1. Creating and Presenting Abstracts, Posters, and Talks UZ-UCSF Collaborative Research Programme Writing Workshop July Amy J. Markowitz, JD

2. Today's agenda
Abstracts
The basics
Trimming
Getting them accepted

3. The Single COMMANDMENT
Know Thy Data

4. Abstracts Emphasize the key message: (A > B)
Title = dynamic and conclusive, rather than descriptive
“Hypoxia Inhibits Kv1.5 Channels in Rat Pulmonary Artery Smooth Muscle Cells” is preferable to
“Effects of Hypoxia on Kv1.5 Channels.

5. The 4 parts of an abstract (A > B)
Introduction: Why would it matter? Hypothesis?
Methods: How (and how compared?)
Results: Show it. More (much more) important to feature one GOOD result than 20 mediocre findings.
Discussion: What it means.

6. Warning: My pet peeves Density
Too many numbers (e.g., P values, XS precision)
Too many words
Balance words and numbers
Abbreviations
Abstruse language or methods
Vacuous or repetitive conclusions (report immediately to the Dept. of Redundancy Dept.)

7. New JAMA Abstract Format

8. Another JAMA format Importance: 1-2 sentences Objective: 1 sentence
Evidence Acquisition: 3 lines re: lit search strategy or methods
Findings: Key findings; essential message
Conclusions and Relevance: 3-4 sentences

9. For clinical studies
Objective: Brief statement of main goals of the investigation.
Study design: Randomized, prospective double blind; retrospective case review; etc.
Setting: Primary care vs. Tertiary referral center; ambulatory vs. hospital; etc.
Patients: Primary eligibility criteria and key demographic features.
Intervention(s): Diagnostic, therapeutic, and/or rehabilitative.
Main outcome measure(s): Essential criterion that address study’s central hypothesis.
Results: Include statistical measures where appropriate.
Conclusions: Only those directly supported by data generated from this study

10. For bench/basic science reports
Hypothesis: Brief, clear statement of the main goals of the investigation.
Background: Concise orientation for the reader unfamiliar with this line of investigation.
Methods: Succinct summary of techniques and materials employed.
Results: Include statistical measures where appropriate.
Conclusions: Include only those directly supported by data generated from this study.
Emphasize clinical relevance wherever possible.

11. Background/Intro: Concise
Aim for < 20% of your available space
Include the Research Question
Could someone not familiar with the field say…
Why you did the study
How it advances current knowledge

12. Methods: 30% of Real Estate
Design – Study Type
Subjects – Clear I.D. of Cohort
Measurements – Description, not list
Analysis – Consider a Table, include Limitations
Implications – Key to pique interest
For example: We randomly assigned 1000 sedentary, ambulatory women over age 70 recruited from senior centers in the Boston area to practice tai chi for 60 minutes 3 times per week or to a wait list control for 6 months. Falls and fractures were self-reported using pre-addressed monthly postcards. We compared the frequency of falls and fractures in the two randomized groups using t tests.

13. Methods: Clear and Precise
Who (what) did you study? Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria
What, if anything, did you do to them?
How did you make your measurements?

14. Review: Organization of Measurements
Predictors before outcomes
Medical presentation
History, physical, simple lab, complex stuff
Explain odd decisions, missing data, etc.
“Appropriate” level of detail

15. Results/Analytics(40%)
Lead with the main finding – orients the rest of the abstract
How did you estimate the effect size?
How did you determine the precision and significance of the effect size?
Univariate
Multivariate (explain what you adjusted for)
Add Limitations section, if important for context

16. Efficient Presentation of Finding(s)
Major findings
Describe participants briefly
Present descriptive findings
Present analytic findings for both benefit and harm

17. Conclusions Summarize key findings
Do not simply repeat. Again. And again.
State clearly what you think your results mean
Practicing tai chi for 6 months reduced the risk of falls in sedentary older women. There were fewer fractures in the tai chi group, but this difference was not statistically significant, possibly due to the small number of fractures. Practicing tai chi may be a safe and effective way to reduce the risk of falls in sedentary older women.
Don’t just repeat the results. Say what you think the results mean for clinical care, public health or science.

