Poster Presentation Guidelines, Instructions & Rubric
Northwest Indian College
Science Internship Program
This document contains three parts: 1) Suggested Guidelines For a Poster Presentation, 2)
Using PowerPoint™ to Create Your Poster, and 3) Rubric for a Research Poster
Presentation.
Part 1: Suggested Guidelines For A Poster Presentation
The poster guidelines below are those developed by the All Nations Louis Stokes
Alliance for Minority Participation (ANLSAMP), which are employed for presentations
at the annual AIHEC (American Indian Higher Education Consortium) and AISES
(American Indian Science and Engineering Societies) conferences.
Reference:
All Nations Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation. 2007 All Nations Louis
Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Poster and Oral Showcase for
Undergraduate Research Rules & Guidelines for the Oral Presentations AISES
Website: All Nations Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, 2007. 5-7. 8 p.
Retrieved July 4, 2008, from
http://www.aises.org/Events/NationalConferences/PastNationalConferences/2007Nati
onalConference
(Additional information is available from the ANLSAMP website at
http://www.anamp.org.)
The goal of your scientific poster is to have an organized and attractive presentation of
your research findings. Posters should be self-explanatory and readable within about five
minutes. In addition, when fabricating your poster, you must comply with the following
guidelines.
Guidelines
1. Title: At the top of your poster you should have a title that is both short and very
descriptive of your project. For empirical studies, the title should also mention the
organism(s) studied. As a rule, the title should be easily readable at a distance of about 4
– 5 feet away (words are approximately 1.5 – 2.5 cm in height).
2. Name Affiliation: Directly under the title, you should have your name, your faculty
sponsor’s name, and your school’s name. The name and affiliation section is usually
about 20-30% smaller than the title.
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3. The body of the poster:
a. The Abstract: This is a brief synopsis of the entire work, described in the poster.
Most abstracts are one or two paragraphs in length. The abstract should be
understandable without reading the entire poster and the reader should be able to decide if
s/he would like to read the entire poster based on what they read in the abstract. The
abstract should contain the following elements: (1) the purpose of the study, (2) a brief
statement of what you did, (3) a concise statement of the major findings, and (4) the
major conclusions. Do not include details of the methods.
b. Introduction: The purpose of the introduction is to present the question being
explored by your research and to place it in the context of current knowledge about the
topic. It often works well to start with the general context and work your way down to
the specifics, ending with a precise statement of the question or hypothesis being
addressed by your study. The introduction should convince the reader of the significance
of your study. To so this well in a poster is a challenging requirement. Be brief, but
include the important points to be sure the reader sees the relevance of your work.
c. Methods: In this section you should describe all procedures that you performed.
Describe your methods in sufficient detail to allow a reader who works in your field to
understand what you did to collect your data. Illustrations are appropriate for complex
experimental design, etc.
d. Results: The purpose of this section is to summarize the data. Report the results of
any statistical tests here. Present all of your results, whether positive or negative. A table
or figure may substitute for a written summary as long as each table or figure has a
legend that explains the graphic clearly.
e. Discussion: In this section you should interpret the meaning of your results with
respect to the original question. You should interpret your results without repeating
them. The discussion must include your conclusions about the answers to the questions
that motivated your research that you described in the introduction. If appropriate,
mention explanations for unexpected results.
f. Literature Cited: This section is optional in the poster, unless citations are used in the
text. Include only those papers cited in the text. Do not cite a paper unless you have read
it yourself. Cite all your references in the text and list them in the literature-cited section
using a format from a major journal within your discipline.
4. Graphics, Tables, Photos and Others
Illustrations, tables, figures, photographs, and diagrams need to have unique
identification numbers and legends. In the text, use the numbers to refer to specific
graphics or pictures. In your legends, include a full explanation and where appropriate,
include color keys, scale, etc.
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5. Sample Layouts
There are an endless number of ways to put a poster together. Remember try to create a
strong visual but, avoid making the poster look crowded. It is important to provide some
indication of the flow of the poster (top to bottom, left to right). Some posters have
numbered sections (units) to indicate the reading order.
Specific Guidelines:
One entire poster should take up a space no larger than 80cm by 120cm (approximately
32” by 48”), in either portrait or landscape format. All posters will be affixed to and
displayed on a vertical surface (most likely wood, possibly cork-board). You should
determine how to secure your poster to such a surface and bring whatever materials you
will need to do this. You may build your poster upon a single piece of poster-board or it
may be made up of several individual components that can be secured to the display
surface. We encourage you to be imaginative and creative, so long as you follow the
guidelines in this document. Remember that the purpose of the poster is to convey
information from your research. Use care that the display does not overpower the
scientific content. Also, check your text and legends for accuracy. Be sure to italicize
Latin words, label graphs, tables and have several people proofread your poster.
