Link roundup for August 2024

It’s been a minute on the blog! I haven’t finished with this project, just been busy!

Shira Joudan writes about the transition from attending conferences as a trainee to attending as a supervisor:

I tried to remember what I didn’t know before attending my first conference and tried to be clear about how things work. Even though I am not that old, I sometimes forget what it is like to do some of these things for the first time, so I am sure I didn’t cover it all. I edited abstract drafts, explained what sessions at conferences are (and which were appropriate fits!), and then, eventually, we held practice presentations. I instructed poster presenters to expect interruptions and to try to prepare a quick explainer of their poster — and reassured them that preliminary results are completely acceptable at this meeting.

 What are your best suggestions for a new supervisor taking students to a conference for the first time?

• • • • •

Wolfe and Reineke provide user testing research on poster design. And it provides evidence to something I have been saying for years: Abstracts on posters are not necessary!

(T)he traditional, abstract format was rated as less usable than the other two formats and was the least preferred format. The sentence heading (without abstract) and #BetterPoster format were  rated equivalently in terms of usability and preference.

You may need a library subscription to read this one.

• • • • •

Here is a gallery of posters from the International Statistical Literacy Project. Lots of interesting posters to browse. I am, for instance, curious if this poster from Mongolia is truly meant to be printed and mounted on a board: 

I haven’t seen many posters that tall and skinny. Hat tip to Yaning Wu!

• • • • •

Miguel Balbin talks about choosing the font size for your poster:

Body Text: 30-36 pt – Legible from about a metre away.

This is better than many, suggesting a size that is about 50% bigger than many others recommend. But I always recommend that if you can go bigger, go bigger.

• • • • •

Ching-Ye Tien finds students in Taiwan are very positive about digital poster formats. A “digital poster” is described as being on a large screen or projected, not just something presented in a Zoom call. The students list these pros of digital posters:

• Seen as environmentally friendly due to less paper use.
• Easy access to information. (Not sure how this is judged).
• Cheap and fast.
• Easy to create and modify the content.