Summary of findings

Posters are a well-established way of presenting information at ASP conferences, and at anything other than small-scale events, the poster session is a ubiquitous feature. Despite its familiarity, research on the poster medium tends to be scattered amongst the inter-disciplinary literature, and most of the work produced tends to be of a ‘how to’ nature, and opinion-based. However, there were emerging studies in the reviewed literature that questioned the efficacy of poster presentations as a means of disseminating research (Goodhand et al., 2011), discussions of posters as a marginalized genre in knowledge communication (MacIntosh-Murray, 2007),

questioning posters as a valid form of publication (Adams & Pabst, 2004), and even the overall worth of poster exhibitions (Salzl et al., 2008). However, such studies were often related to a specific field or event, and lacked the transferable evidence that could examine poster presentation as a cross-disciplinary practice in terms of objectives, function and outcomes. This thesis aims to correct this, and address the overarching research question: What is the effectiveness of academic and scientific poster presentations and how do academics perceive their importance in knowledge transfer?

Sub-Study I failed to find evidence that evaluated the effectiveness of posters in direct comparison with other educational interventions. Furthermore, the reviewed studies were unanimous in their conclusions that the poster was not effective at facilitating knowledge transfer be it through an increase in knowledge, change in attitude or behaviour. This ran contrary to the routine poster practices that could be seen at many conference events, where poster presentation was perceived as an established way of sharing knowledge, and to function as a standalone entity as well as a presented medium (MacIntosh-Murray, 2007, p.348). The sub-study concluded that an integrated approach with supplemental material was required to achieve changes in user knowledge, attitude and behaviour, and that well-designed empirical studies are required to establish an evidence base to inform how posters may best be developed and implemented in order to achieve successful knowledge transfer.

Sub-Study II undertook a broader search of the literature, in order to chart the development and utilization of the poster medium, and to highlight the main literature themes and contributions. Poster presentation was established as a common cross-disciplinary practice, with massive levels of engagement and a global spread. Medicine and healthcare are its most prominent user groups, however, even the smallest disciplines showed high levels of engagement. Based on conservative published figures, it was further posed that poster presentation is likely to be the most numerically prevalent medium of information dissemination in mainstream conferences. However, the literature showed that conference poster presentation has not really been developed since its inception in the 1960s, and that the exponential increase in conference engagement from the 1970s has led to delegates being faced with an unmanageable mass of information to absorb. This has had a negative impact on both the effectiveness and perception of poster presentation. Based on published figures, conference outputs can be seen to exceed the annual journal article production by 76%, and this indicates that conference presentations are numerically the major form of scientific communication across academia, the sciences and the professions. However, the increasingly critical themes of the returned literature, together with basic applications of exposure prediction and effective reading rates show that delegates have little opportunity to access and engage with all but a small proportion of the information presented to them, and as a result, much of the research is lost or wasted. This is especially visible in the post-conference dissemination of

information, where the study showed that approximately 70% of conference oral papers and 99% of conference poster presentations are not disseminated beyond an abstract or title mention, and this is inadequate for enabling knowledge transfer. The failure to develop conference presentations is further evidenced by the Cochrane Review of Scherer, Langenberg and von Elm (2008, p. 6), who reviewed 79 reports and over 29,000 abstracts, and found that less than half of all studies, and about 60% of randomized or controlled clinical trials, initially presented as summaries or abstracts at professional meetings are subsequently published as peer-reviewed journal articles. As a final observation, the literature reviewed in Sub-Study II confirmed that poster presentation has long been used as a classroom intervention, is used within higher education as a form of presentation and assessment, and that conferences form a key component of the continuing education and professional development practices of a full range of disciplines and professions. However, conferences are mainly researched in their connection with the Meetings industry, and despite its prominence as a field of scientific communication, there is no established line of educational research related to conference practices and learning in the mainstream literature.

