research topic presentation

Newly Launched - AI Presentation Maker

AI PPT Maker

Powerpoint Templates

PPT Bundles

Kpi Dashboard

Professional

Business Plans

Swot Analysis

Gantt Chart

Business Proposal

Marketing Plan

Project Management

Business Case

Business Model

Cyber Security

Business PPT

Digital Marketing

Digital Transformation

Human Resources

Product Management

Artificial Intelligence

Company Profile

Acknowledgement PPT

PPT Presentation

Reports Brochures

One Page Pitch

Interview PPT

All Categories

Research proposal steps powerpoint presentation slides

Easy manual editing option to alter PPT background, font, text etc. No pixelate problem comes even while projecting on wide screen. Ready to use for students, teachers, consultants, project planners etc. Complete pre built set of 29 presentation slides. Freely insert text, title, logo, animation or videos as per requirement. Works well with all modern software's. Short downloading process triggers with just a click. The stages in this process are parallel computation thesis, dissertation defense, compilation thesis, grey literature, comprehensive examination, doctoral thesis, masters thesis, bachelors thesis, phd thesis.

If you are confused to kick start your next research proposal steps slide presentation, then we can help. With help of our sample research proposal presentation deck you can lay emphasis on different components as well as elements of research proposal thereby helping students in writing proposals. Besides this, using PowerPoint presentation slides of our pictorial show you can also illustrate the purpose of research proposal. Additionally, our PPT sample file supports in briefing students about the procedure for writing a research proposal. Furthermore, with help of this visual communication you can easily convince the audience about problem purpose to investigate is significant enough. To make this PPT model even more precise innovative presentation templates like methods of approach – limitations, work plan with timetable, implication of research etc. are just a few to name here. Good thing here is that to get the customized PowerPoint show you can also contact our graphic designers. Why to wait now? With our PowerPoint presentation example of research proposal you can easily get the best results. Just click to quickly download. Bank on your judgement with our Research Proposal Steps Powerpoint Presentation Slides. Allow your inner belief to assert itself.

Parallel Computation Thesis
Dissertation Defense
Compilation Thesis
Grey Literature
Comprehensive Examination
Doctoral Thesis
Masters Thesis
Bachelors Thesis

Academic student research proposal powerpoint presentation slides

Introducing our Academic Student Research Proposal PowerPoint Presentation Slides to help you design a creative proposal. This expertly-designed proposal theme is all you need to make a research report as the fonts, graphics, and icons can be easily edited. The templates are also accessible in PDF, JPG, and PNG formats. Moreover, the theme is compatible with Google Slides as well.

Academic research is a detailed study of a problem carried out to discover new facts by means of systematic and scientific procedures. Research can be done on any particular topic to understand the phenomena better. If you are to make a research report in a span of minutes, our Academic Student Research Proposal PowerPoint Presentation Slides can be of great help. Capture your clients’ attention by designing an impressive proposal and pitch your research services confidently. Describe your research topic in brief using our smartly-planned cover letter of this proposal. List various components of your proposal in the form of a table of contents. Provide an abstract and discuss the beginning, opportunity, expectation, methods, and findings of the thesis. Mention the scope and conclusion as well in the abstract sheet. Construct a plan of action with the help of Academic research proposal ppt and concisely elucidate the beginning of the topic, knowledge of research arts, the background to the study, the significance of the study, and previous research experience in this field. Provide a short overview of the issues that need to be addressed such as, problems in the research area, typical constraints found in a project, current practices in resolving these constraints, and research advancement in these constraints. With the help of a scholarly research PowerPoint slideshow, prepare a questionnaire and display the hypothesis. Explain the project context and objectives based on the subject by employing this scientific study PPT theme. Showcase literature review and illustrate your research methodology using compelling icons. Disclose the various sources for collecting data like primary and secondary sources using our artistic research PPT template. Walk down your clients through data analysis strategies that you implement to discover the facts. Create a timeline to provide an idea of the time required for completing the research. Inform your clients about the study constraints such as lack of previous study and scope of discussions proficiently. Immediately download this scholarly examination PPT design and create an informative research proposal.

