poster Design Subheadings to include: Introduction
Methods Results Discussion/Conclusions Additional subheadings:
Abstract Objective/Aims Research Question Hypothesis Instruments
Limitations Future Research References Acknowledgements Funding
Source Contact Information
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Scientific Poster Design Poster Text Flow
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Scientific Poster Design Use color to make your poster visually
appealing 2 to 3 colors at most Contrast type to background Be
careful with the primary colors
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Scientific Poster Design Use color to make your poster visually
appealing Blue on Red appears blurry to the human eye Red on Blue
appears blurry to the human eye Yellow on white is hard to
read
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Scientific Poster Design Be aware of busy backgrounds Bad!
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Scientific Poster Design A picture is worth a thousand words
Make sure you have the right resolution 150 dpi but 350 dpi
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Scientific Poster Design Print out a letter size draft Use the
Fit to Page print option If you cant read it, the font is too
small. Are the colors good? Do the main points pop?
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Scientific Poster Design Poster survival kit Push pins/binder
clips/tape Business cards 8 x 11 handouts Conference name tag
White-out Black pen Breath mints Bottled water
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Scientific Poster Design Test your learning The Good The Bad
The Ugly
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Scientific Poster Design This one will soon be available in
paperback from Amazon.com.
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Scientific Poster Design AAHHH!!!
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Scientific Poster Design Not bad.
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Scientific Poster Design Snore
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Scientific Poster Design This will do.
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Scientific Poster Design Unless you are a talented artist,
individual sheets of paper is probably not the way to go.
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Scientific Poster Design Sunglasses, please!
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Scientific Poster Design Much better.
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Scientific Poster Design Thank you, Rainbow Brite, for your
submission.
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Scientific Poster Design Based in part on: Cornell Center for
Materials Research Scientific Poster.pdf
http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/postera dvice.htm
