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How PowerPoint sabotages your poster (and how to fix it)
PowerPoint is the software most commonly used to make conference posters, by a long way. Here’s a few ways that PowerPoint works against you when you are creating a conference poster.Size limits...
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In search of an online and hybrid poster session that works
Over the last few years, I’ve had a lot of discussions about conference accessibility and online conferences. The advantages of online conferences became almost immediately apparent in 2020, when the...
View ArticleChange your poster title when publishing the paper
A recent paper by Prasad and colleagues (2025) provided some advice on how to turn a conference poster or presentation into a publication. For the most part, these are common sense if you understand...
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Old school numbers have advantages
“Why aren’t there lowercase numbers?”Well, there are. I’ve mentioned the excellent MyFont manuals about typography before. Their latest is about the different ways that numbers are shown in type.Early...
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Lessons from political parties: More points means less clarity
One of the major American political parties shared this on their social media accounts this weekend.I saw this post not in its original form, but from critiques of it. And it deserves those...
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Reimaging posters on In Plain Cite podcast
Everyone has a podcast now. Even the International Society for Medical Publication Professionals . They just renamed their podcast to In Plain Cite, and their first real episode is about conference...
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Critique: No grave mistakes
This poster comes from Spencer Moore. Click to enlarge!I’m super pleased to have posters that are not from the traditional sciences. This one is off to a good start. This posters had a big advantage,...
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Sweet sixteen
Almost missed blogiversary month!It’s always a little crazy to think how this one project, started almost on a whim spinning off from my general academic blog, has managed to keep going.I thank you for...
View ArticleYou can’t have a great poster session in a bad conference
Many academics are aware of predatory or low-quality journals, but I get the impression that many are not as aware of predatory or low-quality conferences.Christine Ro has just released an article in...
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Politics hits poster sessions
Alexandra Witze reports:Here at the ASSW (Arctic Science Summit Week - ZF) Arctic science conference in Boulder, a poster describing research done with US federal funds has words including “ethical”...
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Water Whys presentation, 28 March 2025: Poster pitfalls and power-ups!
I’ll be giving an online presentation tomorrow, March 28 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time or 11:00 a.m. Arizona time.There is still time to register! Visit https://waterwhys.org/seminar/spring-2025/...
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Making statements with section headings on your conference poster
A new paper by Wolfe and colleagues (in press) provide a new suggestion for improving your poster.Do not use generic section headings like “Introduction,” “Methods,” “Results,” and “Discussion.”...
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We have a long way to go on poster accessibility
Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day!This poll from this weekˆs ISMPP annual meeting shows how far we have to go in the field of conference posters:Almost half of medical communication...
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The view from the floor of ISMPP 2025
I recently attended the 21st annual meeting of the International Society for Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP). I was quite excited by this, because this was the first chance I had to present...
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QR codes on conference posters: Some scan, some don’t
I have been writing about the possible uses of QR codes for more than a decade now. But I have had one lingering question.Does anyone actually use them?This matters for conference poster design,...
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Posters should not reach to the ankles
This post is not a criticism of the posters in the picture below.Skinny posters are difficult to layout. And this is quite possibly the most extreme aspect ratio I have ever seen for conference...
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Shadows are not edges
A question recently landed in my inbox about alignment. If some elements in a layout use shadows but others do not, should the shadows align with the edges?Probably not.This is a case where the...
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Get a bigger venue instead of sticking posters on tiny self service screens
Another in our continuing series of, “Please don’t do this, conference organizers.”Although this is a bit of an old picture I found while cleaning out my inbox, I wanted to bring this to the fore...
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Happy fourth bookiversary to the Better Posters book!
I can’t quite believe it’s been four years since the Better Posters book was released.And I am even more incredulous that it’s been bought and even read by some people that I personally don’t know! It...
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Critique and makeover: Tickled zinc
The title of this post is a direct swipe from the poster because Meg Mindlin’s title is reigns supreme and is undefeated. It’s just one of many things I love ❤️ about this poster. Click to...
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All in favour of puppies at conferences?
Brook Flammang posted this picture from the Ocean Science meeting.She writes:Every conference should have a puppy play zone. Seconded!
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Critique: Ocean cukes
Today’s poster was generously shared by Bronson Mills! Click to enlarge!I like the way the poster is sectioned using colour. And the choice of colours works well: they harmonize well, are not too...
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Link roundup for May 2025
It’s been a while since I’ve had the brainpower to pull one of these together. But now?Since its debut, the billboard format has been admired and disliked. A new paper compared it to more standard...
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A quick way to assess posters
If you are looking for a rubric to assess conference posters quickly, this might fill the bill. This rubric has gone through a couple of versions. This is the most recent, presented on a poster this...
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Critique: Posters have entered the chat
Some time ago, Greg Fell shared an interesting poster. (You may not be able to see it due to user settings.) I reached out to the creator, Anton Pottegård. He sent a slightly earlier version of this...
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