If you decide to make each of the above components of the poster a single unit, the
smallest unit should be no smaller than 17.5cm by 20.5cm (approximately 7” by 8”)
except for literature cited and for the title and Name sections that are, by necessity, linear
in orientation. It is fine to group more than one required element on a single unit as long
as your poster is clear and readable and does not look cluttered. Unless otherwise
directed in the above sections, the text font size is to be no smaller than about 3-4mm in
height for an upper case letter (for example: 12 point font in Times New Roman). Times
Roman is difficult to read at a distance. Helvetica has sharply delineated letters (no
curlicues) and thus, is easier to read at a distance. There are many other font options for
you to choose from but you must make sure they are comparable to the Times New
Roman 12 point font size.
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Part 2: Using PowerPoint™ to Create Your Poster
Prepared by
Mark Moss
GIS Program Manager
Northwest Indian College
PowerPoint™ is one of the best poster producing software programs there is for our
needs. With PowerPoint we can create a slide the exact size we want our poster to be and
add text, pictures, and clipart as needed. This short lesson will show you how to create a
poster in PowerPoint that will be professional looking and convey your ideas about your
subject. Of course you will have to supply your own data.
Step One
First decide what size your poster will be. A suggestion of no larger than 32” by 48”
should be followed. From my experience make it the maximum allowed. You want
people to see your poster and to make an impression you want to be in-their-face. Note:
In-their-face does not mean gaudy. You want to pleasantly focus their attention to your
poster.
Get your data together. I will assume you are done with your research so this shouldn’t be
a problem. Also gather any images, charts, or tables that you want to add to the poster.
Step Two
Start PowerPoint. PowerPoint is in the Microsoft Office© Suite of programs.
We need to specify a presentation and a slide layout. I would choose a blank presentation
and a blank layout.
Specify what size to make your poster.
Go to File in the menu bar and click on Page Setup.
Choose Custom in the Slides sized for: and then enter the width and the height of your
poster.
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Step Three
Add your data to the slide.
To add text go to Insert then choose Text Box and then orientation of the text. You can
change the font, font size, color of the font, a fill color for the box as well as a border
line.
Right click on a text box and choose Format Text box to add fill or borders. Right click
on any object to get to the format menu.
To add Pictures, Word Art, Charts, and Diagrams go to Insert and then choose what you
want.
Before:
After:
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Part 3: Rubric for a Research Poster Presentation
Course Number: NESC 197/297/397/497
Course Name: Internship in Native Environmental Science
Instructor(s): (Draft rubric prepared by Brian Compton for the final project of a poster presentation based on All Nations Louis Stokes
Alliance for Minority Participation [ANLSAMP] poster guidelines and reviewer score sheet)
Presentation: Size, Content
& Organization
Level of Proficiency
1: Pre-Novice
(or: Unacceptable)
2: Beginning (or:
Minimum acceptable)
3: Developing
(or: Good)
4: Accomplished
(or: Excellent)
Size
___ Size is completely
inappropriate (too small to
read or larger than the
maximum allowable size)
___ Does not adhere to poster
size guidelines, but otherwise
may be sufficient for the
content and layout
___ Adheres to poster size
guidelines, but size may not
be completely appropriate for
amount of content and layout
Title & Name Affiliation
___ No title or name
affiliation
___ Title and name affiliation
present but incomplete,
unclear or otherwise
minimally acceptable (e.g.,
misplaced, too small, or hard
to read text used)
___ Title and name affiliation
present and complete but not
prepared according to all
guidelines
___ No larger than 80 cm by
120 cm (approximately 32" by
40"), in either portrait or
landscape form
___ Size is neither excessive
nor minimal for the content
and layout
___ Title is at top of the
poster, short, descriptive of
the project and easily readable
at a distance of about 4-5 feet
(words about 1.5-2.5 cm tall)
___ Name affiliation includes
presenter's name, faculty
sponsor's name, school's name
in a section about 20-30%
smaller than the title
Criteria
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Abstract
___ No abstract
___ Abstract present but
incomplete, unclear or
otherwise minimally
acceptable (e.g., does not
provide accurate synopsis of
the entire work)
___ Abstract present and
relatively complete but not
prepared according to all
guidelines
Introduction
___ No introduction
___ Introduction present and
relatively complete but does
not address all points
indicated in the poster
guidelines
Methods
___ No methods
___ Introduction present but
incomplete, unclear or
otherwise minimally
acceptable (e.g., does not
present the question being
explored, statement of the
hypothesis, is unconvincing in
terms of the significance of
the study, is excessively
lengthy and detailed lacking
important points and
relevance of the work)
___ Methods present but
incomplete, unclear or
otherwise minimally
acceptable (e.g., lacking
sufficient information and
detail with inappropriate
illustrations)
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___ Methods present and
relatively complete but does
not address all points
indicated in the poster
guidelines
___ Abstract present
comprising a brief synopsis of
the entire work described in
the poster
___ Abstract understandable
without reading the entire
poster
___ Includes (1) purpose of
the study, (2) brief statement
of what was done (without
including minor details of the
methods), (3) concise
statement of major findings,
and (4) major conclusions
___ Presents question being
explored placed in the context
of current knowledge
___ Includes precise statement
of the question of hypothesis
being addressed by the study
___ Convinces the reader of
the significance of the study
___ Is brief but includes
important points indicating the
relevance of the work
___ Describes all procedures
performed
___ Contains sufficient detail
to allow a reader who works
in the field to understand what
you did to collect your data
___ Illustrations are
appropriate for complex
experimental design, etc.
