Dear Balázs, I have never seen PICO technology but sometimes I experience that many of presenters at different conferences they cannot handle their time limit. If PICO does nott have any advantage only time controlling it is absolutely useful for keeping the agenda of a conference.

Dear Agnes, thanks for your comment.

Well, in case of EGU PICOs there is a well-defined and strict presentation session and a separate attendance session (PICO viewings).

Yes, you are right, the timing is probably the most problematic issue here. Our chairpersons were strict enough to keep more or less the timing, though 2-minutes contributions are by far more difficult to manage from both sides. Actually this year two contributors were not present, so this saved the presentation session. (My presentation was exactly 2:00 long, my co-authors confirmed that :-))

Thanks for reminding me to the importance of chairpersons who have to keep the session going; in case of PICO short presentations their behaviour is even more important.

Best regards, Balázs

DEAR Balázs, I have a quite vivid imagination to visualize how could I use PICO for assessing my students' reports or portfolios. Hmmm, its a common technology of the twenty-second century's higher education.....love it also now.....

Poster Research

As this thread concerns posters, I would like to draw you attention to some research I am doing. As we can see, there is debate over the value and validity of poster-presented information. I am conducting some interviews about people's views & experiences of conference posters. To participate, all you need is to be able to answer 'Yes' to the following question:

• Have you had direct experience of international Academic/Scientific conferences that use the poster medium ?

The interviews are conducted by exchanging questions & answers here on the Research Gate platform by private message. No one else can see your responses & you can write as much or as little as you like. No particular attention is given to language or presentation. We can either swap individual questions & answers (you can still ask things & expand like in a normal interview), or you can treat it like a survey & get all the questions at once.

More details are available in the attached invitation, or you can contact me by message on RG, or at: [email protected].

I hope you will take part & share your views on what is a very under-researched medium :-)

Dear Nicholas,

First of all, thank you for your contribution.

I have two remarks concerning that:

(1) PICO was invented to improve the researchers' acceptance of non-oral contributions. I don't know how far your study considers that, but I myself (see Point (2) as well) would not agree with the statement that a PICO is a poster. If you state that PICO is very similar to a (POSTER+POSTER WALKTHROUGH) or almost identical with (POSTER+PSD [see EGU for definition]) then I would agree.

(2) Being a (co-)author of somewhat less than 200 posters (incl. PICOs), I think I can state that posters are excellent vehicles for (a) research information dissemination (b) finding partners/problem solutions (c) supporting young and very young (BSc) scientists. I can add further aspects that are less relevant for the scientific community, but important for myself. (In this sense it seems that I am an appropriate test mouse for your study, so do not hesitate to contact me.)

I even can prove the usefulness of posters (but actually rather their abstracts) that I have received some 50 citations (of course, Pareto distribution) to our 200 abstracts (mostly posters).

But I do not want to spoil the discussion, so back to the PICO issue:

I think the real question here is, beyond the (scientific) usefulness of posters is their ephemeral or long-term acceptance as scientific output, at least for evaluators. My feeling (but just a feeling) is that PICOs are somewhat more valued than conventional posters in certain disciplines whereas in other disciplines people consider them as having a value of close to zero. (Not me, of course.)

Anyhow, it is an exciting topic that I am very much interested in.

Thank you again and kind regards,

Balázs

Dear Balázs,

Of course, PICO is an alternative to oral conference presentation, and there are different variants around. As a term, PICO is often refered to as a poster format, but the added dimensions are not usually stated in the term.  It is of course different, and brings a definate improvement to the exposure of information to delegates, and also the chances of interaction.

My research is quite advanced, and shows the wider attitude to poster presentations among the academic/scientific communities. 'Usefulness' is an individual construct, and if we take the increasing rates of poster publication by decade as an indicator, then many people clearly gain from using the poster medium. However, literature shows dissatisfaction with the attention and regard that is given to posters, especially at larger events (see AGU for an extreme example). Furthermore, by using things like reading capacity as a measure, you can demonstrate that only a certain amount of information can be consumed by any one person during a given time. This can be applied to titles, abstracts or entire posters, and if you apply it to the volume of work 'on display' at large events, the limitations are clear (again, see AGU). Educational theories (e.g. information transfer, knowledge development, dialogue, communities of practice, collaborative learning, image formation etc) all have an impact on how we can really evaluate the 'benefit' of conferences, and how likely any particular activity is to achieve its aims. Also, the lack of engagement with posters leads to a perceived lack of appreciation, both in terms of information transfer and also on an individual level. As you point out, this differs between disciplines and individuals, so whilst some may feel that their poster presentations are effective, many do not.

What is interesting though, is that even if people get 'lost in the crowd' at these big events, they still present posters in ever increasing numbers. The literature and theory show clear limitations, but evidently, we still enjoy and benefit from the experience. It is untangling these other motivations and benefits that is going to put another perspective on this much misunderstood medium, and hopefully make it better for everyone. 

Dear Balázs Székely

In my opinion PICO is a good choice to enhance conference efficiency.

Regards