publisher tips

The hashtag #RSCposter is short for, “ Royal Society of Chemistry poster,” and it blew up on science Twitter this week. This was a seriously organized event , with rules as comprehensive as I’ve seen for some in person conferences. Organizer Edward Randviir explains (lightly edited): The goal of this is to provide a new innovative conferencing format that takes advantage of modern social media... We also wanted to gives presenters a free platform to present and discuss their work, and encourage particularly young researchers to participate in academic discourse to build their confidence. Twitter was the most appropriate social media platform. Many professionals across a range of sectors use Twitter for professional purposes, unlike Facebook or other social media outlets. Twitter limits the discussion to 280 characters, which challenges participants to be concise while communicating key messages from their work. This was the fourth time the Society had done this, but it was the first ...

This Twitter thread by Laura Williams about poster presentations began: 83% expect 10 or fewer poster visitors at large meeting. This reminded me of an unfinished project: a formula to estimate how many people you could expect at your poster. This is how far I got: My efforts were inspired by the Drake equation . The attendance at the meeting ( N r for number ) is the maximum possible number of people who can see your poster ( V for viewers). Most of the rest of the terms in the equation are fractions that reduce attendance at your poster. Looking back on this was, my favourite factor in this equation (mid right) was, “ f c = fraction (of attendees) more interested in coffee (than your poster).” And the postscript to that still makes me smile: “GEOLOGY f b = beer.” Geologists do love their beer, I’ve heard.

I’m stepping a bit away from the poster board this week, so to speak, to talk about conference etiquette more generally. Conferences involve travel and eating out, usually in locations that cater to a lot of tourists (e.g., San Diego, New Orleans, Washington, DC) and partially hosted by hotels that are normally catering to business class. Since most conference attendees are usually early career stage scientists, cost is an issue. Amy Lynch-Biniek wrote : Tenured profs at conferences: adopt a “grad students and adjuncts don’t pay” rule at dinner/bar. Some did this for student-me and I never forgot. Kate Washington added : I was once in a grad-student dinner group that got stiffed by tenured profs who skipped out; I never forgot that either. In fairness, that would be rude behaviour from anyone , regardless of career stage. Drugmonkey, however, noted : I never assume that just because (someone is a) tenured prof = moneybags that can pick up $$$ dinner checks. Should be voluntary. Angel...

Earlier this week, I was at the 2016 Evolution meeting in Austin, Texas . The poster sessions ran for three nights, two hours a night, and I glanced at every single poster. The conference organizers underused their poster boards, as shown in the picture above. The instructions said that posters were supposed to be no wider than four feet, but the boards were probably seven or eight feet wide. This is a shame; I would have loved to use the whole space available. I wonder if the organizers were expecting more poster submissions. A few last minute posters were two to a board, and maybe they told people to keep posters small so they could double up on boards if necessary. But even if the conference organizers had told people they could make wider posters, I don’t think many people would have taken them up on it. I saw many posters in portrait format: very tall, skinny, and dangling off the bottom of the board. They looked awkward. I saw enough of them that I don’t think they resulted from...