Proposal Templates

Research Proposal Template Powerpoint Presentation Slides

Presenting Research Proposal Template PowerPoint Presentation Slides. You can alter the color, font, font type, and font size of the proposal as per your needs. You can save the file in various formats like PDF, JPG, and PNG. It is available in both 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratio. This template is compatible with Google Slides which makes it easily accessible at once.

Research is done by marketers to know the customer’s needs and wants. It helps to gather information about the latest market trends which an organization later uses to establish its product. The main purpose of this is to fulfill the requirements of potential customers. Without researching the latest target market, an organization can't launch their new product successfully. Presenting our content ready Research Proposal Template PowerPoint Presentation Slides where you can offer your services to your clients with ease. With the aid of this outwardly engaging market research proposal PPT layout, you can make a good-looking proposal and tweak the content accordingly. Use the research proposal presentation template to mention the skills and expertise of your highly-professional staff that assist your clients in completing their goals. The proposal PowerPoint theme consists of a table of contents that includes the research context & objectives, sampling demographics, client testimonials, investment on a project, statement of work & contract, etc. Take the assistance of this attention-grabbing market research proposal PPT slide to explain the overall time frame in completing the research phase, design phase, analysis phase, and project completion. Employ our professionally designed proposal PowerPoint presentation to showcase the methodologies like survey, focus group, interview, and customer feedback that are provided by your company. With the help of this visually-attractive research proposal PPT theme, you can talk about the targeted demographics of the market that holds the interest of your clients. Take advantage of the PowerPoint presentation template to highlight your accreditations and certifications that make your proposal even more impactful. To add a modern touch to your proposal, you can showcase your sample designs and successful projects. Highlight your advanced technologies to the clients and gain their confidence in a positive manner. Enhance the brand productivity of your client in the market by downloading our ready-to-use research proposal presentation templates.

Research paper proposal powerpoint presentation slides

Presenting our Research Paper Proposal PowerPoint Presentation Slides. It is completely editable and adaptable according to your preferences and requirements. Take advantage of this professionally created PPT design that allows you to add or edit any text, image, and graph to your presentation making it more attractive and educational. It can also be presented with a different colour, font, font size, and font types. The entire shape and appearance of the objects can be changed in this PPT layout. This template also supports standard (4:3) and widescreen (16:9) format. It presents you with thousands of icons for your topic to choose from. This slide is also suitable for Google slides. Download this PowerPoint presentation and take a step towards growth for your business.

Dissertations help you to develop critical thinking and writing skills. It not only enhances your knowledge but provides an in-depth understanding of the topic based on proper analysis, interpretation, and arguments. Convincing your audience with your research project is an art that requires a lot of investigation and fact-finding. With our, Research Paper Proposal PowerPoint Presentation Slides present your thesis in an organized and systematic manner to impress your audience with your findings. Exhibit the content of your study to your viewers and grab their attention by demonstrating the aims and goals of your research project proposal through this PPT slideshow. Give a brief summary of your project to showcase the issues addressed, constraints found, current practices, and advancements by taking the aid of this academic writing PPT template. Elaborate on the primary hypothesis statement to define the change that you are testing and its impact with the help of this scholarly paper PPT slide. Mention the methodology adopted to execute the paper and to solve the problem with the assistance of this PPT theme. You can highlight the key information like literature review, sources of information, target area, and target population by employing our research material PPT presentation. Pitch your research proposal presentation in an attractive yet informative way with our content-specific PPT layout. Our expertly created PPT design lets you elucidate the data collection strategies clearly and concisely. Efficiently display the timeframe for each task with visually attractive infographics of this amazing search report PowerPoint template. You can easily identify the challenges in the survey and findings that hinder the scope of studies with these slides. Maintain the authenticity and credibility of your research by implementing this bibliography template in your survey work PowerPoint presentation. Without waiting any further, take the opportunity to impress your audience and hit the download button.

