It’s been a while since I’ve had the brainpower to pull one of these together. But now?
Since its debut, the billboard format has been admired and disliked. A new paper compared it to more standard layouts, and found it generally came out ahead. But the variation is wide! The authors write:
Both poster formats could reach high scores for all items, which indicated that mindful poster layout is essential for clear and engaging scientific dissemination.
The discussion is nuanced and helpful about what features make a poster stand out. Not too much text and well organized are a couple of points.
Bentsen L, Østergaard DE. 2025. What makes a good poster? Evaluating #BetterPoster and classic formats at a scientific cancer conference. Journal of Cancer Education: in press. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-025-02622-1
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Better poster session planning
A journal article for conference organizers on improving poster sessions.
Ameen S, Chandran S, Tikka SK, Menon V, Praharaj SK, Sarkhel S. 2025. Streamlining poster sessions: Tips for organisers. Indian Journal of Psychiatry 67(5): 453-458. https://doi.org/10.4103/indianjpsychiatry.indianjpsychiatry_383_25
This draws a little too much from conferences in psychiatry, but many good suggestions here.
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The carbon footprint of conferences is significant. This abstract is one of the first that I have seen that tries to estimate the costs of poster sessions.
The energy required to display posters on a TV screen was estimated to be 263 kWh in 2021 and 292 kWh in 2022, indicating a 93% reduction in energy consumption.
What the authors don’t appear to include in their estimates is the initial cost of conference venues buying equipment to show the posters.
Livingston AJ, Barquin DL, Margolin EJ, Wilcox Vanden Berg RN, Foreman JR, Peterson AC, Scales CD, Antonelli J, Lipkin ME, Faerber GJ, Preminger GM, Medairos RA. 2024. MP17-19 Beyond the science: The hidden costs of printed poster presentations at urology conferences. Journal of Urology 211(5S): e299. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.JU.0001008628.15460.84.19
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Duncan and colleagues also have an article for conference organizers who want alternatives to the typical poster session. They tried a form of facilitated poster session. Attendees were asked during registration of they wanted to present in this facilitated format, and were grouped by some common element, often methods.
The format consisted of three parts:
- Three minute presentations from about five poster presenters.
- Fifteen minute panel discussion of the whole group.
- A facilitated discussion for about 45 minutes, where audience members selected which poster presenter they wanted to have a deeper discussion with.
This first trial with this format worked well. People found this format valuable. Still, the authors list multiple ways that they could improve it.
(C)hallenges included difficulty and confusion in session facilitation, insufficient facilitator guidance, and dissatisfaction with timing.
It isn’t clear to me what role the posters are playing in this whole event. Because the discussion sessions begins with lightning talks that are displayed as one to three slides, the posters feel superfluous.
Duncan S, Cawood A, Tuttle J, Putnam R. 2024. Organizing facilitated poster discussion sessions: Their inspiration, planning, and implementation at the C*Sci2023 Conference. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice 9(1): 16. https://doi.org/10.5334/cstp.716
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And while we’re talking, conference organizers, could you please make seating available in poster sessions?
(P)oster sessions also often require presenters to stand on the spot for long periods of time, typically up to several hours. Furthermore, attendees interested in browsing posters often find themselves in small, cramped spaces without a place to sit. Many invisible disabilities, such as fibromyalgia, endometriosis and Ehlers–Danlos syndrome, make it incredibly challenging for individuals to stand for a prolonged period of time.
And those seats should be tall! Bar chairs! So a seated presenter is near eye level with someone standing to view a posters!
McClurg UL. 2024. A short guide to addressing accessibility at scientific conferences. Journal of Cell Science 137(10): https://doi.org/10.1242/jcs.261858
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And one more dart at conference organizers who do this:
Also fun when the conference provides the incorrect poster board dimensions and then no one’s poster fits
That observation from Rheum Cat on Bluesky.
