Insights on poster preparation practices in life sciences
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Abstract
Posters are intended to spark scientific dialogue and are omnipresent at biological conferences. Guides and how-to articles help life scientists in preparing informative visualizations in poster format. However, posters shown at conferences are at present often overloaded with data and text and lack visual structure. Here, I surveyed life scientists themselves to understand how they are currently preparing posters and which parts they struggle with. Biologist spend on average two entire days preparing one poster, with half of the time devoted to visual design aspects. Most receive no design or software training and also receive little to no feedback when preparing their visualizations. In conclusion, training in visualization principles and tools for poster preparation would likely improve the quality of conference posters. This would also benefit other common visuals such as figures and slides, and improve the science communication of researchers overall.
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Most researchers receive no design training and often little to no feedback when preparing visual materials for poster presentations.
“Jambor et al. found that most researchers receive no design training and often receive little to no feedback when preparing their visual materials for poster presentations [20].”
From What Makes a Good Poster? Evaluating #BetterPoster and Classic Formats at a Scientific Cancer Conference (2026) · cites this paper as [20]
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Ten simple rules for a good poster presentation.
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Bentsen, L., & Østergaard, D. E. (2026) · Journal of Cancer Education · doi:10.1007/s13187-025-02622-1 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
- Authors
- Jambor, H. K.
- Affiliations
- Nationales Centrum für Tumorerkrankungen Dresden (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Jambor, Helena Klara
- ORCID
- Jambor, Helena Klara
- Venue
- Frontiers in Bioinformatics
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2023-11-01
- Volume
- 3
- Pages
- 1216139-1216139
- ISSN
- 2673-7647 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC10646475
- OpenAlex
- W4388126619
- Cited by
- 7
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3
- FWCI
- 5.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Frontiers in Bioinformatics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Qucosa (Saxon State and University Library Dresden) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Technische Universität Dresden
- Deutsche Krebshilfe
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Academic Writing and Publishing
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Data Visualization and Analytics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Academic Publishing and Open Access
- Keywords
- poster preparation, scientific poster design, visual design, scientific visualization, life scientists, conference posters, science communication, visualization training, data overload
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