Research Proposal For Thesis Powerpoint Presentation Slides

SlideTeam introduces Research Proposal For Thesis PowerPoint Presentation Slides. This 100% editable complete PPT deck is replete with 25 visually-impressive templates. The intuitive layout of all the PowerPoint slides requires no prior design experience to execute customization. Modify text, patterns, colors, font, shapes, background, and orientation to achieve desirable results. Convert the PPT file into formats like PDF, PNG, or JPG as and when convenient. Use standard or widescreen resolutions to access this presentation. It is compatible with Google Slides.

Having a hard time scoring sponsors for your research project? More likely than not, it is a lack of a professionally-designed dissertation proposal. SlideTeam brings you the all-new Research Proposal For Thesis PowerPoint Presentation Slides. Industry experts decide the content, design, and the sequence of our research proposal PowerPoint theme. Researchers gather and refine insightful data, which is arranged in a visually-gripping manner by designers. Understanding the ingredients to a responsive PowerPoint proposal demands trial and error. SlideTeam developers possess a combined experience of millions of slides like this research sponsorship proposal. This the what separates our PPT proposal templates from others out there. Introduce the project to your sponsors by outlining the study’s background, main research questions, challenges, and solutions. Highlight the aims and objectives of your research proposal for the thesis using the cutting-edge graphics of this PowerPoint layout. Communicate the primary hypothesis statement along with the expected outcome. Demonstrate the dissertation methodology you intend to apply for your research. This includes key details like a list of resources, data collection types, data analysis methods, and approaches to data collection. Walk your potential sponsor chronologically through the thesis timeline, from reading and research to other tasks and milestones. Showcase various phases involved in the completion of the study using industry-leading data visualizations. Use this PPT thesis proposal format to present a 30-60-90 days plan projection. Offer a glimpse of the narrative or literature review. Discuss the theoretical and methodological contributions to the topic, strengths, and weaknesses of the study, and more. Widen the perspective by illustrating the research proposal for thesis constraints. Employ our PowerPoint slideshow to gain access to a variety of roadmap diagrams. Research proposal presentation not only makes your proposal aesthetically-sound but also facilitates the easy expression of sophisticated data. So, hit the download button, make final edits, and build an engaging presentation.

Academic research proposal powerpoint presentation slides

If your company needs to submit a Academic Research Proposal Powerpoint Presentation Slides look no further. Our researchers have analyzed thousands of proposals on this topic for effectiveness and conversion. Just download our template, add your company data and submit to your client for a positive response.

Our Academic Research Proposal Powerpoint Presentation Slides are topically designed to provide an attractive backdrop to any subject. Use them to look like a presentation pro.

Qualitative research proposal template powerpoint presentation slides

Presenting our Qualitative Research Proposal Template PowerPoint Presentation Slides that is sure to impress your potential client. The content has been well-researched by our team of excellent researchers. You can change the colour, fonts, texts, images without any hassle to suit your business needs. It can be saved and opened in various formats like PDF, JPG, and PNG. The template is easily compatible with Google Slides that makes it easily accessible. It is readily available in both standard screen 4:3 and widescreen 16:9 aspect ratios. Download the presentation, enter your content in the placeholders, and propose it with confidence!

Our Qualitative Research Proposal Template Powerpoint Presentation Slides are explicit and effective. They combine clarity and concise expression.Ever wondered why customers behave in a certain way? Or how they may respond to a new product? Use qualitative research to inform initial branding, product testing, and to gain insight into potential customers. To gauge customer satisfaction over time and to improve and grow existing products, the established companies hire marketing research agencies. Help your clients to understand the underlying reasons and motive behind customer decisions with our Qualitative Research Proposal Template PowerPoint Presentation Slides. With this PPT template, gain insights into the client’s customer base by laying the project context and objectives like the amenities that customers use and their attitudes. Outline the timeline of the research with the design phase, research phase, analysis phase and project completion phase. The PowerPoint presentation also includes the methodologies used, the time taken on each, sampling and targeting demographics, and deliverables of qualitative research. Gain your client’s trust and inform them beforehand about the cost budget break-down and the investments expected from them. Besides this, it is beneficial to showcase the company history, offerings, client testimonials, team information, and statement of work and contract to build an edge over the competitors. You can also use the additional slides to layout a roadmap of the research for different years. The PPT proposal can be used to elaborate on the methods used for qualitative research like individual interviews, focus groups, observations, in-home videos, journal & diary, and lifestyle immersion. Conclude, that once you have a clear understanding of the client’s customer, then adapt a step-by-step guide to using email marketing to generate consistent leads and convert them into real-time sales. Select our research PPT design and get a state-of-art overview of qualitative research methods in business as well as management. Now it is your turn, go ahead and download the research proposal presentation slideshows and showcase the techniques used by your business agency.

