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What is a research poster?

Research posters are a commonly used form of dissemination of academic work. Many academic conferences will include poster presentations as part of the event, which will provide opportunities for presenters to talk to attendees about their work with their poster as a visual aid. 

A good academic research poster will be:

• Clear and concise: the rule of thumb is to keep the word count to a minimum to avoid requiring viewers to do too much reading.
• Structured: providing an obvious way to navigate your poster through the use of clearly signalled subheadings will make it easier to engage with the content.
• Visual: a poster will usually include some visual elements such as graphical representations of data, or accompanying relevant images. An appropriate image can help you to convey a lot of information in a more accessible way.
• Professional: a research poster will usually include some specific information including your name, institution, contact details and the logos of any organisations that may have been involved in the research.

Working with text and layout

The key thing to remember is that regardless of whether it is to be printed, projected, or displayed on a website - text is intended to be read!

Your choice of font, text size, line length and layout should always help to guide your reader through the text and make it as easy as possible to find and understand the information.

Your design should always be guided by your content, so first ask yourself what are the main messages that you would like to get across. 

You don't need to become an accomplished graphic designer to improve the presentation of your text. There are some simple principles that you can follow to ensure that you make life as easy as possible for your reader:

• Use headings and subheadings for your sections
• Use bullet points where possible to convey more complex information
• Use a single font if possible and keep the use of different font sizes to a minimum
• Use text that is readable from at least two metres - that is probably bigger than you think!
• Don't justify your text; although it may look neater, it is often more difficult to read
• White space is your friend, so avoid the temptation to fill every spare inch!

It is important to think hard about how best to convey your information to your audience and to weigh up the relative advantages of text, visuals and other forms of media. Our interactive research poster will give you some ideas of how to go about planning and designing your poster.

Use of images and other visual material

It is often claimed that 'a picture paints a thousand words', but only if you use the right image in the right place. Images – photographs, illustrations, charts, figures, diagrams, screenshots, animations and much more – can add detail and depth to an argument.

Images can convey complex information in a relatively accessible way, so long as they are clear and well integrated into your overall design, and offer audiences a different way of engaging with your ideas.

Visualisation of data makes it more accessible and memorable and infographics can be used to illustrate statistics and make your messages easier to understand and retain.

Just like the words that you choose, it is essential to think carefully about any images that you use in your work. Pay particular attention to the following questions:

• What does this image add to my argument or discussion?
• Is it presented in such a way that it does what I need it to do?
• Will it be clear enough for the audience to be able to see it, and get from it what I want?
• Do I need to include extra information to ensure my audience can make sense of what they are looking at?
• Does it have a caption and is it explained in the text of my poster?

For further information on using images and visual material in your work, explore these online resources:

Or book a place at these workshops/webinars to develop skills in creating and finding visual materials:

Referencing

You will need to reference all the sources used, including images and other visual material.

Different academic disciplines use different styles of referencing, find the style required by your programme:
Subject referencing styles (web page)

When you insert an image or other visual material, which has been created by someone else, into your own work; you need to give acknowledgement to the creator in the form of a caption underneath the image.

Find out how to format an image attribution:

Your research outputs and intellectual property

When in the course of your studies you create intellectual and creative outputs, both assessed and unassessed, there are considerations you need to take into account. 

If you think that you may want to make further use of your outputs such as research posters, computer code, essays, diagrams, 3D models, videos, audio and presentations, you will need to ensure you are able to do this. 

This webpage offers further information on these considerations and provides practical guidance on how you can manage your intellectual property:
Student-created content and intellectual property (web page)

Top Tips

• Know your audience: how familiar will viewers be with jargon and terminology?
• Identify your key message and make sure it is clear from the structure of your poster.
• Have a clear narrative and make sure that your structure guides the viewer through it in a logical way.
• Keep it as concise as possible!
• And finally, make the most of the opportunity to tell your story in a visual way.

Next steps 

• How to plan and deliver presentations
• How to write for a lay audience
• How to find images and figures

Further Resources