{"id":9140,"date":"2019-03-31T17:45:52","date_gmt":"2019-03-31T21:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/?p=9140"},"modified":"2019-04-11T14:16:27","modified_gmt":"2019-04-11T18:16:27","slug":"the-problem-with-research-posters-and-a-bold-approach-to-fixing-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/the-problem-with-research-posters-and-a-bold-approach-to-fixing-them\/2019\/03\/31\/","title":{"rendered":"The Problem with Research Posters — and a Bold Approach to Fixing Them"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The scientific poster, as envisioned anew by Mike Morrison.<\/p><\/div>\n

When submitting an abstract to a scientific meeting, you can usually expect one of three outcomes.<\/p>\n

I’ve listed them below in order of preference, plus the messages the meeting organizers and abstract reviewers are not-so-subtly sending you:<\/p>\n

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  1. Oral Presentation:<\/strong>\u00a0 Congratulations! Your abstract has been accepted for an Oral Presentation — in other words, the work sounds so fascinating, so potentially important, we’d love to hear more. You’ll give a 10-minute slide presentation in front of hundreds (maybe thousands) of colleagues on a big stage, backed by a larger than life video feed of your face on our giant LCD screen — so remember to pluck those errant facial hairs beforehand. <\/em><\/li>\n
  2. Research Poster:<\/strong>\u00a0 Congratulations, your study has been accepted as a Research Poster! Now, you must generate a single-slide PowerPoint file packed with text, figures, and bullet points, have it professionally printed as a bed-sheet sized poster, and then affix\u00a0it to a mobile bulletin board during the conference. We’ll give you a designated time to stand by your poster to explain the results. But don’t be alarmed when\u00a0hundreds of other researchers and their posters line up as well in a vast, industrially lit space. And when we say vast, we’re not kidding — an Airbus A380 might roll by on its way to the runway.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n
  3. Rejection:<\/strong>\u00a0 We’re sorry, your study was too weak and\/or uninteresting to meet our high standards.\u00a0We’ll probably tell you that there were many competitive submissions, which is supposed to make you feel better. But you can come to the meeting anyway, providing you pay the registration and housing fees.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    While the oral presentation is clearly the winner here, the research poster is undoubtedly the most challenging — and much more numerous, so everyone has to do one sooner or later. Several reasons why posters fill us with dread:<\/p>\n