Posters

A conference poster permits the display of research, projects, or ideas on a large poster board, generally with a layout that includes visuals, text, and graphics. The emphasis is on visual communication, and the intention is for attendees to digest the content at their own pace. The conference will include a drinks and poster reception, enabling interactions between the presenter and viewers, who can ask questions and discuss the content. This offers an engaging way to network with conference attendees on a one-to-one basis about your work. Presenters will also deliver a two-minute lightning talk to advertise their poster, prior to the reception.

Posters are a highly accessible approach to presenting your work, and offer a platform to share your work in a more informal setting compared to talks and walkthroughs.

Due to the logistics of delivering the poster session, poster presenters are expected to attend the conference in-person.

Conference attendees will be invited to vote for their favourite poster presented in the lightning talks, with prizes awarded for the top three.

Planning Your Submission

The purpose of a poster submission is to initiate conversation by delivering information in a concise visual format. Conference attendees will be able to view posters throughout the conference, so they should be comprehensible independent of their presenter.

Topics for posters could include:

• Promoting a successful research software project or tool
• Spotlighting a novel workflow that could help others
• Presenting research about the research software engineering community

Topics for posters have previously included:

• OCEANUM.LIVE: an open source, scalable, real-time, and unified meteocean data system for South Atlantic
• From prototype to production: developing a workflow for near-real time storm forecasting in Africa
• The Journal of Open Source Software

You are welcome to refer to these, and others in last year’s programme, for ideas on how to present your submissions. Please bear in mind that our conference themes change each year, and previous abstracts may not fully address the type of information requested during our submission process this year.

Information Required for Submission

When submitting your proposal for a Poster, you should consider:

• Title: Should describe what your poster is about. (max 50 words)
• Abstract: A brief and attention-grabbing summary of the content of your poster. (max 250 words)
• Prerequisites: Describe the required skills or knowledge for an attendee to fully engage with your submission. (max 150 words)
  • Have you considered how accessible your session will be to a diverse conference audience (attendees comprise people from academia, industry, charity and government, from beginners to experts)?
• Accessibility: Please comment on how you will ensure your content is accessible, which may include referring to relevant sections of the conference’s accessibility guidance, as well as any other considerations. Some key pieces to consider are:
  • Visually, have you considered the colours chosen as well as the shape and size of graphics and fonts?
  • You can also use automated accessibility checking tools to help ensure that you haven’t missed anything.

You will also be asked to provide:

• Author List: Please add all authors who will contribute to the submission
• Research Software Development Principles: Please select Research Software Development Principles that are relevant to your work. For clarification see information about these principles. (checklist)
• Reviewing Submissions: We need help to review submissions. Would you be interested in learning more about becoming a reviewer? (checkbox)
• Mentorship: If your submission is accepted, would you like a mentor?

Note that this conference is a hybrid event and posters will be published via the online conference programme for remote participants to view. Remote participants will also be able to attend the poster lightning talks. It is expected that the posters and lightning talks should provide a comparable experience for online and in-person participants (guidance will be provided for accepted submissions). Speakers will be asked to respond to any questions that are submitted via the conference’s digital questions platform.

If you would like to see example abstracts and different ways to present ideas, please refer to the programme from RSECon23. Please bear in mind that conference themes change each year, so the abstract there may not address this year’s themes.

Poster Guidelines

We want to make sure that all posters are as engaging and accessible as possible. If your proposal is accepted, please follow the below guidelines when designing your poster.

Format

The poster boards are 923 x 1810 mm, therefore the poster should be:

• A0 sized (841 x 1188 mm)
• Portrait orientation preferred

Audience and Outcomes

You should also consider the following:

• Your Target Audience
  • Would your audience require any prerequisite knowledge to understand your poster?
  • What information could you include to make your poster accessible to as wide an audience as possible?
• Core Message
  • What is the core message of your poster?
• Learning Outcomes
  • What do you expect your audience to gain/learn from viewing your poster?

Ensuring Readability

• Use clear, accessible, sans-serif fonts. (e.g. Tahoma, Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana)
• Legible text should be
  • 24pt+ for text
  • 48pt+ for titles
• Use an accessible colour palette that makes your content clear and easy to read for everyone.
• We also have more detailed accessibility guidance.

At the Conference

Posters will be displayed in a designated area, which will be open to all attendees for the duration of the conference. Successful applicants will be asked to meet the Poster Chair in the designated space on the morning of day 1 of the conference to set up the posters.

• You will need to print your poster and bring it to the conference venue.
• We will provide boards, hanging materials etc.

Additionally, the following events will take place:

Lightning Talks

Lightning Talks will take place during one of the plenary sessions. Each presenter will provide a brief, two-minute summary of the content of their poster to conference attendees. You may prepare a maximum of three slides for your lightning talk, but it is not required.

Participation in the lightning talks is encouraged as it can greatly increase interest in a presenter’s poster during the following poster session.

Poster Session

There will be a dedicated Poster Session, where each presenter will be expected to be beside their poster for the duration to answer questions and discuss the content of the poster. This session is expected to last for approximately one hour.

Judging and Prizes

Posters will be judged based on the following criteria, and prizes will be awarded to the posters with the three highest scores:

• Creative use of artwork/images/graphs/visualisations
• Logical flow and layout
• Clarity, readability and accessibility
• Public Vote – all conference attendees will be allowed to vote for their favourite poster, which will contribute towards the final score.

Posters are only eligible for the poster competition if they have been presented at both the lighting talks and the poster session.