Making a Poster for a Psychological Conference

"A good poster is not just tacking a standard research paper on a poster board," says Kathryn Tosney, PhD, "An effective poster helps you engage colleagues in conversation and gets your main points across to as many people as possible".

Structure

Natalie presenting at UNC QEP Expo Presentation on Mental Health Stigma

Heading

Same as on the abstract

Title: let people know what your poster is about in one brief sentence.
- Focus on the findings of your research.
  - For a poster on HGAPS, your findings can be what did we find was the effectiveness of HGAPS.
- Sometimes this may be in the form of a question.

Contributors and affiliation: use superscripts to designate an affiliation for each person (school, organization, hospital, etc.)
- E.g., Caroline Vincent^1,2 ¹University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, ²Helping Give Away Psychological Science
- Logos: Include the university emblem and HGAPS logo or any other university affiliation

Body

Use short, declarative sentences, you can even present information in bullet points.

Intro: A simple, effective message that draws people in with background information about the topic of your poster.
- This usually includes citing sources.
- Typically, there are a few sentences of background on the topic, a sentence or 2 on the gaps in the field, and a sentence of 2 of the aims you will be addressing in your research.
Method: A few sentences about how the study was conducted & participants.
- This includes mentioning materials such as assessments used.
- Basic demographic information of the participants should be included.
- A line or 2 about the statistics ran should be included.
- It is okay to be brief here and not mention every detail of the methods; if someone is interested in knowing more, they will ask you.

Results: Should be presented in clear, short statements that present the findings.
- Use visuals like colorful charts and graphs or tables when possible.
- In presenting the results you should include numerical values of findings.
- The results section is not where you explain what your findings mean- this will come in the discussion.
Discussion: Discuss your findings, interpret results.
- Here you should explain what the findings in the results section mean and in context of your topic.
- It is important to have a line or 2 about the implications of your findings.
- You should have a line or 2 about limitations of your research.
Conclusion: Conclude results of the study and discuss future directions.
- You should include thoughts for future directions in this research.

References

(if any were used)

Using footnotes can be helpful and informative.
- You can also say references are available upon request if space does not permit. If you do this, you should have a handout available with a list of references.

Add ons

Include QR codes and bit.ly links.
- Use qrcode monkey to create QR codes.
  - The QR code can link to supplemental information that didn’t fit in your poster or to the OSF project with your poster.
Create an OSF project or component for the poster and create a QR code that links to that OSF page.
Using QR codes for your resources and supplemental information will help save space on your poster.

Tips

Emphasize graphics. Charts, graphs and pictures will make your poster stand out. "There is power in turning your information into simple, clean graphical representations to communicate data relationships."

Focus on the findings of your research.
Use headings to separate sections.
Keep text clear and concise.
Use bullet points and limit how long your sentences are.
Have clean charts and graphs.
- Simplify labels and have no lines or grids.
Choose colors wisely.
- 2-3 colors that stand out but also go together.
- Do not pick colors so bright that they are difficult to read.
Leave white space.
Aim for symmetry.
Design for your readers' eyes.
- Make text clear, easy to read, and easily digestible.
Include your full contact information on a business card or small print out.
- You can also include your email address at the bottom of the poster.

Examples

HGAPs posters at FDF 2017.
- Note these posters were created before HGAPS began using QR codes.
ABCT Special Interest Group (SIG) poster example.
Psych 525 student poster examples.
- Note these posters show what a QR code on a poster should look like.

Resource

Some poster-making help can be found here (from NCSU professor)

Helping Give Away Psychological Science/Standard Operating Procedures/Making a Poster

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