Creating Effective Conference Abstracts and Posters in Biomedicine

500 Tips for Success

Jane Fraser, Louise Fuller, Georgina Hutber

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781315357911
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Medical Theory, Practice & Reference

For most biomedical researchers and academics, preparing conference abstracts and posters is an important part of professional life. With good preparation and practice, all scientists can produce abstracts that act as effective ambassadors for their research. A well designed poster can help you to enhance your professional reputation in addition to communicating your data. This book aims to help you achieve these objectives. This book is designed for you to use when you are actually preparing a conference abstract or poster. It is intended to answer the most frequent questions, and to help you avoid the most common problems and pitfalls. Just dip into any chapter and you will find a range of tips relevant to the abstract or poster you are preparing right now. As a researcher and academic, you need to be able to disseminate and communicate your research work and findings. While many will view writing for peer-reviewed journals as the pinnacle of the academic communication hierarchy, being able to write and present conference abstracts and posters is also extremely important. Taking your work to conferences allows you to meet experts from all around the world, to exchange ideas in person and to network with potential employers and collaborators. 'This book is a gem of useful, practical tips covering the entire process - from reading the abstract submission guidelines, through to writing and laying out your poster and creating e-posters. If you are a novice this is the ideal book to guide you through every step. And, even if you consider yourself an expert, there is bound to be some useful information you can glean from the 500 or so tips. By reading this book, in sequence, or by dipping into relevant chapters, you will have all the necessary help with preparing abstracts and posters right at your fingertips' - Catherine Dunbar in her Foreword.

1

Why you need good conference abstracts and posters

For most scientists working in academia or in industry, taking part in scientific conferences is an essential and enjoyable part of professional life. Conferences offer the opportunity to communicate your findings, to exchange ideas, to meet potential new employers – and, in the process, to see new places and have fun! For young scientists especially, writing good conference abstracts and posters is an essential skill that will help to progress your research and promote you and your institution.

A conference abstract is usually a necessity if you want to give a talk or present a poster

For most talks and all posters, you will need to submit an abstract for review by the conference scientific programme committee and have it accepted. So it is worthwhile spending some time making sure that your abstract will be accepted. The only talks for which an abstract might not be necessary are very small friendly meetings where everyone attending gives an oral presentation, or major meetings that have some invited ‘plenary’ talks (review presentations by well-known experts, which do not usually require an abstract). Most of the time, however, the abstract – usually submitted months before the meeting – is an inescapable fact of conference life.

Recognise the importance of your abstract …

All too often, abstracts are poorly written or rambling and do not clearly show the conference scientific programme committee that the author has anything interesting to say. By recognising how important the abstract is and spending an adequate amount of time planning and writing it, you will be able to avoid this pitfall.

… And the need to present your data well

Selection committees look for good science. If the abstract is confusing or incomplete, the standard of the research may be underestimated. A well-written abstract allows the scientific quality of a study to be assessed objectively.

Your abstract may be used to decide whether you give a talk or a poster …

Some conferences have a policy of accepting all abstracts submitted but use the abstracts to decide which contributions should be presented orally and which as posters. In general, the better the abstract, the better your chances of being asked to give an oral presentation.

… Or whether you get any sort of presentation at all

Other meetings are highly competitive and reject some abstracts altogether. That could mean not only that your work is not communicated, but also that you do not get to go to the meeting.

‘No acceptance’ may mean ‘no attendance’

From the organiser’s point of view, it is usually perfectly acceptable for delegates to attend a conference without giving a talk or showing a poster, as long as the registration fee is paid. However, in practice, many institutions or grant-awarding bodies only cover the costs of attendance if you are giving a talk or presenting a poster.

Some conferences print every abstract submitted in an abstract book or on CD-ROM

A few conferences print all abstracts submitted in an abstract book or include them on a CD-ROM or web page, even if the authors are not offered a talk or poster. This may help individuals to get funding to attend the meeting, even if they are not presenting their data.

