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11-12 April, 2025

Doctors of the Future Conference

Poster Requirements

Poster Guidelines

Poster submission deadline is December 21, 2024. Only qualifying students will participate in the Doctors of the Future Conference in April 2025. 

Once your proposal has been approved, please follow the details below to prepare for your poster presentation. The poster is a tool to present your research and its findings; it builds upon the proposal and goes into further details.  Poster size, fonts, titles, and subheading formats are fixed to give the poster presentation a uniform appearance. For the submission of posters, all the specified guidelines must be followed carefully.

Click here for poster template.

Poster Content and structure

The poster should include:

  1. Title
    The title of the poster is a very important part that attracts the audience to read through your poster.  Keep the title short, interesting, and relevant to your topic.
  2. Introduction
    The introduction should give a clear and concise description of the selected topic, mention the significance of the topic to sustainable development, and give some background of the topic.
  3. Methods/literature review
    Discuss the approach used and the reasoning behind it. For some of the topics, a literature review is the only feasible option; you can also title this section literature review.
  4. Results and Discussion
    This is the area where you present your findings and discuss them.  Results or findings can be collected through interviews, experimental or fieldwork, and from reading through others' work.  In the discussion, you can talk about your findings and your opinion.  It’s good practice to use charts and graphs in this section.
  5. Conclusion
    Briefly review your findings here, with concluding remarks.  Mention why your findings are interesting, and prospects for future research.
  6. Acknowledgments
    Mention the names of teachers, mentors, advisors, and counselors who have helped you gather and present material for your research.
  7. References
    It is crucial for any professional work to be referenced properly. Please use the APA style referencing to reference papers, websites, etc. for the information that you collect to present your work.

    For APA style referencing guide, visit the link : https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

Poster Specifications

Please pay special attention to the details below:

  • Poster Dimensions: 85cm x 140xm (portrait)
  • Horizontal or Landscape format will NOT be accepted.
  • File Naming – High School Name-Team Number-HSMC19.
    Ex: Debakay-Team1-HSMC19
    Note: your team number was conveyed to you on the acceptance email.
  • File Type – Please submit original PowerPoint file.
  • Page set up in PowerPoint = 85cm W x 140 cm H
  • Fonts – recommended to use San Serif font like Arial, Calibri, Tahoma, Verdana
  • Title of poster – font size minimum 66pt to 96pt
  • Section headings – font size 40pt to 50pt
  • Sub section headings – font size 4pt to 8pt less than section headings.
  • Content of poster – font size 24pt to 36pt
  • Pictures/graphs/illustrations description – font size 24pt to 28pt
  • Acknowledgements and references – font size 24pt to 28pt
  • Line spacing – 1.5 or double. Do not single space.
  • The size of your font will depend on word count and other factors.
  • Do not extend text boxes to edge of poster.
  • Make sure to include adequate margins in the textbox.

Notes:

  • Starting with the right size is important as changing the size once you have worked on the poster will create problems when printing.
  • All posters should be produced using PowerPoint.
  • When using photos, graphs, logos, make sure they are high resolution, if not they will look out of focus.
  • The use of solid color full backgrounds is not recommended. Especially black or any other dark color. But do use colors for box outlines, title font or where it compliments poster.
  • Try not to use too many different fonts, best to use only one type, if required you can use up to two different types.
  • Use simple and plain language for the content of the poster.
  • If you have lots of information to share with the audience, use a handout.
  • The design should look good, using attractive colors, graphics and typography.
  • A poster is read like a newspaper or magazine, with headings at the top and content starting in the upper left corner and reading down the page in columns that are arrayed across the page from left to right.

Use of art:

  • Please use PHOTOS, ILLUSTRATIONS, CHARTS, GRAPHS, ETC. to compliment your work. This will make your poster more interesting and more easily read. If using photographs or illustrations please find the highest resolution possible.

Logos:

  • There is a logo box on the template. Please use your school logo in this attached space.

Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is central to WCM-Q’s educational mission. Students participating in the research competition are required to abide by the standards of academic integrity and are not allowed by any means to copy or plagiarize their submissions. Integrity entails a firm adherence to a set of values, and the values most essential to an academic community are grounded on the concept of honesty with respect to intellectual efforts of oneself and others. A submission indicates that the work is that of the student teams. All sources (journals, websites, AI tools, and other means) must be properly cited using the latest APA format, and outside assistance, including that of your teachers or others, should be properly acknowledged.