Academic conference posters: A systematic review

Introduction: Many faculty, postgraduate trainees, and students present posters to disseminate their research and engage in professional development. While reputable journals have formal guidance and rigor to their manuscript publication process, posters can vary more in quality. Both add value to the literature, but it is less clear what literature exists on the content and value of scholarly posters. We aimed to review the literature on academic-style posters. Methods: We systematically searched 10 education, psychology, and health-sciences databases to identify journal articles describing academic-style posters. Titles and abstracts were screened with articles sorted into categories. One author initially sorted, and another author reviewed/confirmed how each article was sorted. In this mixed-methods systematic review, categories were then examined either using qualitative thematic-analysis or quantitative content-analysis, wherein two authors independently reviewed each included article. Results: Our search yielded 3570 articles. The 439 remaining after title/abstract screening represented a range of professions/disciplines, mostly from health-professions. We inductively sorted articles into five categories: Poster Guidance, Poster Quality Rubrics, Posters within education, Technology Integration with Posters, and Posters as Supportive Aids. An overarching theme of posters as Science-based Visual Communication was observed across all five categories and integrated to enhance the overall description of posters (i.e., complementary). Conclusion: Visual Communication and Scientific Rigor were vital to poster quality, assessment rubrics had little psychometric evidence, and posters used in education settings appeared numerous and a promising pedagogical aid. These insights can be used to further improve assessment of posters and ultimately professional development of students/trainees/faculty.