Research poster. The Psychological Effects of Maternity Leave.

BEH.456
Research Poster Assignment
Instructions: You will work independently to design a research poster based on theresearch study that you and your team came up with.Why make a research poster?Posters are an important research tool for a number of reasons. They help to highlightyour most important findings, and offer excellent practice in scientific writing andpresentation. Poster presentations are the most common type of presentation atconferences and getting a poster accepted to a conference is a great CV booster. Onceyou are at a conference, having a good poster is important because it attracts morepeople to your session and therefore opens up opportunities for networking.Your poster must include the following sections:Title• Your title should be written in very large font• Your title should be interesting in order to draw attention to your poster• Your title should be a short and to-the-point summary of your research (i.e.,Effect of X on Y- only interesting)Title Format: Your title should NOT be written in all caps. Your title should be written ineither sentence case (Your title should look like this) or in title case (Your Title ShouldLook Like This).Introduction• Use bullet points• Use plain language- do not use jargon. People from outside of psychology shouldbe able to clearly understand everything you are describing.• Provide a very brief overview of the past research on the topic and cite yoursources (in-text citations)• Provide a clear explanation of why your research is important. Why does itmatter?• Introduction should end with info about your research (i.e. “The present researchaimed to examine the effect of X on Y”).Materials and Methods• Use bullet points• Briefly describe your participants, design, procedures, and the dependentvariables (DVs) used in your studyResults (graphics)• Your results are arguably the most important aspect of your poster and should befront and center• Ideally your results should be presented as graphs or tables (graphs arepreferable)• In addition to your graphics you will also include a bulleted section describingyour results in writingBEH.456Ruelens Fall 2020Conclusions/Discussion• Use bullet points• Describe the major takeaways from your studyo How does your study contribute to the greater literature?o What are the implications or practical applications of your findings?o What are some limitations of your research study?o What can future researchers do to fill the gaps that remain in theliterature?References• APA-style reference section that includes all of the citations referenced in yourposter• Remember, you should only include sources in your reference list that areactually cited in your poster. So, if you only cite 3 sources, your reference listshould only have those three sourcesNOTE: You can copy and paste sentences from your final research paper directly intoyour poster however, make sure that any information included in your poster is clear,concise, and to the point.Things to consider when formatting your poster• Poster dimensions must be 48in x 36in• Poster must not be too wordy (ideally no more than 800 words)• Use font sizes greater than 24pt. Someone should be able to clearly read themost important points on your poster from 10 feet away, so bigger font is better.• Use Arial font throughout.o If you want your section headers (Introduction, Methods etc…) to be in adifferent font than the rest of your poster, this can work but that should bethe only font difference.• Make each section easy to identify (e.g., Bold or otherwise enhance eachsection title: Intro, Methods, Results, Discussion, References etc…)• Keep spacing consistent throughout your postero In other words, the amount of space underneath and between eachsection (Intro, Methods etc…) should be consistent. You should not haveone inch of space under the Intro and then no space under the methods.The idea is to keep things as consistent and symmetrical as possible.• Ensure a clear flow of informationo In other words, your Introduction must come before your Methods whichcomes before your Results which come before your Conclusions etc…(see examples in the PPT slides for more information)• You can use one of the templates provided but you do not have to, you are freeto start from scratch when making your poster.o If you choose to use one of the templates, you are encouraged to movethings around, change colours etc… to fit your needso You are welcome to create a poster that fits the more standard format oryou can use the newer format. You can also create a poster thatmarries the two (this is preferable).BEH.456Ruelens Fall 2020How to design a poster in PowerPointNOTE: Publisher provides a greater variety of poster design tools and some peopleprefer to use it, but since not everyone has access to Publisher, and since it is harder tolearn, you will use PowerPoint for your poster in this class.1. Open a new PowerPoint document2. Go to DESIGN- (Slide Size)→ PAGE SETUP3. Set the dimensions to 48inches x 36inces4. To add colors and background, go to DESIGN, then BACKGROUND STYLES,and then FORMAT BACKGROUND• Might be DESIGN→ FORMAT BACKGROUND depending on your version5. When selecting a color for your background, remember that light is best becausea dark font shows up clearly on it. Avoid using a very bright or dark background.6. You can choose a solid color, or a gradient. For either selection, you can slidethe TRANSPARENCY bar at the bottom to make the color lighter and moretransparent.7. You will notice that you start with two boxes on your slide. The long rectangularbox can be moved to the top to accommodate your title.8. To add more boxes, go to INSERT-TEXT BOX. You can drag your boxes arounduntil you have them where you want them and then you can re-size them. Youmight want to start with 6 boxes: one for your title, one for your intro, one formethods, one for results, one for your discussion/conclusions, and one for yourreferences (add more as needed)9. You can add a chart or graph to your presentation by clicking in a box and goingto INSERT-CHART. You will find that there are a variety of graphs to add. Selectwhichever works best for your data.• For more information about how to add a chart or graph:https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-charts-and-graphs-in-yourpresentation-c74616f1-a5b2-4a37-8695-fbcc043bf526