Given the great competitiveness of the academic world, not everyone has the opportunity to publish as many scientific articles as they would like. For this reason, congresses are one of the best alternatives to divulgate the results of those projects which, although preliminary, may be of sufficient magnitude to be interesting or promising. In a congress you can participate in different ways, but the most normal way is by showing your presentation via poster.
Posters exhibited in congresses also count as scientific publications, although they do not have the same categories as scientific articles, so it is an excellent platform from which to promote the dissemination of your research. However, given the peculiar characteristics of this specific way of explaining information, you must know how to design them very well, so that they are clear, concise and attractive -which is not always easy to combine.
As an alternative to the traditional scientific poster presentation systems, there is a new system called electronic poster. E-posters are electronic presentations displayed on LED monitors, allowing interactive, more dynamic exchanges of information. They are not static sheets on a screen, but a more engaging and informative resource where you can use hyperlinks, audio, video or enlarged graphics to explain the results of your research project.
No doubt, the most important thing about an ePoster is the content, but you can’t forget the continent either. A good design can help a lot of people read your work and take an interest in it, but the work must also be good. And not only that, but it has to be very well written, very short and, at the same time, very clear and precise. It is essential to pay attention to all these details, because it is what will make the difference between an attractive poster which many people will read and an unobtrusive poster that will go unnoticed by all those attending the congress. And it would be a pity if an excellent work, with very interesting results and conclusions, goes unnoticed because the author didn’t know how to present it in an interesting way.
Tools
There are several options when it comes to create your ePoster. You can either project a previously-designed PowerPoint or PDF file onto a screen, or you can use special software tools such as Poster Session Online to design and upload your ePoster. PosterSessionOnline is an innovative, integrated platform where you can create your scientific electronic posters from start to finish. With 15 years of experience –they have worked with more than 400 congresses since 2003, they are now a world reference.
Content
A medical ePoster is nothing more than a kind of scientific publication. Therefore, it is best to follow the traditional structure of this type of work:
Head
This section includes the title, authors, and often the logo or shield of the entity where the research was conducted. It is one of the fundamental parts of the poster, as a good title can help to arouse the reader’s curiosity.
Introduction
It has to briefly give some context to your investigation. You can talk about the reasons that motivated it and the objectives that it pursues. If you have captured the attention of the attendees with the title, here you have the opportunity to tie them once and for all.
Methodology
Here you have to explain the processes carried out, the protocols followed and the materials used. Everything in a very brief, clear and concise way.
Results and conclusions
You don’t have to include all the results of your research: the highlight ones are enough. Represent them graphically when possible. The conclusion must contain the interpretation of the results, as well as possible hypotheses or ideas for future projects. If the readers have been interested in the title they will often jump directly here to see what the achievements of your work are.
References
It shouldn’t contain more than 10 bibliographical references -only the works explicitly mentioned on the poster.
Design
Grapichs and images should predominate over text in order to reduce the likely resistance to reading. To do this, you have to play with striking shapes and colors. Be careful when choosing colors, because some of them might make reading a little hard – especially when using non-white backgrounds.
Using images, animations or videos related to the theme of the poster can enrich it and make it more attractive when combined with colored boxes with a certain degree of transparency and good typographies. The font has to be large and clear enough to be read at a distance.
Finally, your ePoster must not only contain numerous graphs, tables or images, but it must blanks where you can “rest your eyes”. If your poster is a compact bunch of letters people will run away from it like the plague.