18. Trimming abstracts Look for extra words:
“In this study we aimed to examine the” = 8 words
Vs.
“We examined the” = 3 words

19. Getting abstracts accepted
Match to the conference’s mission/scientific track
Follow the formatting and submission instructions
Don’t provide reasons to reject
Correlation (P[acceptance], reg. fee) > 0.8
1-minute principle (reviewer’s attention span)

20. Pre-submission Check Can you ID the study question?
Can you ID the study design?
Can you ID the critical finding?
Are limitations clear?
Can you discern the implications?

21. Essentials of Effective Slide and Poster Presentations UZ-UCSF Collaborative Research Programme Writing Workshop July Amy J. Markowitz, JD

22. PowerPoint Rules Keep the distractions to a minimum
Fonts, animation, graphics, colors (4-5)
Remember the color-blind
Minimum font size (this is 32)
This is 28
This is 24
This is 20

23. Use Explanatory (Results) Titles
Life is Tough
Life is Really Tough for Med Students
Life is Even Tougher for Junior Faculty
Life is Piece of Cake for Senior Faculty

24. Clues that Something is Wrong
It takes you > 10 minutes to make a slide
You have 20 minutes to talk and 40 slides
One slide per minute

25. The Talk Itself Arrive early Meet the chairs
Position friends in the front of the audience
Bring a glass of water
Don’t get spontaneous until you get good
Chuck the laser pointer

26. Don’t Read Your Slides Reading slides is boring and turns people off
Most will realize they don't have to pay attention to what the speaker is saying, and they will stop doing so
People can also read faster than someone can speak (can’t you?)
But don’t ignore what you’ve written

27. Posters Almost always contain too much data and too little information
The abstract is not needed unless mandatory
Put the key material at eye level in large fonts with simple tables and figure(s)
Use a (good) template

28. Posters, Panel by Panel Introduction and background
Subjects and methods (2-4 panels)
Results (3-5 panels)
With explanatory titles
Limitations
Conclusions and implications
Total of about 10 panels

29. Poster Fonts and Style Title = 85 point Your name = 56 point
Sub-headers = 36 point
Text = 24 point
Legends, tables = 18 point
Maintain consistent font size for the same type of text (e.g., headings all one font size, core text all one font size)
Use upper and lower case; left-justified
Double space after a period. Like this.

30. Using (not abusing) Fonts
Two per document or presentation
-Serif fonts for text
Garamond, Times New Roman, Book Antiqua, Bookman
-Sans serif for tables, figures, legends, headers
Arial Narrow, Arial, Tahoma, Trebuchet MS, Verdana
Courier lines up vertically
One line is right under another

31. A Few Points about Figures
Depict a SINGLE point/Answer a SINGLE question
Make the message clear
Don’t “distort”
Use easy-to-read colors 31

32. Causes of neuropathy in 112 primary care patients
Pies = good in bakeries 32

33. 33 Annual risk of hepatoma by age and alcohol consumption.
3D = hard to read 33