A good abstract stimulates interest in your oral presentation or poster

During the conference, abstracts are usually available to all participants via a printed abstract book, in electronic format, or both. Participants can search the abstracts to decide which talks they want to attend and which posters they want to visit. A clearly written abstract encourages people to come to your talk or look at your poster and to discuss your work with you.

In competitive fields, an abstract or poster helps to establish the originality of an idea

No one can actually ‘own’ an idea in science. However (rightly or wrongly), scientists attach importance to originality – you get respect from being the first group to publish something new and exciting. As it often takes a long time to progress from doing the research to having a paper published, it sometimes helps to ‘stake a claim’ through an abstract, especially if the abstract is available in the public domain after the meeting. The abstract is only a small first step, however; for your work to be taken seriously by the scientific community, you must go on to publish the full paper in a peer-reviewed journal.

Conference abstracts may help to publicise research even after the meeting is over

Conference abstracts that remain on websites after the meeting is over may help alert online searchers to your research. Some conferences (especially society meetings) publish their abstracts in a supplement to a learned journal, and these abstracts may be retrieved through databases such as PubMed.

Conference abstracts can sometimes be cited in papers

Published abstracts may be cited in other people’s papers even if the full paper has not been published yet. However, some journals only allow citations to recent conference abstracts, because it is expected that if the work is good enough to survive peer review it will have been published in a journal within a year or two of the conference abstract first appearing.

A poster presentation is definitely better than no presentation

Some people feel disappointed if they are offered ‘only’ a poster presentation rather than a talk. There is no need to be downhearted if this happens to you – poster presentations offer a useful means of communicating your work and getting to a scientific meeting to hear new data and make new contacts, including potential research collaborators and employers. Posters can sometimes even offer advantages over an oral presentation (see below).

Sometimes a poster is preferable to a talk

Some conferences give you the chance to state whether you prefer to give a talk or present a poster. There might be times when you would rather give a poster than a talk. This might be because:

•  you don’t like giving talks (better to get over this if you can; giving talks is an inescapable fact of academic life)

•  your methods or results are very complex, and the time allowed for talks is too short to give a meaningful explanation (be sure that this is really the case)

•  you feel that your work is too preliminary to present orally, but you would welcome the opportunity to present it as a poster and receive comments and advice

•  you want to use a poster as a means of attracting constructive criticism on the design of a study protocol

•  you want to raise awareness of the existence of an ongoing study even before you have any results

•  you want to invite people to participate in a collaborative venture such as a multicentre trial or a disease registry that is better explained in a poster.

Posters create opportunities to meet people and discuss your work

A poster presentation may be your first chance of getting your work into the public domain. This applies whether it consists of data, ideas or just the existence of your ongoing study, even if you do not yet have many results. It will give you the opportunity to discuss your work with other scientists, and you may gain new insights and new interpretations that will help with ongoing work. However, try not be disappointed if readers do not stop to talk – a well-prepared poster will still have given them useful information and something to think about.

A poster promotes you and your institution

If you are offered a poster presentation at a scientific meeting, this is useful material for your curriculum vitae or for grant applications. Just being at the conference is useful promotion for you and your institution or company. So remember to make it clear on your poster who you are and where you work.

A well-designed poster will attract people in a busy conference hall

A poster is very different from a paper for publication. It has to capture attention across a crowded hall and encourage readers to come close enough to read it. And once the reader has arrived, the poster has to tell its story simply and quickly, as readers are busy and will have many other posters to visit. They do not want to spend much time deciphering the message. So for you, time spent in designing a good poster is time well spent.

A poor poster is worse than no poster at all

It is worth remembering that a poorly produced poster could have a negative effect on perceptions of you or your institution. Take time to plan both the content and the layout/design of your poster. Ask your friends and colleagues what they think about your ideas and for suggestions on how you could improve it – before it is too late!

2

Your abstract: first steps

Before you start to write your abstract, it is important to check out any relevant rules and regulations and to make some important decisions regarding matters such as authorship and selection of data.