Research constraints for academic research proposal ppt powerpoint presentation file

Presenting this set of slides with name Research Constraints For Academic Research Proposal Ppt Powerpoint Presentation File. This is a six stage process. The stages in this process are Research Constraints Academic Research. This is a completely editable PowerPoint presentation and is available for immediate download. Download now and impress your audience.

Our Research Constraints For Academic Research Proposal Ppt Powerpoint Presentation File are explicit and effective. They combine clarity and concise expression.

Research Constraints Academic Research

Research Proposal Summary Template In Powerpoint And Google Slides Cpb

Presenting our Research Proposal Summary Template In Powerpoint And Google Slides Cpb PowerPoint template design. This PowerPoint slide showcases three stages. It is useful to share insightful information on Research Proposal Summary Template. This PPT slide can be easily accessed in standard screen and widescreen aspect ratios. It is also available in various formats like PDF, PNG, and JPG. Not only this, the PowerPoint slideshow is completely editable and you can effortlessly modify the font size, font type, and shapes according to your wish. Our PPT layout is compatible with Google Slides as well, so download and edit it as per your knowledge.

Our Research Proposal Summary Template In Powerpoint And Google Slides Cpb are topically designed to provide an attractive backdrop to any subject. Use them to look like a presentation pro.

Research Proposal Summary Template

Business Advancement Research Proposal Powerpoint Presentation Slides

Presenting our Business Advancement Research Proposal Powerpoint Presentation Slides. This is a 100% editable and adaptable PPT slide. You can save it in different formats like PDF, JPG, and PNG. It can be edited with different colour, font, font size, and font type of the template as per your requirements. This template supports the standard (4:3) and widescreen (16:9) format. It is also compatible with Google slides.

Business research helps a company to keep its operations and activities up-to-date. Thorough research identifies the solutions to various questions like profitable investment areas, target audience, and customer demands. It allows you to formulate business plans according to the market needs and remove unnecessary elements that hinder organizational growth. SlideTeam presents Business Advancement Research Proposal PowerPoint Presentation Slides, tailored according to your business proposition requirements. In the cover letter template of our PPT deck, you can clearly state the targets and goals of your company like industry proliferation, market trend survey, and consumer behaviour analysis. Promise your clients an efficient market entry strategy to generate revenue and increase the customer base by utilizing our corporate development PPT template. This enterprise development PPT layout attractively outlines your company's plan of action for project initiation, research, analytics, and presentation in a comprehensive manner. Cast your presence in the marketplace by showcasing your company's scope of services with the assistance of this PPT layout. Highlight the method your company applies to conduct relevant market research through this venture advancement PPT visual. Show the data on competition business analysis accurately to garner the attention of your audience by employing our commercial growth PPT presentation. This PPT graphic helps you to construct a well-structured financial outlay to educate your potential customers about the funds and investment required for their business advancement. Give your audience a reason to choose your services for their firm with this marketing proposal PPT theme, which enables you to display your company profile clearly and concisely. With this PowerPoint template, list the wide range of categories like IT, pharmacy, electronics, automotive, consumer goods, finance which the clients can choose based on their requirements. Introduce your professional team that makes your clients' task easy and efficient by taking the assistance of this invigorating PowerPoint presentation. Grab research proposal presentations and edit conveniently!