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Francis provides a suggestion for how to get people to look at posters longer: recruit people to answer specific questions about a poster. This particular example had many people who agree to answer a survey about the poster, and only a “handful” declined.
While this is a good strategy in theory, I suspect recruiting people to answer survey questions about it may be hard in practice.
Francis C. 2025. Participatory poster in NACTA increases viewer involvement. NACTA Journal 69(TT): https://doi.org/10.56103/nactaj.v69iTT.281
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Visiobo appears to be a technique to try to provide a “guided tour”
of a poster when no presenter is present. I’m having a hard time imaging
how it works at a glance. I suspect watching a video would help.
Huang
K, Jiang J, Lu H, Zhou H, An P. 2025. Visiobo: Assisting poster reading
for multiple viewers with a projector-enhanced physical agent. Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. https://doi.org/10.1145/3706599.3720146
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Teaching with posters
When asked to make a conference poster for a class, the most enjoyable thing was working with a partner. The least enjoyable thing was the actual presentation, for a variety of reasons.
Matthew F. 2025. Integrating conference poster presentations into a data science class. Paper presented at 2025 ASEE -GSW Annual Conference, Arlington, TX, Texas. https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--55061
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More teaching with posters:
Friedlander H, Schaefer J. 2024. Utilizing a poster project as an assessment in an introductory abstract algebra course. PRIMUS 34(4): 392-412. https://doi.org/10.1080/10511970.2024.2312926
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The value of conference posters in teaching is highlighted in this article:
Sims
D, Swales C, Aitken D. 2025. Student poster conferences as a formative,
authentic, inclusive and sustainable assessment practice. The Clinical Teacher 22(2): e70050. https://doi.org/10.1111/tct.70050
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Other advantages of using posters for teaching? I’ve added some emphasis to this summary.
As a result of presenting their results through a poster, students reported a deeper understanding of their research topic, an increased ability to articulate scientific concepts, and a better understanding of how to create a visually appealing poster. ... Moreover, they saw the poster as an outlet for their creativity.
Wierzchowski
A, Wink D. 2024. Students’ experiences with the science and engineering
practices in a workshop-based undergraduate research experience. Journal of Chemical Education 101(6): 2266-2278. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00035
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For me, this answer to the question posed in this article’s title is obvious:
Endsley P, Martinkus H, Chrisman M, Marchello N, Skarbek A. 2025. Why should you attend conference poster sessions? Discover Education 4(1): 64. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44217-025-00462-1
But the attendees surveyed in this research suggested their motivations included
- Awareness, being able to understand existing policies
- Motivation, becoming energized and enthused
- Implementation, putting ideas into practice
- Collaboration, finding ways to cooperate
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Online poster sessions
Whoever can find a way to make an engaging online poster session should have, like someone building a better mousetrap, the world beating a path to their door. This paper suggests some pathways forward:
Before the conference, participants expressed skepticism about networking opportunities for virtual attendees, which was confirmed in postconference survey comments. Virtual participants reported low engagement with virtual posters and recordings, and some struggled to find time to view virtual posters individually, which informed participants’ moderate satisfaction with virtual poster presentations
Wenger A, Bakkeren E, Granato E, Tecon R, Mitri S, Möbius W. 2025. MEEhubs2024: A hub-based conference on microbial ecology and evolution fostering sustainability. FEMS Microbiology Letters 372: in press. https://doi.org/10.1093/femsle/fnaf022
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But maybe the engaging online poster session has already been created, and it’s... LinkedIn? The Royal Society of Chemistry’s annual virtual poster session, #RSCPoster, moved to LinkedIn in 2024 after years of being held on the “social media site that was named for a bird but that is now named for a adult movie rating,” and they reported their highest engagement ever.
Cotterell N, de Jongh PAJM, Noël T, Junkers T, Reddy CM, Anastasaki A, Randviir E. 2025. Celebrating 10 years of #RSCPoster. Chemical Science 16(7): 2950-2957. http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/D5SC90028J
Also, this article has some great cartoons from Errant Science!
