Research Poster Guidelines

Subject Areas

Students may submit a paper on any topic, provided that the student has worked with a faculty mentor from SUNY Orange throughout the course of completing that research paper, poster, or project.

Note: If a student has completed research with a mentor from another institution through a program sponsored by SUNY Orange, please contact Michele Iannuzzi Sucich (at michele.iannuzzisucich@ sunyorange.edu) to determine if that research is eligible for presentation at the SOARS Conference.

Approach

The methods and tools of research/analysis will vary from discipline to discipline. For example, field work might be part of an anthropology presentation while lab reports might be featured in a scientific or technical paper. All submissions must show the results of research, reflection, and an original perspective. Students should work closely with their mentors early on to determine the appropriate nature and scope of their research.

 

Criteria

Students’ work will be evaluated on the quality and originality of the research, as well as on the written submission. Mentors will receive feedback on the written component of the submission from faculty readers by mid-February. Students, in collaboration with their mentors, then have the option of making revisions to their written work before presenting it at the conference in mid-March. This deadline for feedback also will allow students interested in submitting a written paper to the regional Beacon Conference to use this feedback in preparation of their written work for the Beacon annual submission deadline in March.

 

Guidelines for Research:

• Research must include reputable academic sources.
• As with any research project, you are responsible for evaluating source material and ensuring the selection of credible sources. For example, Wikipedia is not considered a credible source because anyone can provide information to that website.
• In general, follow the guidelines of the particular discipline in terms of the expectations for scholarly research (i.e., for the sciences, peer-reviewed primary sources from scholarly journals).
• The method of documentation should be whatever is appropriate to the discipline (i.e., MLA for the Humanities, APA for the Social Sciences, CMS for History)

 

Submission Requirements

IMPORTANT NOTE: Students wishing to present a poster may submit EITHER a 200-300 word abstract OR a paper.

 

If Submitting an ABSTRACT, include:

• A title page
• A 200-300 word abstract including:
  • a statement of purpose (thesis)
  • a description of the work (the poster or the project)
  • a description of the research done in creating the work
• A list of the outside source material used (work cited page, reference list, or bibliography)

 

If Submitting a PAPER, follow these guidelines:

• A title page
• Minimum 3 double-spaced pages of text
• The method of documentation should be whatever is appropriate to the discipline (i.e., MLA for the Humanities, APA for the Social Sciences, CMS for History)

See details about the format of the abstract or the paper below.

 

About the Poster

The poster should be the visual representation of the research following the standards specific to the discipline. Students presenting a research poster at the SOARS Conference are required to submit their ABSTRACT or PAPER by the December submission deadline. The poster resulting from that research is NOT due in December. The poster should be completed in conjunction with a faculty mentor prior to March 1st. On March 1st the Undergraduate Research Task Force will follow-up with mentors to verify that posters are complete and satisfactory for presentation.

 

Format of Poster

Poster sessions allow effective one-on-one communication in an atmosphere of relaxed engagement. Care should be taken to design posters that quickly and easily convey the pertinent details of the work through the organized arrangement of visual materials like graphs, photos, diagrams, and a small amount of text.

• Posters should be constructed on a 36 in. x 48 in. tri-fold presentation board available at most office supply stores
• Text should be readable from a distance of 3 feet. The following font sizes are recommended: Title 96 pt.; Author and Mentor names 36-42 pt.; Subtitles/Headings 26 pt.; Body text minimum 16 pt.
• The use of shadow boxes (1/4” black border) around some or all poster elements is recommended.

 

Format of Written Submission

• The abstract or paper must be typed (Times New Roman font size 11 or 12 or Calibri font size 11, double-spaced), with left-hand margin of 1” and at least 1” top, bottom, and right.
• The title page must include:
  • student’s name, home address, e-mail address, and phone number
  • title of paper
  • faculty mentor’s name, e-mail address, and phone number
  • title of course for which the paper was written or the project was created, or a statement that the work was done independent of a course

Submission Process

• Each paper, project, brief, or poster must be submitted electronically to Michele Iannuzzi Sucich at michele.iannuzzisucich@sunyorange.edu.
• Each individual submitting to the conference must complete the submission form found on the SOARS web site.
• An e-mail from the faculty mentor must be sent verifying approval of the submission.

Submission deadline: Please see the Dates to Remember Page for the current submission deadline.