Princeton Correspondents on Undergraduate Research

How to Make a Successful Research Presentation

Turning a research paper into a visual presentation is difficult; there are pitfalls, and navigating the path to a brief, informative presentation takes time and practice. As a TA for GEO/WRI 201: Methods in Data Analysis & Scientific Writing this past fall, I saw how this process works from an instructor’s standpoint. I’ve presented my own research before, but helping others present theirs taught me a bit more about the process. Here are some tips I learned that may help you with your next research presentation:

More is more

In general, your presentation will always benefit from more practice, more feedback, and more revision. By practicing in front of friends, you can get comfortable with presenting your work while receiving feedback. It is hard to know how to revise your presentation if you never practice. If you are presenting to a general audience, getting feedback from someone outside of your discipline is crucial. Terms and ideas that seem intuitive to you may be completely foreign to someone else, and your well-crafted presentation could fall flat.

Less is more

Limit the scope of your presentation, the number of slides, and the text on each slide. In my experience, text works well for organizing slides, orienting the audience to key terms, and annotating important figures–not for explaining complex ideas. Having fewer slides is usually better as well. In general, about one slide per minute of presentation is an appropriate budget. Too many slides is usually a sign that your topic is too broad.

Limit the scope of your presentation

Don’t present your paper. Presentations are usually around 10 min long. You will not have time to explain all of the research you did in a semester (or a year!) in such a short span of time. Instead, focus on the highlight(s). Identify a single compelling research question which your work addressed, and craft a succinct but complete narrative around it.

You will not have time to explain all of the research you did. Instead, focus on the highlights. Identify a single compelling research question which your work addressed, and craft a succinct but complete narrative around it.

Craft a compelling research narrative

After identifying the focused research question, walk your audience through your research as if it were a story. Presentations with strong narrative arcs are clear, captivating, and compelling.

Introduction (exposition — rising action)

Orient the audience and draw them in by demonstrating the relevance and importance of your research story with strong global motive. Provide them with the necessary vocabulary and background knowledge to understand the plot of your story. Introduce the key studies (characters) relevant in your story and build tension and conflict with scholarly and data motive. By the end of your introduction, your audience should clearly understand your research question and be dying to know how you resolve the tension built through motive.

Methods (rising action)

The methods section should transition smoothly and logically from the introduction. Beware of presenting your methods in a boring, arc-killing, ‘this is what I did.’ Focus on the details that set your story apart from the stories other people have already told. Keep the audience interested by clearly motivating your decisions based on your original research question or the tension built in your introduction.

Results (climax)

Less is usually more here. Only present results which are clearly related to the focused research question you are presenting. Make sure you explain the results clearly so that your audience understands what your research found. This is the peak of tension in your narrative arc, so don’t undercut it by quickly clicking through to your discussion.

Discussion (falling action)

By now your audience should be dying for a satisfying resolution. Here is where you contextualize your results and begin resolving the tension between past research. Be thorough. If you have too many conflicts left unresolved, or you don’t have enough time to present all of the resolutions, you probably need to further narrow the scope of your presentation.

Conclusion (denouement)

Return back to your initial research question and motive, resolving any final conflicts and tying up loose ends. Leave the audience with a clear resolution of your focus research question, and use unresolved tension to set up potential sequels (i.e. further research).

Use your medium to enhance the narrative

Visual presentations should be dominated by clear, intentional graphics. Subtle animation in key moments (usually during the results or discussion) can add drama to the narrative arc and make conflict resolutions more satisfying. You are narrating a story written in images, videos, cartoons, and graphs. While your paper is mostly text, with graphics to highlight crucial points, your slides should be the opposite. Adapting to the new medium may require you to create or acquire far more graphics than you included in your paper, but it is necessary to create an engaging presentation.

The most important thing you can do for your presentation is to practice and revise. Bother your friends, your roommates, TAs–anybody who will sit down and listen to your work. Beyond that, think about presentations you have found compelling and try to incorporate some of those elements into your own. Remember you want your work to be comprehensible; you aren’t creating experts in 10 minutes. Above all, try to stay passionate about what you did and why. You put the time in, so show your audience that it’s worth it.

For more insight into research presentations, check out these past PCUR posts written by Emma and Ellie .

— Alec Getraer, Natural Sciences Correspondent

Research presentation: A comprehensive guide

Learn how to choose a topic, conduct research, create visuals, and deliver your presentation with confidence.

Raja Bothra

Building presentations

Hey there, fellow knowledge seekers!

Today, we're diving deep into the world of research presentations.