34. Hepatoma risk increase with age and alcohol use
A better version 34

36. Insert Your Poster Title Here
Names of the Researchers
Names of the Institution can be placed here
Delete me & place your
LOGO
in this area.
Delete me & place your
LOGO
in this area.
Background
Participants
Results
Conclusion
Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text. You can change the font size to fit your text. Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text. Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text. Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text. Insert your text here.
Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text.
Second point here
Third participant goes here
Information about fourth goes here
Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text.
Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text.
Second point here
Third conclusion goes here
Information about fourth goes here
Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text. Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text. Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text. Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text. Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text. Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text.
Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text. Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text. Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text.
Title of Chart, Graphic, or Text Here
Objectives
Results
Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text. Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text. Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text. Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text. Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text.
Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text.
Second point here
The third point can go here
Information about fourth goes here
Methods
Title of Chart, Graphic, or Text Here
Insert your text here.
Put your second point here.
Third point here.
Title of Chart, Graphic, or Text Here
Insert your text here.
Put your second point here.
Last point can go here.
Measures
Future Directions
Subtitle One Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text. Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text.
Subtitle Two Insert more text here. Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text. Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text.
Subtitle Three Insert more text here. Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text. Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text. Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text. Insert your text here.
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Title of Chart, Graphic, or Text Here
Insert your text here.
Put your second point here.
Last point can go here.
References
Insert your references here
Second reference here
So on and so forth
This research was supported by …

37. Department Name and Institution Name can go here
LOGO
Delete me & place your
in this area.
INSERT POSTER TITLE
ON THESE LINES HERE
Name of Author
Department Name and Institution Name can go here
BACKGROUND
MATERIALS AND METHODS
RESULTS
Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text.
You can also make this box shrink or grow with the amount of text. Simply double click this text box, go to the “Text Box” tab, and check the option “Resize AutoShape to fit text”.
The background of this template may appear blue on your screen, but it does print lavender.
Title One
Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text. You can also make this box shrink or grow with the amount of text. Simply double click this text box, go to the “Text Box” tab, and check the option “Resize AutoShape to fit text”. The background of this template may appear blue on your screen, but it does print lavender. Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text. You can also make this box shrink or grow with the amount of text. Simply double click this text box, go to the “Text Box” tab, and check the option “Resize AutoShape to fit text”.
Title Two
Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text. You can also make this box shrink or grow with the amount of text. Simply double click this text box, go to the “Text Box” tab, and check the option “Resize AutoShape to fit text”.
The background of this template may appear blue on your screen, but it does print lavender. Insert your text here.
You can change the font size to fit your text.
You can also make this box shrink or grow with the amount of text. Simply double click this text box, go to the “Text Box” tab, and check the option “Resize AutoShape to fit text”.
Title Three
Title Here
Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text. You can also make this box shrink or grow with the amount of text. Simply double click this text box, go to the “Text Box” tab, and check the option “Resize AutoShape to fit text”.
The background of this template may appear blue on your screen, but it does print lavender. Insert your text here.
You can change the font size to fit your text.
You can also make this box shrink or grow with the amount of text. Simply double click this text box, go to the “Text Box” tab, and check the option “Resize AutoShape to fit text”.
Another
graphic or chart
can go here
Your caption can go here.
PURPOSE
CONCLUSIONS
Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text.
You can also make this box shrink or grow with the amount of text. Simply double click this text box, go to the “Text Box” tab, and check the option “Resize AutoShape to fit text”.
The background of this template may appear blue on your screen, but it does print lavender.
A graphic or chart
can go here
Another
graphic or chart
can go here
A new kernel has been introduced in SVM prediction of protein subcellular localizations.
The new method outperforms the corresponding conventional k-peptide encoding method.
The new method outperforms the Frequent Subsequence-Based SVM module used in PSORTb v2.0.
Your caption can go here.
Your caption can go here.
REFERENCES
Title Can Go Here
Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text. You can also make this box shrink or grow with the amount of text. Simply double click this text box, go to the “Text Box” tab, and check the option “Resize AutoShape to fit text”. The background of this template may appear blue on your screen, but it does print lavender. Insert your text here. You can change the font size to fit your text.
Reference here
Second reference
Third reference
Insert your acknowledgements here. This research supported by…

38. What To Do at a Poster Session
As a presenter: It’s your party!
Meet your neighbors
Invite (famous) strangers
Greet your guests
Engage them enthusiastically
Rehearse an “elevator speech”

39. What To Do at a Poster Session
As a visitor
Spend 5 minutes identifying which posters to visit
Don’t look and then decide the party is boring
Introduce yourself to the host
Learn something new, make a new contact, support your friends