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Preparing conference posters
Thurman and colleagues have a two part series on prepping for research posters.
Collaboration in Creation: A Guide for Preparing and Presenting Research Posters – Part 1, For Students
This first part emphasizes that presenting a poster can be a challenge for students, because it represents a significant change in their relationship with their instructor, and with the material. Students may feel imposter syndrome from entering a professional environment for the first time.
Collaboration in Creation: A Guide for Preparing and Presenting Research Posters – Part 2, For Mentors
This second part emphasizes time management in working with students. Their strategy is to lock down the text before doing any layout on the poster.
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I have a like/hate relationship with templates. I understand why people want them, but existing templates are so often... mid. Now I have research that says why.
(W)hile templates help users converge to a final design quickly and partially alleviate the need for tedious decision-making, they may also lead to fixation and frustration when interactions do not support divergent thinking and flexible editing.
One point I appreciated was that just picking a template can be very time consuming. It’s like trying to decide what you want to watch on your streaming service: you probably spend as much time, if not more, looking at the option as watching your shows!
Nouraei F, Siu A, Rossi R, Lipka N. 2024. Thinking outside the box: Non-designer perspectives and recommendations for template-based graphic design tools. CHI EA ‘24: Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Article No. 326: 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613905.3650967
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This substantive 70 page document on poster design was, somewhat to my surprise, a bachelor student’s thesis project. It identifies three big challenges for poster makers:
- Limited education on poster creation
- Time management problems
- Struggles to create visually effective posters and use design tools
Paavonsalo S. 2025. The Poster Puzzle – The challenges in the process of creating scientific posters. https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202501191323
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Poster to publication
More papers showing that conference oral presentations are more likely to be published than poster presentations.
39.4% of oral presentations are published compared to 30.5% of posters in urology.
Pursnani S, Feiertag J, Corey Z, Alzubaidi A, Lehman EB, Raman JD. 2024. Getting it across the finish line: Publication rates of abstracts presented at a major urologic conference. Urology 192: 188-194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.urology.2024.06.058
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In hip and joint medicine, 86.4% of oral presentations are published compared to 63.6% of posters. (Inexplicably, the authors claim in the abstract that 86.4% is “three times” 63.6%?)
Grace ZT, Imam N, Posner KM, Zaifman JM, Klein GR. 2024. Publication rates of poster and podium presentations at the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons annual meetings 2016 to 2019. The Journal of Arthroplasty 39(12): 3102-3106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arth.2024.06.019
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In the field of hand surgery, 67.8% of oral presentations are published compare to 59.2% of posters.
Stoker T, Millar B, Fones L, Ilyas Asif. 2024. Sixty-two percent of abstracts from the American Association of Hand Surgery Annual Meeting 2017-2020 are later published. Tower Health Research Day. 49.
https://scholarcommons.towerhealth.org/th_researchday/2023-2024/online_posters/49
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In radiology, 42.86% of oral presentations are published compared to 31.31% of posters.
Joarder I, Ahmadi S, Khosa F. 2024. Gender and racial diversity in relation to publication rates at the Canadian Association of Radiology annual scientific meetings 2016 to 2019. Canadian Association of Radiologists Journal 75(2): 313-322. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/08465371231210473
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And an unspecified advantage in this conference abstract: “Abstracts that were published were more often presented orally(.)”
Schneider M, Dukaczewska A, van Beek DJ, Van den Heede K, Sharma G, Almquist M. 2024. 26 Talking the talk and posting the papers: Unveiling publishing patterns in ESES congress abstracts. British Journal of Surgery 111(Supplement_4): https://doi.org/10.1093/bjs/znae104.023
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Quick guides
I don’t think I’ve shared this blog post from our friends at Mind the Graph about creating an award-winning poster before. In brief:
- Make a plan.
