Perspectives on judging posters

Posters sessions are popular informal forums to share emerging scientific results as they encourage discussion beyond results to include methodology, problems, and solutions. On the other hand, when there are too many posters, people suffer from cognitive overload and so are incapable of seeing and appreciating all of the research. Moreover, posters sessions are less well attended than presentations and as a consequence some authors leave the poster unattended. Poster competitions are one means to encourage presenters to stay at their post and people to come (especially when there are free refreshments). To identify the best poster(s) requires a simple scoring scheme, motivated judges who necessarily examine half-a-dozen or more posters, and a calibration method to account for differing opinions between judges. Judging is imperfect but we should be capable of agreeing which posters are among the top 10%.