What is a key finding statement on a poster?

Where the idea came from

The approach was popularised in 2019 by Mike Morrison, then a doctoral candidate in psychology, through a widely shared video and a free template he hosted on the Open Science Framework. Inside Higher Ed described the design's core as a prominent main finding in plain language, an ammo bar of extra data for the presenter to use in conversation, a silent presenter bar with the study basics, and a QR code linking to the full research. In a later interview with the Center for Open Science, Morrison said the video had passed a million views, and described eye tracking work on a later version of the layout that guides viewers through it in a predictable order.

Writing the sentence

The statement should say what was found, in whom, and by how much, in words a researcher from a neighbouring field would understand. Heatwave days at 22 weather stations rose from 4.1 to 10.7 a year over five decades is a finding. Temporal analysis of extreme heat metrics is a topic. Use a verb that matches the design: associated with for observational work, reduced or increased only where a trial supports it. Keep the number in the sentence, because a finding without a magnitude invites the reader to imagine one. Aim for one line of thought that someone could repeat to a colleague. Read it aloud to someone outside the project; if they ask what it means, the sentence still needs work.

The criticism, and when it applies

The format has critics. Inside Higher Ed quoted researchers who argued it was adopted quickly without being tested, and that examples wasted space on a central statement at the expense of real content. Those concerns bite hardest when a study's result is conditional, mixed or null, where a single bold sentence strips out the qualifications that make it true. They also apply at specialist meetings where readers come for methods. The fair reading is that a key finding statement is a tool for studies with one clear result and an audience that will not read every column, not a replacement for method and evidence.

Keeping the evidence on the board

A billboard poster still has to be a scientific poster. Keep the methods visible as short labelled entries, give the headline number its interval and sample size, show the one figure that supports the finding, and name the limitations. Put the detail a conversation would need in the supporting columns, and link the paper, preprint or data through a QR code. If the finding sentence and the evidence below it could be read as disagreeing, for example a strong verb above an interval that crosses no effect, rewrite the sentence rather than trimming the evidence.

Common mistakes

Turning the title into the finding and then repeating it word for word in the large statement wastes the most valuable space on the board. Making the statement a question or a teaser, such as what drives kelp loss, withholds the answer the format exists to give. Overclaiming causation from correlational data is common because a punchy sentence tempts a stronger verb. Setting the statement large but leaving the rest of the board as dense as a classic poster loses the benefit. And a statement longer than about two lines at display size stops reading as a headline.

Where it shows up in the poster builder

Two of the forty layouts are billboards: Billboard Key Finding in A0 portrait, which sets the finding across a coloured band in the middle, and Wide Billboard in A0 landscape, which gives it a full height panel on the left. On both, the key finding is a text slot holding up to 131 characters, so the sentence has to be tight. The portrait billboard has no QR slot, which matters for a format that relies on linking the detail. Key number blocks, on 27 layouts in total, carry supporting figures with their intervals. The climate science example uses the landscape billboard for its heatwave finding.

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