The 2016 Astronomical Society of Australia’s Annual Scientific Meeting is over for another year – congratulations to all involved for a wonderful conference.
Naturally enough, I’ve been pondering conference posters for the last week. Here is my unsolicited advice.
Title
I’ll probably read a poster in spite of a boring title, but do yourself a favour and make it interesting. In particular, make your title a scientific claim. I got this idea from Josh Peek, who makes the title of every slide of his talks a summary of the slide, not just the theme. E.g. instead of “Observations”, put “We observed 234 galaxies”. Instead of “Modelling”, put “A warped disk fits our data”.
My preference (comment if you disagree) is for titles that are claims. E.g. Instead of “The GALAH Survey: An Overview”, put “GALAH will survey 1 million stars”.
Also, consider a subtitle: a one sentence summary of your poster.
Abstract
Always start the main body of text with an abstract or summary. I won’t read every word on every poster, so don’t make the point of your poster hard to find.
Also, put the introduction after the abstract. I found myself being irritated by posters with vague titles that then started with “There are lots of stars in the sky. Stars are bright. …” I found myself scanning through the poster to try to find what was new, what I could learn.
Language and Layout
- This is a lesson from writing grant proposals, but beware of soft verbs like characterise and classify. Even probe can be a bit weak. Tell us what the science goal is, even if you’re not there yet.
- Flow charts and diagrams are very useful. Equations are particularly useless on a poster.
- Light text on a dark background, or vice versa. Contrast,contrast,contrast.
- Don’t make the text too large. Readable from a metre away, not from across the room.
- Include a photo of yourself
- Labels, comments and arrows on plots are great. In particular, summarise the point of the plot in one sentence. E.g. “This model (arrow to line), which includes stellar feedback, best fits the data.”
Have I missed anything? Comment below!
Letters to Nature 
Sounds to me these are mostly good advice for blogs too!