Link roundup for January 2026

A unique account of a non-traditional conference poster (pictured) with non-traditional goals.

 (T)he question of the purpose of the academic conference, and the AcademicConferenceMachine. 

Linares-Roake JB, Zawadzki JA, Zawadzki SJ. 2026. Plugging it in: This is really interesting, but what are you going to do with it. puntOorg International Journal 11(2): 219-236. https://doi.org/10.19245/25.05.pij.11.02.10
 

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Conference organizers went out of their way to make their poster session better, and got the poster above (among others). Learn what they did:

Ecoff L, Reina Failla K, Loose D, Cassingham B. 2026. Improving the quality of dissemination efforts at a regional nursing leadership conference. Nursing Administration Quarterly 50(1): 20-24. https://journals.lww.com/naqjournal/fulltext/2026/01000/improving_the_quality_of_dissemination_efforts_at.6.aspx

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Nicola Rennie does a makeover of a simple line plot and ends up with what she calls a “spaghetti plot”: a small multiple of a line plot, each highlighting a different line. Here’s the before and after:

My question is whether the greyed-out “background” lines in the small multiple are at all helpful. Because they are all next to each other, you can compare the shapes of the four lines easily. Why not just make four line graphs? 

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Lewis and colleagues introduce a special issue of articles that debuted in poster sessions be encouraging people to take more opportunities from poster sessions:

1. Preview the Poster Sessions. 
2. Don’t Be Shy! ... It can feel awkward or intimidating to walk up to the presenter, but that only lasts for a few seconds.
3. Like and Follow! ... (M)any posters include a QR code with contact information and resources for the attendees. These additional resources provide additional information about the topic and are a great way to learn more(.)
4. Look for Themes! 

Lewis KD, Stephenson KG, Brown KL. The Editorial Word: Learning. Journal of Advanced Academics: In press. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1932202X251400554

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Huda and colleagues show that first authors who give a poster at a conference are more likely to attend that conference again than authors who give an oral presentation.

Huda T, Miller B, Miller C, Velasquez K, Garcia C, Razeq Z, Ajmal H, Fegahli T, Khan S, Gutierrez A. 2025. Trends in first-author retention in ASH accepted works from 2019–2024. Blood 146: 8217. https://doi.org/10.1182/blood-2025-8217

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A very short article with advice for poster presentations. Much of the advice is more, “Think about this,” rather than, “Here specifically is how you make this better.”

Mermelstein AD. 2025. Guidelines and suggestions for effective poster presentations. MinneTESOL Journal 41(2): https://minnetesoljournal.org/guidelines-and-suggestions-for-effective-poster-presentations/