Poster Guidelines

Poster Guidelines and Judging Criteria

To guide teams as they create their team poster, the Judging Committee would like to outline the poster judging guidelines used to analyze team posters. Questions can be directed to Head Poster Judge, Martha Eborall, at 2014_Poster_Judges [AT] igem.org.

In iGEM, the purpose of the poster is to communicate the project to others in a very concise, yet engaging manner. Many posters in the past have been quite “busy” and “unbalanced” with regards to text, figures, and space. Although past winning posters may not have had this balance, it will be an important criterion in judging this year and in future iGEM jamborees.

Posters must conform to the following requirements (posters not conforming to these requirements will not be eligible for any special prizes):

• Dimensions = 4 ft. X 4 ft. (1.219 m X 1.219 m)
• Font size must be readable from a distance
  • Recommended font size for the body of the text is 24pt
  • Captions beneath figures should be 18 pt
  • While titles and headings should be larger than the body of the text, they should not be too large.

Expected iGEM Poster Components

Poster judges will expect the following components to be present in some manner:

• Title
• Authors and their Affiliated Institution(s)
• Introduction
• Methodology
• Results/Conclusions
• Acknowledgments
• Funding Attributions (If applicable)

Past iGEM teams have also elected to include additional components on their posters such as:

• Abstract
• Objectives
• Motivation
• Team Achievements
• Future Directions
• Human Practices
• Parts Submitted

In addition, some teams have elected to display supplemental materials at their poster station. These displays have included laptop/tablet presentations, team prepared pamphlets/handouts, and 3-D printed models. The supplemental materials will not be factored into the judging of the poster.

Poster Evaluation Criteria

Poster Judging Process