PAA Poster Sessions: Here to Stay...And Growing

In many scientific fields, posters have long been an important method of communication. They first appeared on the PAA program in 1994 and have grown in popularity since then. Reasons for their acceptance include flexibility­­viewers can determine the papers they view and how long they spend viewing them­­the author's accessibility, and the intensity of communication possible between author and viewer. Also, as is attested to by Mark Edwards, a graduate student at the University of Washington who won a Poster Award at the 1996 meetings, posters can have other advantages, like forcing authors to be more decisive about their results.

In recognition of the importance of posters, the organizers of the 1997 PAA meetings have decided to open poster sessions to direct submissions. As in the past, posters will also be used to accommodate papers submitted for oral presentation that session organizers are unable to accept. This year, however, authors will be asked whether they are willing to have a paper considered for a poster session. Only if the author is willing to prepare a poster version of their paper will it be sent to the poster session organizer.

In deciding whether to submit to a poster session, PAA members should consider the following:

• Can the research be presented visually? A 4x8 foot poster may actually accommodate more detail than the typical 15­minute oral presentation, but some papers ­­ for example, discussions of broad policy issues or theory ­­ may be difficult to summarize visually.
• Is the presenter willing to create a poster version of a paper? A poster presentation can require the same (or more) time and effort than an oral presentation. For example showing overhead transparencies of large, complex tables is a poor way to communicate results. Effective posters use good graphics, which take time to produce. They may also be unsuitable for later publication.
• Is the presenter interested in interacting with the audience one­on­one? Poster sessions are the same length as regular paper sessions, but if your poster is popular, you can count on talking with people for two hours, not just 15 minutes. Authors must decide whether this is preferable to the group discussion that can occur in a regular paper session.

If PAA members have specific suggestions for making poster presentations more effective, please send them to the co­chairs of the 1997 Program Committee: Karen Oppenheim Mason (fax: 808.944.7466 or MasonK@hawaii.edu) or Charles Hirschman (Charles@u.washington.edu).