Research poster glossary: methods, results, sessions

Study designs and results

The methods pages cover the designs a poster most often reports: cohort studies, randomised controlled trials, systematic reviews against meta analyses, case definitions and null results. The results pages cover the numbers that go with them: p values, effect sizes, confidence intervals on a chart, odds ratios, rate ratios, statistical power and forest plots. Read the effect size and confidence interval pages together, because a board that reports only a p value tells a passing reader whether something happened but not how much it matters.

The parts of the board

The structure pages follow a poster from top to bottom. IMRaD explains the usual order of sections, and the abstract against introduction page explains why most boards drop one of them. The protocol block and key finding pages cover the two blocks readers look at first, and the graphical abstract page covers the single image that summarises the study. The closing pages cover what a board owes its field: a citation style, a funding acknowledgement, a conflict of interest statement, an ethics approval number and a QR code to the full paper or data.

Before and after the session

The session pages cover the practical side. The abstract submission page explains what a conference asks for and when, the poster session page covers what happens at the board, and the handout and fabric poster pages cover what to bring and how to carry it. The identifier pages explain DOIs, ORCID iDs, preprints and peer review, which decide whether a reader can find and trust the work after the session ends. If the poster is a first one, start with IMRaD and the key finding page, then read the statistics pages for whatever the results section reports.

Every page in this collection

• Abstract vs introduction on a research poster

  Space on a board is scarce, and a poster that carries both blocks written as near copies wastes a column. Knowing what each one is for makes it easy to decide whether your board needs both, one, or a short version of each.

• Cohort vs case-control study

  The two designs answer similar questions from opposite directions, and the direction decides which numbers a poster can honestly report. Mixing up the measures, such as quoting a risk from a case control study, is one of the fastest ways to lose a reviewer.

• Fabric vs paper research poster

  The choice looks cosmetic until the morning of a conference, when a crushed tube or a forgotten roll at an airport leaves nothing to pin up. Deciding on the material early also sets deadlines, because many fabric printers need a few extra days and shipping time.

• How to present a null result on a poster

  Studies that find no difference are under reported, which distorts what the literature appears to show. A poster is a good place to put them on the record, provided the wording separates evidence of no effect from absence of evidence.

• How to show a confidence interval on a chart

  Error bars are among the most misread marks in science, partly because three different quantities share one symbol. Getting them right on a poster means choosing the quantity deliberately, labelling it and knowing what an overlap does and does not tell a reader.

• Should a research poster have a QR code?

  Most people who stop at a poster leave before the presenter reaches them, and the code is the only part of the board that goes home with them. A working link turns a brief glance into a download, a citation or an email weeks after the session has closed.

• Systematic review vs meta-analysis

  The two terms are often used as if they were one, which hides an important decision inside every review: whether pooling the numbers is justified at all. Knowing the difference helps readers judge a single pooled figure and helps authors defend choosing not to produce one.

• What is a case definition?

  Every rate, ratio and trend on an epidemiology poster depends on who was counted, and two studies of the same disease can disagree simply because they counted differently. Printing the case definition is what lets a reader compare a board with anyone else's numbers.

• What is a conflict of interest statement?

  A result about a device reads differently once a viewer learns the lead author consults for its maker, and the damage is far worse when that link surfaces after the talk rather than on the board. Declaring interests up front lets the evidence be judged on its merits instead of on suspicion.

• What is a DOI?

  Web addresses break constantly as publishers redesign sites and repositories move. A DOI separates the identity of a paper from its location, which is exactly what a printed poster needs, since it cannot be updated once it is on the board.

• What is a forest plot?

  A forest plot packs an entire systematic review's results into one figure, which makes it the chart readers look for first on a review poster. It also carries a lot of detail that becomes unreadable if the plot is simply shrunk to fit a board.

• What is a funding acknowledgement?

  For most researchers the acknowledgement is a one line formality, but for the funder it is how public money is traced to results. Leaving it off a poster can breach the grant terms, and a vague line such as supported by a university grant makes the output impossible to report.

