Poster Presentation Instructions

Abstracts for poster presentations must be entered using the electronic submission form found under the "Abstract Submission" tab. Closing date for abstracts is March 19, 2010.

You can start putting your poster up on Monday May 10 at 8:00 am. All posters must be up on Monday May 10 by 4:00 pm. Posters can be taken down on Wednesday May 12 after 3:30 pm. You must be available to stand by your poster from 4:00–6:00 pm on Tuesday May 11. Any posters not removed from the tents by 6:00 pm on Wednesday will be removed by the Office of Research and may not be returned to the authors.

If you use the USU Audio-Visual Service, you must provide them with a printable copy of your poster by Monday April 26, 2010. Posters coming in after this date will be taken on a case by case basis depending on workload. If you have any questions or concerns about poster presentation, please contact Linda Culp (301-295-9402) in the USU Audio-Visual Office.

The Office of Research has subsidies to offset the basic cost of USU student posters produced by the University's Audio-Visual Service. See your Program Director for details and a voucher to submit with your poster materials. Vouchers must be preapproved by the Office of Research.


Poster Specifications:

The surface area of the poster board is 4 feet high and 6 feet wide. You should have a headline banner 6 inches high that runs across the top of the board for the full 6-foot width of the poster. On that banner, you should list the title, the authors, and their affiliations in 1 inch high letters or larger.

Posters should be readable by viewers up to five feet away. Remember that people will be looking at your poster throughout the two days, so your results and conclusion should be clear even when you are not present to provide an explanation.

See the USU Logos, Branding and Templates webpage for additional resources.


Poster Essentials:

Goal:

State a single concept, idea, question, or hypothesis that best defines your research.

Poster has:

  1. Title across the top
  2. 3-5 sentence introduction
  3. Conclusions at lower right
  4. Methods and results fill rest of poster

Title:

  1. Banner readable from 15-20 feet away
  2. First name of authors (initials are acceptable)
  3. Middle initials and titles not necessary
  4. Abbreviations where possible
  5. City names and states can be dropped from institutional affiliations

Color:

  1. Muted colors, or shades of gray, are best for background.
  2. Use light background for darker photos, darker background for lighter photos
  3. Use a neutral background (gray) to emphasize color in photos, a white background to reduce impact of colored photos.

Graphics:

  1. Self-explanatory graphics should dominate the poster.
  2. A minimal amount of text material should supplement the graphic materials.
  3. Use regions of empty space between poster elements to differentiate and accentuate these elements.
  4. Graphic material should be visible easily from a minimum distance of 6 feet.
  5. Restrained use of 2-3 colors for emphasis is valuable; overuse is not.

Text:

  1. Double-space all text, using left-justification; text with even left sides and jagged right sides is easiest to read.
  2. Text should be read easily from at least 6 feet.
  3. Section headings — use Helvetica, Boldface, 36 point
  4. Supporting text — (Intro text, figure captions, etc.); use Helvetica, 24 point (boldface, if appropriate)
  5. Narrative details should be brief and no smaller than 18 point.
  6. If more detail is needed, come to session with handouts.

Additional Options:

  1. Use larger size (36 point) for the Conclusion text, and a smaller size (18 point) for Methods text.
  2. Be consistent — one font throughout

Want poster planning hints?