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Results
___ No results
___ Results present but
incomplete, unclear or
otherwise minimally
acceptable (e.g., incomplete
summary of data, poor
explanation of graphics, etc.)
___ Results present and
relatively complete but does
not address all points
indicated in the poster
guidelines
Discussion
___ No discussion
___ Discussion present and
relatively complete but does
not address all points
indicated in the poster
guidelines
Literature Cited
___ No literature cited
(appropriate only if no
citations used in the text)
___ Discussion present but
incomplete, unclear or
otherwise minimally
acceptable (e.g., no
interpretation of results with
respect to the original
question, unnecessary
repetition of results, no
conclusions about answers to
the questions that motivated
the research as indicated in the
introduction, etc.)
___ Literature cited present
but incomplete, unclear or
otherwise minimally
acceptable (e.g., lacking
sources cited in the text,
including superfluous entries,
not prepared according to
approved style guidelines, etc.
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___ Literature cited present
and relatively complete but
does not address all points
indicated in the poster
guidelines
___ Includes summary of the
data
___ All results presented,
whether positive or negative
___ If present, table or figure
subtitles for written summary
and includes legend to explain
the graphic clearly
___ Includes interpretation of
results with respect to the
original question
___ Results interpreted
without being repeated
___ Includes conclusions
about answers to questions
that motivated the research as
indicated in the introduction
___ If appropriate, includes
explanations for unexpected
results
___ Includes only sources
cited in the text
___ Includes only papers if
you read it yourself
___ Is prepared according the
American Psychological
Association (APA) style
guidelines
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Graphics, Tables, Photos
and Other Images (and
layout)
___ No graphics, tables,
photos or other images (the
poster should include at least
some images)
Subject: Problem,
Research Design &
Conduct, Student
Involvement in Planning
& Execution
___ Graphics present but
incomplete, unclear or
otherwise minimally
acceptable (e.g., lacking
explanation, units, keys,
misplaced or excessively
large, inappropriate or
confusing, etc.)
___ Graphics present and
relatively complete but do not
address all points indicated in
the poster guidelines
___ Illustrations, tables,
figures, photographs or
diagrams have unique
identification numbers and
legends
___ Text includes references
to specific graphics or pictures
___ Legends include full
explanation and where
appropriate, color keys, scale,
etc.
___ All images presented in
appropriate layout and size
relative to text
Level of Proficiency
1: Pre-Novice
(or: Unacceptable)
2: Beginning (or:
Minimum acceptable)
3: Developing
(or: Good)
4: Accomplished
(or: Excellent)
Problem
___ No value of information
to the scientific or Native
American communities
___ No clear objectives
___ Value of information to
many members of the
scientific and Native
American communities
___ Objectives present and
relatively complete
___ Value of information to
scientific and Native
American communities in
broadest sense
___ Objectives present and
relatively complete
Research Design &
Conduct
___ No answers to questions
raised by the objectives as
research was conducted
___ Research techniques not
adequate
___ No student involvement
in planning and execution of
the research project
___ Value of information to
limited members of the
scientific and Native
American communities
___ Objectives present but
incomplete, unclear or
otherwise minimally
acceptable
___ Answers presented not
clearly related to objectives or
obtained by the research
___ Research techniques
minimally adequate
___ Student involvement
minimal
___ Some answers presented
clearly relate to objectives and
the research
___ All answers presented
clearly relate to objectives and
the research
___ Student involvement in
some aspects
___ Student involvement in
all aspects where reasonable
or possible
Criteria
Involvement
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