Posters = publications?

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StephBee

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This might be a silly question but here goes:

Are posters considered publications? I've done several for my research (and a few in a very formal setting, requires presentation, Q and A etc). For instance, a secondary says "List your publications." I put my posters there but not entirely sure if that was approriate or not. 🙄

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No, posters are not considered publications.
 
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Publication is the highest achievement. Above chapters, abstracts, etc. A presentation could vary in it's impact if it was presented at a national conference vs your school it within your lab.

Generally, it's a publication if you can search on your name at pubmed.com and return a paper where you were one of the authors.
 
This might be a silly question but here goes:

Are posters considered publications? I've done several for my research (and a few in a very formal setting, requires presentation, Q and A etc). For instance, a secondary says "List your publications." I put my posters there but not entirely sure if that was approriate or not. 🙄

Let me break this down for you a little more. A poster, is a poster, like where you put stuff on a poster and talk about it.

A publication is where you actually publish something, usually in a magazine, journal of some sort, and other people can read it if they want.

If your still confused look at these links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poster_presentation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publication

And also this, cause its funny:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzdsFiBbFc
 
Alright, thanks guys!
I know a poster is nowhere near the level of an actual journal publication but it is at least getting the data out into the public.

I'm in the process of a few publications (will be 2nd author on one and who knows on the other) but they're not going to be ready for at least another 6 months so I tacked on a "working on journal articles" on the AMCAS description. 😛
 
publication= something comparable to what you would finad on pubmed.
poster= encompasses everything from a 3rd grade science project to your O. Chem lab final.
 
publication= something comparable to what you would finad on pubmed.
poster= encompasses everything from a 3rd grade science project to your O. Chem lab final.
Yeah...that's not what a poster is...

A poster presentation involves presenting the results of your experiments at a scientific conference (local, regional, or national). Your hypothesis, methods, data, etc, are on a giant poster so everyone can see your results. Generally, you either formally present it and take a Q&A afterward or stand next to it and take Q&A from whoever comes up to you and starts discussing your research.
 
Alright, thanks guys!
I know a poster is nowhere near the level of an actual journal publication but it is at least getting the data out into the public.

I'm in the process of a few publications (will be 2nd author on one and who knows on the other) but they're not going to be ready for at least another 6 months so I tacked on a "working on journal articles" on the AMCAS description. 😛

Poster presentations are legitimate things to list on a CV provided they were in a reasonably legitimate arena. That could range from a school wide general poster presentation to a national conference poster session.

The reason they're not on par with journals is the lack of peer-review. Posters are great ways to present preliminary data. You can present results that show interesting trends but hasn't yet been proven statistically or data that would just not be significant/notable enough for a journal publication. Because of that posters are decent but nothing special.

If you have a working title of the article in progress, it wouldn't be completely unreasonable to list it as "XXXXXX topic - manuscript in progress" if your group is close to writing it.
 
on the secondaries that ask about publications or on the AMCAS activities under publications, is it okay to write about something that is being written up by my lab considering i am 2nd author on it?
 
on the secondaries that ask about publications or on the AMCAS activities under publications, is it okay to write about something that is being written up by my lab considering i am 2nd author on it?
The AMCAS Publications designation is for pubs that have been accepted or published, which you can cite. If you have a paper in progress of being written or already submitted, you could mention it at the end of the Research section describing the project. But honestly, this doesn't mean much until it's peer-reviewed and accepted. Anyone can "say" they are writing a paper.
 
Yeah...that's not what a poster is...

A poster presentation involves presenting the results of your experiments at a scientific conference (local, regional, or national). Your hypothesis, methods, data, etc, are on a giant poster so everyone can see your results. Generally, you either formally present it and take a Q&A afterward or stand next to it and take Q&A from whoever comes up to you and starts discussing your research.

Try again? I fail to see how you disagree with what I posted.

Your post describes EVERYTHING from a 3rd grade science project (unless you had a weak 3rd grade science class that did not make you actually present your poster) to an O. Chem Lab final (I know from personal experience.... my second semester O. Chem lab consisted of designing a research project using the techniques we learned in the first semester lab).
 
Try again? I fail to see how you disagree with what I posted.

Your post describes EVERYTHING from a 3rd grade science project (unless you had a weak 3rd grade science class that did not make you actually present your poster) to an O. Chem Lab final (I know from personal experience.... my second semester O. Chem lab consisted of designing a research project using the techniques we learned in the first semester lab).
You were conducting independent research and presenting your data at scientific conferences as a 3rd grader? Your peers that you were presenting to were considered experts in the field? You had to field tough questions regarding experimental design and future directions, etc? Really? A "science project" is not the same thing as conducting independent research.

I'm curious, what grant funded your 3rd grade project? :laugh:

As for your orgo final, did you actually carry out your project and find potentially publishable results? Or did you merely design a series of experiments? And did your project have to be completely novel? Or were you just confirming already existing data?
 
Yeah I agree. There is a HUGE difference between a third-grade science project (and even an O-chem class presentation) and an actual scientific poster presentation.
Funding and the novel nature of findings are two of the many criteria that help distinguish the latter from the former.
 
You were conducting independent research and presenting your data at scientific conferences as a 3rd grader? Your peers that you were presenting to were considered experts in the field? You had to field tough questions regarding experimental design and future directions, etc? Really? A "science project" is not the same thing as conducting independent research.

I'm curious, what grant funded your 3rd grade project? :laugh:

As for your orgo final, did you actually carry out your project and find potentially publishable results? Or did you merely design a series of experiments? And did your project have to be completely novel? Or were you just confirming already existing data?

I wrote a response to you and when I hit submit reply, my session 'timed out'.... arg. So lets try this over.

The 3rd grade thing was more of a rhectorical device- the point I was trying to make was that people can get away with whipping together a weak experiment slapping it on a poster and BSing about it in crunch time. Obviously I am using a shade of hyperbole. But I have personally seen some terrible poster presentations so perhaps I am jaded.

Kaushik, since you have expressed a vested interest in my education allow me to entertain you...
In 3rd grade I was told that I had to do a presentation on force. I forget the time requirements and such but I want to say that the essay I wrote for it was 2 or 3 pages....I had to cut some out; evidently the teacher thought I was talking too much about gravity. It was up to me to come up with a hypothesis and experiment. I forget the specifics ( I am actually amazed I remember this much... just goes to show that elementary school should be used primarily for memorization heavy subjects but that is another topic....), I I know that my experiment had something to do with air pressure and the effects of air temperature on pressure. My experiment consisted of putting air of varying temps into bottles and putting the bottles into ice water. I personally funded the research with moneys collected from selling Ramen soup to my grandparents at a dollar per bowl.

My O. Chem Lab final was kinda in between. I was allowed to study someone elese work to come up with ideas for my own research. But my final had to be my own original research. I did mine on plastics recycling. I tried to recycle a plastic foam concocted by a classmate for his final. Amazingly enough it worked... although I had an awkward moment at my presentation when the Analytical Chem prof was convinced that one of my graphs was messed up.
 
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hope it makes sense now. These guys are right on it. Posters aren't publications.
 
publication= something comparable to what you would finad on pubmed.
poster= encompasses everything from a 3rd grade science project to your O. Chem lab final.

Um, no. Try presenting a poster at a major biomed conference and tell me its the same thing as your Orgo Lab final. Kthanx

I'll give you a brownie too if this eventually lead to a publication.
 
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