• What is a graphical abstract?

  Readers scroll past hundreds of titles in a listing, and a clear image is often what makes one of them stop. The same picture is reused in talks, newsletters and social posts, so an hour spent on it can do more for a paper's reach than another pass over the discussion.

• What is a key finding statement on a poster?

  Most people walking a poster hall give each board a few seconds, and a traditional layout spends those seconds on a title and an abstract. A key finding statement spends them on the answer, so even a reader who never stops leaves with the result.

• What is a p value?

  The p value is the most reported and most misread number in research, and a poster is where misreadings travel fastest because there is no room for caveats. Reporting it well takes one exact number, an effect size and an interval beside it.

• What is a poster handout?

  A poster session is crowded and short, and many of the people who would benefit most from the work pass the board while the presenter is talking to someone else. A handout lets them take the study with them, and it gives the presenter something to hand over that ends a conversation on a useful note.

• What is a poster session?

  Many first time presenters prepare the board and nothing else, then spend an hour unsure what to say. The session rewards a little planning around the conversation: a short pitch, answers to the obvious questions and a way for interested people to follow up.

• What is a preprint?

  Preprints moved from a physics habit to a mainstream route in medicine and biology within a few years, and they are now common on conference posters. They are useful for sharing work fast and risky when a preliminary result is read as settled.

• What is a rate ratio?

  Epidemiology posters lean on rate ratios because real populations are followed for different lengths of time, with people entering and leaving. Using person time as the denominator is what keeps that comparison fair, and it is why the denominators need to be visible on the board.

• What is an abstract submission?

  Most people meet the abstract as a hurdle to get through, written quickly before a deadline. Yet it is the only thing the committee sees, it is often printed in the programme, and it fixes what the poster will later have to deliver.

• What is an ethics approval statement?

  A reader who sees results from patients, students or survey respondents wants to know that someone independent checked the risks before anyone was recruited. One line with a committee name and a number answers that question, and leaving it off makes careful work look careless.

• What is an odds ratio?

  Odds ratios appear on posters from case control studies, logistic regression models and many trials, and they are routinely read as if they said how many times more likely something is. That reading is close enough when the outcome is rare and badly wrong when it is common.

• What is an ORCID iD?

  Two researchers named Chen presenting at the same conference are an ordinary problem, and a common surname in an abstract book can send credit to the wrong person for years. An iD settles who wrote what, which matters to funders, hiring panels and anyone who wants to follow a poster back to its author.

• What is an RCT (randomised controlled trial)?

  Randomised trials sit near the top of most evidence rankings for questions about whether something works, but only when they are run and reported well. A poster about one has to show readers how allocation, loss to follow up and analysis were handled, because that is where trials go wrong.

• What is effect size?

  A result can be statistically significant and too small to matter, or important and imprecisely estimated. Effect size, reported with its confidence interval, is what lets a reader tell those situations apart at a glance.

• What is IMRaD?

  The structure is so familiar that people forget it is a convention, adopted because it mirrors how a study is actually done. Knowing why each part exists makes it much easier to decide what to cut when a paper has to become a poster.

• What is peer review?

  A reference list on a poster quietly tells the reader how much checking stands behind each claim. Knowing what peer review does, and what it does not, keeps a board from leaning on sources that have never been checked by anyone.

• What is statistical power?

  Power is decided before a study begins, which is why it is so often forgotten by the time results reach a poster. Yet it is the number that tells a reader whether a null result means anything and whether a surprising positive result should be trusted.

• What is the protocol block on a research poster?

  Methods are the part of a poster reviewers read most closely and passers by skip entirely, and a paragraph serves neither. A labelled protocol lets the expert find the detail they care about and lets everyone else see the shape of the study at a glance.

• Which citation style for a research poster?

  A reference list is the one block on a poster that almost nobody reads standing up, yet reviewers and examiners notice at once when it is inconsistent or wrong. Picking one style and applying it cleanly costs a few minutes and removes an easy reason to doubt the rest of the board.