Sub-studies I and II showed a demonstrable degree of lost research in conference events, and the literature questions the efficiency of poster presentation as a medium of knowledge dissemination and transfer. However, published figures (ASAE, 2015; ICCA, 2014; CIC, 2014) all show that conference attendance has grown consistently over recent decades, so it can be surmised that other motivations are involved in poster presentation and conference attendance as a whole. Sub-Study III looked to obtain perspectives on how the poster medium is seen and valued by poster users. The survey respondents confirmed that they felt it was important for them to attend conferences. A hierarchy emerged where oral presentations were valued higher than poster presentations, and this is also reflected in the literature.

Poster presentation was not perceived as being effective as a standalone medium, and their limitations in being able to convey a sufficient depth of information were acknowledged. Respondents also confirmed their frustrations with managing the large amounts of information that is commonly on offer at conferences, and this was reflected in their own experiences of limited poster session engagement. Poster presentation was felt to be a good way of networking with fellow delegates, yet poster presenters reported only low levels of engagement with their work. Issues of visibility seemed important for both the presenter as an individual, and also in disseminating their research to others. However, their frustrations with managing the high volumes of information that they are faced with were clear, and they looked for ways that this could be better managed within conference events, and also in disseminating their work to a wider audience after the conference had concluded.

Sub-Study IV examined the motivations that exist to attend and present at conferences in more detail, and from an expert perspective. The main motivations

to attend academic conferences are to get together to share information, interact, and to discuss matters of professional interest. Doing so was commonly understood to create opportunities of mutual benefit, knowledge development, and forms the core motivation for conference networking. Delegates felt a need to demonstrate effective sharing and the quality of their activities, to increase their levels of visibility and interaction, and a need to have their activities and contributions acknowledged by others. However, when they considered how their activities and contributions were viewed and appreciated by others, their needs were not seen as being met. This may explain the mixed opinions on conferences expressed in the literature, and also offers a suggestion that a conference delegate can be both satisfied and dissatisfied with their conference experiences. Expert and novice conference attendees tend to have similar appreciations of both conferences and poster presentation, and the same issues are raised in mainstream literature, albeit un-collated and widely dispersed.

From the literature returns of Sub-Study II it is clear that members of the academic, scientific and professional communities are well motivated to attend conferences, and do so in vast numbers. These events meet their basic desire to congregate, interact, share work and to network with their peers. Conferences entail significant financial commitments and these are often met with external funding.

Conceptually, both delegates and funders gain reputation and visibility by presenting work at conferences, but this is limited by unpredictable exposure both during and after the event. Currently, conferences seem to cater well to what delegates want, but in order to address the disparity of opinion regarding their overall value, the survey and interview studies indicate that conference organizers and the higher education sector as a whole need to give more attention to what delegates need.

Importantly, the literature showed that there is a clear lack of research into conference activities, which is surprising given the significant position they hold in formative and continuing education, and also their cross-disciplinary reach across the sciences and professions. As conferences enjoy massive levels of engagement and expenditure, Sub-Study IV asks whether it should be considered as to whether improvements in quality, visibility and output may allow our conference activities to become an additional ‘currency’ which holds value not only for conference attendees, but also their institutions, funders, and the ASP community as a whole.

To underpin such developments, conference learning should be considered as a specific educational domain, and researched to an appropriate level (Sub-Study IV, p. 725). Overall, the cumulative evidence gained from both the literature and from poster users (expert and novice) suggests that our mainstream poster practices are inefficient at presenting information as a standalone medium, and that the required support of presenter engagement is not facilitated in mainstream poster sessions, especially those of larger events. This lack of engagement prevents the presented information being instilled as knowledge, and reduces its potential to be used and applied in other areas. As a result, whilst conference activities are highly valued

amongst the ASP community, the value placed on poster presentation is significantly lower. In addition to the inefficiency of in-conference knowledge dissemination and transfer, the dissemination of conference work to a wider peer audience (through journal article development) is less than 50% effective, and this expands to 99% in the case of the visibility of posters in anything but abstract or title form. In monetary terms, and based on conservative estimates and published studies, the monetary loss for such ‘lost research’ may amount to over 6 billion Euros (5.38 billion GBP / 6.96 billion USD) every year.

The implications of these findings, and an update on the current situation are presented in the Discussion section of this thesis (§5).