- Make an outline.
- Write the text.
- Create the diagrams.
- Print a small test version.
- Crush the presentation.
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From our friends at Animate Your Science comes An introvert’s guide to surviving a conference scientific poster session. In brief:
- Posters are awesome!
- Face your poster.
- Point at your poster.
- No alcohol.
- Follow the golden rule.
This summary doesn’t do justice to some of the nuances in the full article. Points 2 and 3 in particular make more sense in the article than in my summary list.
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Katie Eyer also has a Bluesky thread on attending a conference as an introvert. Excerpt:
(I) lean into substance and find opportunities for one-on-one connection. I’ll take one-on-one connection first: I like people, I just don’t like groups. At some point it occurred to me that it is entirely possible to just set up one-on-one opportunities to connect.
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Also from Animate Your Science, their guide to creating a colour scheme for your poster.
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Leonardo Jo has a tip for GGplot users:
You can save a ggplot as a vectorized .svg file ggsave(“file.svg0).
It will be completely
vectorized, even text are still recognized as text boxes. The
svg file can be opened in PowerPoint, Illustrator, or Inkscape.
Ant Stanley thinks Bluesky could replace Twitter for conferences:
I think BlueSky will be significantly better for conferences than any other site. Organisers can create speaker starter packs to allow attendees to auto-follow all speakers. Also a custom feed of all folks skeeting abut a conference would be a big win.
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The British Geriatric Society has an archive of over 1,100 posters that have been presented at British Geriatric Society events. Look, I’m just saying that if someone wanted to create a corpus to study poster design and trends, this might be a pretty good candidate.
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And now to my social media feed and super quick links:
David “Why Sharks Matter” Shiffman asked for his Blueksy followers to give poster advice to his students. Bluesky responded (including me, because I’m on Bluesky). There are some good quips and bon mots in the replies.
He has another thread about conference advice more generally, also with good suggestions.
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First aid for figures by Helena Jambor. Helena also has great cheat sheets for image preparation.
There’s more in the linked blog post.
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I received this suggestion for an ad-free placeholder text generator. Hat tip to Rebecca Martínez.
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From the weekly science glamour mag from the east side of the Atlantic (Nature – I’m talking about Nature), Scientific figures that pop: resources for the artistically challenged.
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The American Society for Cell Biology has a nice post about Art in science: A gateway to public engagement. Excerpt:
The traditional communication of science—through academic papers, presentations, and technical language—can create a divide between researchers and the general public. Art, however, invites people into the conversation by focusing on visual and emotional experiences rather than jargon.
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Paige Jarreau says, “Don’t AI my science art.” Excerpt:
We’ve only recently started acknowledging professional artists, storytellers, and other creatives as critical collaborators in the science communication enterprise… and boom, AI art generators threaten to cut them out of the process. Why?
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Graphic design nerdery
The Bearwood Parish Council has taken a beloved (?) bit of local signage that read “CHEAP PAINT INSIDE” and immortalized it into a free font called, naturally, Cheap Paint Inside.
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Possibly the least relevant link in this list but one of the most impressive. Nicholas Rougeux documents how he recreated astronomical illustrations from 1742. And it’s a book with lavish illustrations including seven fold out sections that are meant to create a single poster. Here’s a detail of one part of one fold out.
The graphics nerd part of me is in awe. Both of the original copper engraving and the reproduction. I want to keep showing examples of the level of detail in this work, but this post is long enough already, so I encourage you to visit the original post, Making of Clavis Cælestis: A Synopsis of the Universe.
Oh, what the heck, here is the completed seven fold outs that made one poster:
The entire recreation of Clavis Cælestis is online, and colour prints are available of the poster.
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And finally, we always love a good reuse of a poster. At the one letter social media site (*cough*Nazibar*cough*), Armin Dorri shared how his supervisor turned one of his posters into a necktie.
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