Before you start, think about authorship

If you are writing an abstract for a conference, it is probable that you have been closely involved in much of the research and feel that you have a major investment in getting it published. However, it is likely that you did not work alone. Anyone who contributed substantively to the research you want to present should be an author on the abstract.

Decide who will be the presenting author …

The presenting author must be the person who will attend the conference and give the oral or poster presentation. Will that be you? Check that you are free for the dates of the conference. If not, either change conference or change presenting author. In general, conferences disapprove of changes to the presenting author after abstract submission.

… And agree on the order of other authors

The presenting author is usually the first author on the abstract. Ideally, other authors should be listed according to their level of contribution to the study. For some studies this will be obvious, but sometimes (in collaborative studies, for example) there can be differences of opinion. Discuss the order of authorship with your co-authors as early as possible to avoid any subsequent disagreements.

Be aware of why abstracts are accepted …

The most important factors for abstract acceptance for a prestigious and competitive meeting are the quality, novelty, reliability and clinical and scientific importance of your work. So if you have conducted well-designed scientific or clinical investigations, you are three parts of the way to acceptance.

… And rejected

However, even the best work may be presented badly. Apart from not conforming to specific submission instructions, abstracts may be rejected because they are written in a disorganised manner or they contain old information or a vague discussion of the importance of the topic area.

Write the abstract so as to maximise your chances of acceptance

Rightly or wrongly, reviewers may be inclined to look more favourably on abstracts that are well structured and written in good English. In the worst cases, serious errors in language can make the science hard to understand. If English is not your native language, it may be worthwhile showing your draft to someone who can edit it for spelling, grammar and style.

Select your conference carefully

Each scientific conference has its own scientific focus and set of objectives. For example, some will be largely clinically focused and others will focus primarily on cellular research. Some will see themselves as having an educational focus and others as being at the cutting edge of research. To maximise your chances of acceptance, pick an appropriate conference for your data. If you are not sure, ask your colleagues and look on the conference website.

Discuss the most appropriate session with your co-authors

Even at the same conference, some topic sessions may be more competitive than others. If your data are not very exciting, it might be better to submit your abstract for a less popular topic into which it still fits. You may want to discuss the most appropriate session with your co-authors – if so, do this as early as possible, just in case there is disagreement and you need time to finalise the decision.

Get a copy of the submission instructions …

The instructions for preparation and submission of abstracts are usually available on the conference website. Failure to follow the rules could result in your abstract being immediately returned to you for amendment, wasting both your time and the scientific committee’s time. Your abstract could even be rejected completely. Nowadays, abstracts are usually submitted electronically via the conference website. This ensures that all abstracts can be published in a standard format.

… And follow them carefully

Read the instructions carefully, noting whether a word count or character count is specified and whether you are allowed figures and tables in the abstract. The instructions may tell you whether the abstract has to be structured (i.e. with s...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• About the authors
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Why you need good conference abstracts and posters
• 2 Your abstract: first steps
• 3 Your abstract: planning, structure and title
• 4 Writing your abstract
• 5 Submitting your abstract
• 6 Your poster: first steps
• 7 Typography, headings and bullet points
• 8 Poster design and layout
• 9 Colour and backgrounds for your poster
• 10 Writing your poster: general guidelines
• 11 Writing your poster: banner components
• 12 Writing your poster: the main text
• 13 Writing your poster: bits and pieces
• 14 Tips for tables
• 15 Tips for graphs
• 16 Tips for bar charts, pie charts, flow charts and line drawings
• 17 Tips for photos
• 18 Editing and proofreading your poster
• 19 Printing your poster
• 20 Transporting, displaying and presenting your poster
• 21 E-posters: the future?
• Appendix 1: Example of a structured abstract
• Appendix 2: Abstract checklist
• Appendix 3: Examples of style for poster headings, main text and figure and table captions
• Appendix 4: Sample landscape PowerPoint poster template
• Appendix 5: Sample portrait PowerPoint poster template
• Appendix 6: Example of a creatively designed landscape poster
• Appendix 7: Example of a simple but effective portrait poster
• Appendix 8: Poster checklist
• Index