PRESENTING YOUR RESEARCH

AS A POSTER

Appearance• Background must be white.• Title banner and section title

banners can be colored, but should be limited and professional.

• The overall size in power point must be 48” width x 36” height. (Use our template.)

• A three column format is probably best, with two smaller, but equal side panels and one larger central panel. Use four columns if necessary.

Fonts and Text• The best fonts to use for clarity

and professionalism are: Arial, Calibri, or Verdana

• Fonts for content must be a minimum of 24 pt. and for captions a minimum of 18 pt.

• Make sure that all your fonts are consistent in size and type. Section titles must all match each other. General content must all be the same. Captions must all be the same.

• All text must be left aligned – avoid justification.

General Guidelines

Sections of the Poster

We generally recommend that you have the following sections for your Symposium poster (in this order and labeled as such), but recognize that there may be a difference between this and what is recommended for a conference you may be attending:

• Title Banner• Abstract• Introduction• Methods• Results• Conclusions• References• Acknowledgements

*Each of these sections is discussed on the next slides.

Title Banner

• You must start with the banner templates that are at the end of these guidelines so that all required logos are correct with respect to colors, sizes, and resolution.

• Your title should be the same as the one you submitted for your proposal since we want your posters to match The Chronicle, being used this year like a program.

• Your title should be as large as possible with even lengths if on two or three lines and all words should be capitalized except short prepositions (of, from, to, etc.) and articles (a, an, the).

• Your name and your mentor’s name should come below it, slightly smaller, followed by John Jay College of Criminal Justice. (This is modeled in the templates at the end of these guidelines.)

• Your banner can have color in the background as long as it is professionally done.

• Should include necessary, but limited background information, project aim, results, and significance.

• This should be a very brief summary of your poster so that your audience can both orient themselves and decide whether or not to read further.

• This abstract may match the one you submitted for the Chronicle with your proposal but we understand that it may be updated for results obtained during the semester.

Abstract

• Keep this section brief.

• The introduction section should concisely orient the reader to the research being conducted. It should provide the minimum amount of information necessary to provide the lay reader (non-scientist) with the background he or she needs to understand the poster research.

• This is not a literature review; it should not get lost in an expansive description of all of the prior information on which your study builds, and it should not include all background literature and citations. It should contain a small number of citations that are relevant to the key background material.

Introduction

• You may include figures as part of your introduction, but make sure that they are properly explained in a caption on referred to in your text. You must cite figures as well of course and it is highly recommended that you recreate any figures or images so as to avoid having to get permission from the journal for their use.

• Figures, if used, must have appropriate titles and captions underneath them.– Ex: Figure 1. Blah Blah Mechanism. Caption.

• You are not permitted to use websites as sources even for figures or pictures – find what you are trying to cite in a reputable journal.

Introduction

• Try to keep this section as brief as possible unless the your research is developmental in nature.

• Bullet this section for easy reading.

• If your project is developmental and lends itself to a graphic organizer to show steps or groups, use one.

• Be sure that you are using past tense.

• Be particularly careful in this section that you are not using first person pronouns like “I“ or “we.” Use passive voice:

“The cells were cultured in nutrient media.” Not – “We cultured the cells in nutrient media.”

Methods

• Results should be the highlight of your poster and take up the main central panel.

• If results are in graphical format, be sure that the graphs have x and y axis titles, that error bars are shown when appropriate, and that the chosen line colors are distinct.

• Make sure that the images of your results are clear (not photocopied).

• All results should have a title that directly comes before its caption. Ex: “Figure 1. Title. Caption”

• Figures should continue numbering from the beginning of poster to the end so if you had any in your introduction or methods, pick up where you left off with numbering.

• Tables have an independent numbering system but are generally raw data that don’t appear on posters anyway.

Results

• It is recommended that you bullet this section and recap the main results.

• Include any other pertinent information, but keep it brief!

• If you are a newer student, especially first semester, you may not have a lot of results, in which case you may wish to either elaborate here on where your project will go next semester or even have an extra section called “Future Work.”

Conclusions

• Limit your references to only those that were cited by you on this poster. This should not a be a long list – probably not more than about 5!

• Use a referencing style that is appropriate for your discipline. It must have consistency, however. (Do not just copy and paste!)

• Ex: If you use the referencing style of the Journal of Organic Chemistry, then all your references must be in that style. If the journal title is italicized in one, it must be italicized in all, etc.

References

• Generally, you don’t acknowledge your mentor if his/her name is listed with yours at the top of the poster.

• Do acknowledge all funding sources.• You must include this statement amongst your references

verbatim (there is one small change from last year):

Support for student stipends, supplies, and/or equipment used in this research was supplied by the Program for Research Initiatives for Science Majors (PRISM) at John Jay College. PRISM is funded by the Title V, HSI-STEM and MSEIP programs within the U.S. Department of Education; the PAESMEM program through the National Science Foundation; and New York State’s Graduate Research and Technology Initiative.

Acknowledgements

• Make sure that you have proofread your entire poster for typos, spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, etc.

• Your mentor MUST approve your poster before you submit it to PRISM.

• Review these guidelines before submitting to make sure that you comply with everything.

• Print out a small copy of your poster so that you can check to see if all the section titles and columns are properly aligned and so that you can see if there are any inconsistencies in fonts or spacing.

Final Reminders!!

Abstract

Methods

Results Conclusions

Acknowledgements

Title of Your Presentation – It Can Extend to Two Lines or Even Three if Necessary, But Try to Keep Line Lengths Similar

First Name Last Name, John Jay CollegeMentor’s First Name Last Name, John Jay College

References

Introduction

Abstract Results

Methods

Results

References

Acknowledgements

Title of Your Presentation – Remember That This Title Is Supposed to Match the One You Submitted with Your

Proposal So That People Can Find Use The Chronicle to Find Your Poster

First Name Last Name, John Jay CollegeMentor’s First Name Last Name, John Jay College

Conclusions

Introduction

Acknowledgements

References

Introduction

Abstract Methods or Experimental Design

Results

Conclusions

Title of Your Presentation – The Banner Background Can Be Colored Like This as

Long as It Is ProfessionalFirst Name Last Name, John Jay College

Mentor’s First Name Last Name, John Jay College

Poster Submission Spring 2013• Submit by midnight on 4/15/13 to prism.jjay@gmail.com. The usual prism

email account can’t handle such large files.• *You MUST MUST MUST put your mentor’s email address in the CC of the

email so that we know he/she has seen it at least.• Your posters will be reviewed and possibly edited by the PRISM staff. They

may be sent back to you for a final approval of these edits or so that you yourself can make needed edits. If edits are needed you must resubmit within 24 hours of getting the email so be checking your email that entire week!!

• Once posters are finalized, they will be printed for you by PRISM staff. You will then be emailed with time slots that you can come in to mount your posters to boards. All posters must be completed and mounted by Tuesday 4/23.

• Some posters, especially seniors will be asked to participate in the Symposium poster contest (and may need to be mounted earlier.) These will be put on display for judging in the PRISM office.