(219) Attention Catching Visual Design is Key for Academic Conference Posters

Objective : Academic posters are common at professional conferences. We aimed to summarize the various recommendations in the literature for creating posters (i.e., ‘how-to’ articles).

Methods: We systematically searched MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science Core Collection, CINAHL, Health Source Nursing/Academic, ERIC, Education Research Complete, Education Full Text, APA PsycINFO, and Psychology & Behavioral Science Collection (10 databases). This yielded 2226 articles, though 558 remained after screening title/abstract. Thereafter, articles were categorized into ‘how-to’, ‘student/education’, ‘rubrics/scoring instruments’, ‘technology innovations’, and ‘other’. Two reviewers then independently evaluated each ‘how-to’ categorized article and coded them for notable ideas/concepts. Subsequently, inductive themes evolved through aggregating the multitude of similar codes.

Results: Eighty-two (82) articles were categorized as ‘how-to’ articles. Sixty-one percent (61%) were published from 2011 to 2023, while thirty-nine percent (39%) were published the prior decade (2000-2010). These articles were from diverse disciplines (80% Health Professions, 7% Physical Sciences, 7% Social Sciences, 6% Applied Sciences). Twelve (12) themes emerged. Most described was Attention-Catching (92%). The majority also mentioned Visual-Format (87%), Less-is-More (87%), Minimize-Text (81%), Logical-Flow (79%), Key-Message/Summary (72%) and/or Text-Size/Font (63%). Fewer articles mentioned Networking (50%), and/or References-Needed (43%). Still fewer articles mentioned Pre-print-Feedback (29%), Specifics-about-Graphics (27%), and/or Professional-Development (17%). Of note, 95% (78/82) were opinion/experience-based perspectives, while 5% (4/82) were empirical studies (either quantitative or qualitative). Note that this review was limited to journal articles (with books and gray-literature not reviewed).

Conclusions: This systematic review summarized common themes from ‘how-to’ perspectives on poster creation. While individual ‘how-to’ articles were often siloed into one/few disciplines, aggregating these diverse perspectives provided saturation of collective insight into broader themes. We hope future poster presenters and meta-research can benefit from these insights.