MEDICAL STUDENT RESEARCH THESIS Poster Evaluation Rubrics Presenter ______Poster Title ______Evaluator ______

CATEGORY 2 1 0 Overall Appearance Very pleasing to look at. Pleasant to look at. Pleasing Cluttered or sloppy Particularly nice colors & use of colors, text, and appearance. Gives the RULE: Use a light background color, graphics. graphics. impression of a solid mass solid non-gradient fill pattern; 2 or 3 font of text & graphics, or colors; dark text on light background WINNER: An effective visual scattered and disconnected best. display of data… an “illustrated pieces. abstract.” White Space Lots. Plenty of room to rest Okay. Sections of the poster Very little. Gives the the eyes. Lots of separation. are separated from one impression of a solid mass RULE: Don’t create large, monolithic another. of text & graphics. blocks of text. Text / Graphics Balance Balanced. Text & graphics are Balanced text & graphics are Too much text. An evenly dispersed in the poster. evenly dispersed in the overwhelming impression RULE: Use graphics (pie, bar, line) when Enough text used to explain poster. But there is not of text only. OR possible to present data but don’t force the graphics. enough text to explain Not enough text. Cannot audience to guess the point of the graphics. understand what the graphic. graphics are supposed to relate. Text Size and Accuracy Very easy to read. Fonts Easy to read main text from Too small to view main large enough to read from 2 1 to 1.5 meters. But text in text comfortably from 1 to RULE: Use 16 point font at the bare meters and consistent. figures too small. 1.5 meters. minimum, preferably SANS SERIF. All words and terms spelled Misspellings of words or Must run spell check and check spelling correctly. terminology. of medical and research terminology. Organization & Flow Explicit numbering used or Implicit flow used by making Cannot figure out how to columns used to indicate headings stand out move through poster. RULE: Use headings in contrasting color; logical flow (top to bottom, then (Methods, etc) use 3 or 4 column format for flow. L to R) Author Identification Complete. All names listed Partial or incomplete. Not None. with affiliations. Enough enough information to contact RULE: Identify authors & affiliations. Drop information to contact author by author without further the dot in PhD, RN, and after first initials; mail, phone or email. research. use comma to separate names. Research Objective Explicit. This includes Present, but not explicit. Can’t find. headings of “Objectives”, Buried at end of “Introduction” RULE: Tell readers why your work “Aims”, “Goals”, etc. or “Background.” matters!! Research Method Complete. This includes Partial or incomplete. Cannot figure out how to Main Points research design, eligibility Not enough information to make sense of method criteria, overall N for the comprehend method and section. RULE: Tell reader about the design, sample, predictor, outcome, main variables in the study, sample, and main variables relevant to and confounding variables, if especially the outcome the research objectives/aims. applies. variable. Results Explicitly labeled. Uses Present, but not explicit. Can’t find. heading, e.g. “Main Points”, May be embedded in RULE: Share just the main results “Conclusions”, “Results” monolithic blocks of text. relevant to the research objectives/aims. Discussion/Conclusion/Recommendation Explicitly labeled. Present, but not explicit. A None. “Discussion”, “Conclusions”, summary is given under the RULE: Interpret findings, summarize and and “Implications” heading is “Conclusion.” No “Discussion”

Adapted from "60-Second Evaluation" by Hess, G.R. at the site: Creating Effective Poster Presentations. http://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters recommend, what’s next… used and stands out. or “Implication.”

Adapted from "60-Second Evaluation" by Hess, G.R. at the site: Creating Effective Poster Presentations. http://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters