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Picture of a student standing in front a research poster talking to another student.
Image from https://smhs.gwu.edu/news/celebrating-generation-knowledge-research-days

The GW Research Showcase is just around the corner! The School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) Research Showcase is at the University Student Center on April 25, 2024. This year’s Keynote Speaker, Omaida C. Velazquez, MD. will present “Gene-Modified MSCs and Direct Gene Therapy as Novel Strategies for Vascular Regeneration and Wound Healing.” The medical student poster session will be held from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm.

While the deadline for submitting abstracts has passed, you may still be working on putting your poster together. Himmelfarb Library can help! Our GW Research Day Resources Guide has helpful resources and tips that can help make your poster stand out. The Creating Effective Posters page has poster templates, official GW logos, and the official GW Color palette to help you stay consistent with GW’s brand. If you are creating your poster using PowerPoint, the video below on Designing an Effective Poster Using PowerPoint has useful tips on size, color selection, font choices, and including graphs, charts, and photographs in your poster.

The Poster Design and Layout page also has great tips on selecting the right font, resizing images, and getting posters printed. When choosing fonts, it’s best to keep things simple and use familiar fonts like Times New Roman or Arial. Images should be 300 dpi JPEG files or full-size PDF files. If you need to resize an image, make sure that you keep the proper proportions so the image doesn’t appear distorted and “squishy” looking on your poster. 

Once your poster is ready, it’s time to start thinking about how you’ll impress the judges. Here are some great videos that can help you prepare for giving your poster presentation:

The GW School of Public Health (GWSPH) Research Day was yesterday, April 9, 2024. If you participated in the GWSPH Research Day, don’t forget to submit your poster to Himmelfarb’s institutional repository, the Health Sciences Research Commons (HSRC). Archiving your poster in the HSRC is a great way to ensure that your poster is available to the global community of scholars! Archiving your work in the HSRC has several advantages:

  • Your poster will have a unique URL that you can include in your CV and use to promote your research. This unique URL will remain active even after you graduate from GW.
  • The HSRC is indexed in Google Scholar, which allows other researchers to find your work through Google Scholar searches. 

Submitting your poster to the Health Sciences Research Commons is easy! Simply email hsrc@gwu.edu to submit your poster directly or to ask for more information.

Photo of a woman presenting her research poster to another woman.
"2018 Earth Science Applications Showcase (NHQ201808010017)" by NASA HQ PHOTO is marked with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

With the GW Research Showcase (April 11th-14th) and the SMHS Medical Student Research Day (April 28th) just around the corner, it’s time to put the final touches on your poster! Himmelfarb Library can help! Our GW Research Day Resources Guide is filled with helpful resources that can help you make your poster stand out.

The Creating Effective Posters page has poster templates, official GW logos, and official GW color palette to help you stay consistent with GW’s brand. Are you creating your poster using PowerPoint? Watch Barbara McGowan’s video (below) on Designing an Effective Poster Using PowerPoint for tips on size, color selection, font choices, and content choices including using graphs, charts, and photographs. 

Check out the Poster Design and Layout tab for helpful tips on choosing fonts, resizing images and getting posters printed. When it comes to fonts, keep it simple and choose standard fonts like Times New Roman or Arial. Images should be 300 dpi JPEG files or full-size PDF files. If you need to resize an image, be sure to keep the proper proportions so the image isn’t distorted and “squishy” looking. For more tips on Optimizing Your Post Design and Layout, watch a recorded session led by Barbara McGowan and Himmelfarb’s own Catherine Sluder (access is restricted to members of the GW community). 

Want to know more about what judges are looking for in poster presentations? We have videos that cover that too! Learn how to impress the judges by watching the How to Present Your Poster and Wow the Judges video (access is restricted to members of the GW community). Learn more about Giving Effective Poster Presentations and Poster Presentation Practice and Feedback in these videos.

Once your poster is finished, don’t forget to archive your poster in the Health Sciences Research Commons (HSRC), Himmelfarb’s institutional repository! You can view posters from past years in the HSRC if you need some inspiration or just want to see examples of past posters. To find out more or to submit your poster to the HSRC, contact Sara Hoover at shoover@gwu.edu

All of us here at Himmelfarb Library wish you the best of luck at GW Research Showcase and SMHS Medical Student Research Day!

Himmelfarb Library extends congratulations to all the GW Research Showcase prize winners, and the residents and students who participated in this year’s event! Formerly GW Research Days, the Showcase highlights research and innovations across all GW disciplines. This year’s presentations were held via Zoom April 12th-14th.

If you participated and would like to provide a way for those who couldn’t Zoom in to see your poster/presentation, consider making it available in Himmelfarb’s Health Sciences Research Commons (HSRC). The HSRC has a space dedicated to Research Days/Showcase content and will make presentations searchable not only within HSRC, but also in Google Scholar.

HSRC record of a 2017 GW Research Days poster

Depositing presentations in a searchable, open access archive helps you build a CV and easily share and promote your work. Posters and presented papers are great candidates for HSRC as they are often not published in other sources. If you have published posters, presentations, or research articles, it can still be advantageous to include them in HSRC. Many publishers allow pre-prints of works to be archived for sharing. Even if this is not allowed, having citations linking to your works in one centralized space provides a unified online CV where others can see all of your research activities and interests.

Information on how to contribute works to HSRC is in the Author FAQ. If you have additional questions, please contact Sara Hoover, Metadata and Scholarly Publishing Librarian at shoover@gwu.edu.