Bio-Techne’s Tips & Tricks for Presenting a Standout Scientific Poster

By Callie Gustafson, Ph.D.

Presenting your first scientific poster at a symposium or conference can be a daunting task. While every poster reflects the different style and research of the individual presenter, there are certain things that can make the difference between a good and great poster. Bio-Techne wants to offer you the tools not just to push your research to the next level, but also to help you successfully present it to the world.

In this blog you'll learn:

• Tips on how to construct an easy to read, visually appealing poster.
• How to present your poster and answer questions.
• How to leave a positive lasting impression.

Constructing a great scientific poster

Title:

• Summarize the most important results and findings in your title so readers know exactly what they will learn.
• Try to keep it short, scientific, and catchy.

Layout & Formatting:

• The most natural way to organize the flow of your poster is to go from top to bottom, left to right (this is especially important in a crowded area as people move down the line of posters).
• Have a good balance of white space on your poster with the text and images. Posters that are too densely packed with information can be visually overwhelming.
• Your poster must stand on its own when you are not there to present the information. Someone should be able to identify the main points and conclusions from your work.
• Keep formatting consistent throughout the entire poster (use the same type of font for all figure legends, on data, in headings or other text). Additionally, use font sizes that can be read from 4-6 feet away.

Content: Text & Data Images/Graphics:

• Keep text and bullet points to a minimum. Make your main points in the panel titles that have the largest font and with images/data as much as possible. The point of a poster isn't for someone else to just read it. A good poster shows more than it says.
• Provide a short, concise introduction that highlights your topic, the problem or question to be addressed, why it matters, and how you aim to answer it. Keep conclusions clear, concise and in bullet points.
• Instead of writing out a protocol/method, consider using graphics or a workflow instead. Images will help your reader visualize what you are trying to explain and will also ensure that you aren't reading your poster word-for-word.
• Ensure that the poster maintains the same color palette throughout and considers color blind accessibility. Some color combinations for data or figures might be hard to distinguish for people who are color blind. See article here for more advice. 
• Images/data used should be high resolution with accurate and descriptive figure legends. What may seem fine on your computer screen will look vastly different when blown up to poster size.

Proofreading & Printing:

• Have at least one other person proofread your poster to make sure there are no spelling errors.
• Printing posters on fabric makes it easier to travel with and carry to the conference. However, keep in mind that colors may appear slightly duller than standard photo paper.

Example Mockup of Scientific Poster. The example poster has an informative, clear title along with distinct Introduction, Workflow and Methods, Results, and Conclusion sections. Important text is bolded, and the amount of text is sufficient without being overwhelming, eye-catching graphics, data and figure legends are included, and the overall design is easy to follow.

Presenting your scientific poster

Know your audience:

• Depending on where you're presenting, you may need to adjust how you present your research. Are you presenting specifically among other graduate students or academics in your same field? Are you presenting at a conference dedicated to cancer research, immunology, molecular biology? You may know your methods and subject-specific jargon, but not everyone else will. Be prepared to explain things in basic terms for people unfamiliar with your topic, or to explain it in depth with an expert. When in doubt, ask! "What's your familiarity with (insert your research topic)?"

Where to stand:

• Standing at the end of your poster (to the right) will allow you to point to things as you move from left to right without obscuring the reader from viewing the content you just went over.

How long to talk/when to talk:

• Prepare a short 2-3 minute 'highlights' version of your study that concisely gets across the point of what your project is about, why it matters, what you did, and what you've learned.
• Also prepare a longer explanation of your study that goes through your poster panel by panel to explain the data more in depth.
• While some people may want to just read, it never hurts to ask if you can give them your short 3-minute presentation, and then they may ask you to go into finer detail. Be prepared to be flexible and get interrupted with questions.

Answering questions:

• Expect a wide spectrum of questions across multiple disciplines and levels of expertise. There's no such thing as a stupid question, so treat the simplest of inquiries with as much respect as the expert ones.
• It's okay if you don't know the answer to every question! There are several approaches you can take when this happens:
  • When in doubt, you can say "That's a fascinating question that I haven't explored before. Thank you, I'll have to think on that some more."
  • While you may not be able to answer every question, you can also always answer with something related and suggest a hypothesis. "While we haven't measured x, we have looked at y, and I suspect we'd get similar results."
  • You can also reflect the question back to the person asking. "We haven't looked at the project from that angle. How would you propose addressing that question?"

Poster Presentation in Action. Hannah Maple, Senior Innovations Manager at Bio-Techne, presents their scientific poster and answers questions at American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2023.

How to leave a lasting impression

• Bring an envelope with a note telling people to leave their business card or email address if you are away from your poster and they have questions.
• Put a QR code on your poster near your contact info linking to your LinkedIn or ways to contact you.
• If allowed, encourage people to take a picture of your poster so they can refer to it later. You may also consider making a note somewhere on the poster encouraging people to take pictures as well.

Callie Gustafson, Ph.D.

Scientific Content Writer at Bio-Techne