So, you say you want a revolution scientific poster? Well, you know…we all want to change the world.

Dr. Colin Purrington really has changed the world with this informative and helpful website overview of how to create a scientific poster. He also details the ins and outs of a poster show, focusing on helpful topics like poster show food web ecology and the like. You should read it all. After you’ve read it all go back and read it again (no cheating…go back and read it again). After you’ve read it again, read it once more. There’s no reason to gild the lily, so I’ll leave what he says largely intact, with these additions.

1) Know your audience is the best advice I can give for many things in life – this advice applies to posters as well. Not all scientific posters are created equally because the forum that you will show your poster in will be different depending on the conference/location/outcome you want/etc…that said, as Colin details, there are some basic, common components of a successfully communicated poster.

2) In general, I agree with Colin: most/many people fall into the trap of putting (often WAY) too much text on their posters. Scientists outside your discipline should be able to visit your poster, easily get the major point(s) just by looking at it in a 30 second glance, and also be able to look up details of methods and data if they so choose.

If you need more advice or have specific questions, please come talk to me in person.