Whether you're a student gearing up for your undergraduate research showcase or a professional preparing for a crucial job interview, mastering the art of delivering an effective research presentation is a valuable skill.

What is a research presentation?

A research presentation is a means to communicate your findings, insights, and discoveries to an audience, be it in a classroom, at a conference, or in a boardroom. It's your opportunity to showcase your expertise and share the results of your hard work.

Purpose of a research presentation

Before we dive into the intricacies of creating a stellar research presentation, let's explore the underlying reasons that make these presentations indispensable. The purpose of a research presentation is not merely to present data but to serve as a powerful tool for communication and engagement.

Sharing knowledge

At its core, a research presentation is a conduit for sharing knowledge, disseminating your research findings, and illuminating the uncharted realms of your work. It's about taking the complex and making it comprehensible, even captivating.

Academic evaluation

In the realm of academia, research presentations play a pivotal role in the evaluation process. They are your platform to defend a dissertation or thesis with vigor and confidence. Moreover, they are your plea for research funding, where your passion and precision could tip the scales in your favor.

Professional communication

Beyond the academic sphere, research presentations find a home in the corporate world, such as job interview s. In these scenarios, your presentation serves as a bridge, connecting your ideas with potential employers. It's an opportunity to demonstrate not just your research skills but also your ability to communicate them effectively.

The bigger picture

Your research presentation is more than just slides and data; it's an embodiment of your dedication and expertise. It's a tool for persuading, inspiring, and inciting action. It's a gateway to engage, educate, and advocate, whether in academic circles, professional settings, or public platforms.

A universal canvas

Regardless of the context, the core objectives of a research presentation remain constant:

Dissemination of information : Sharing insights and discoveries for the collective advancement of knowledge.
Engagement : Creating a presentation that captivates and effectively conveys complex ideas.
Feedback and discussion : Welcoming questions, feedback, and discussions that refine and expand your research.
Peer review : Serving as part of the peer-review process in academia, where experts evaluate the quality and validity of your work.
Educational : Actively contributing to education by disseminating valuable information about a particular topic or research area.
Persuasion : In cases like grant applications, presentations aim to persuade the audience to support or fund the research project.
Networking : An opportunity to connect with peers, professionals, and stakeholders interested in your field.
Professional development : A chance to enhance your communication skills and professional development.
Public awareness : Raising public awareness about significant issues or findings that have a direct impact on society.

Your research presentation is not merely a sequence of slides but a powerful tool for communication and connection. Whether you're in the academic realm, the corporate world, or the public sphere, your ability to convey your research clearly and engagingly is pivotal to your success. Remember, you're not just presenting data; you're sharing knowledge, engaging your audience, and advocating for a cause.

Different types of research presentation

Research presentations are as diverse as the research itself, and the choice of presentation format is crucial. It depends on factors like the audience, the research's nature, and the specific goals of the presentation. Let's explore the myriad forms research presentations can take:

1. Oral presentations

Conference presentations : These formal presentations are typically held at academic conferences, where researchers present their findings to a specialized audience. It's a platform for in-depth discussions and peer feedback.
Seminar presentations : Often conducted at universities or research institutions, these presentations delve deep into research topics, encouraging detailed discussions and expert insights.
Lecture series : A series of lectures focused on a particular research topic, usually organized by universities. These sessions offer a comprehensive exploration of a subject.

2. Poster presentations

Conference posters : Visual presentations of research findings displayed on large posters, commonly used at academic conferences. They provide a snapshot of research, making complex data more accessible.
Academic fairs : Frequently used to showcase research projects at the undergraduate or high school level. These exhibitions make research engaging for students.

3. Online/webinar presentations

Webinars : Online presentations where researchers share their work with a remote audience. These presentations often include interactive elements, like Q&A sessions.
Online workshops : Hands-on, interactive presentations that teach research methodologies or specific skills. Ideal for engaging the audience in a virtual setting.

4. Thesis or dissertation defense: Researchers defend their doctoral or master's theses or dissertations before a committee. It involves explaining their research in-depth and responding to questions.

5. Ignite or pecha kucha presentations : These are fast-paced presentations where presenters use a fixed number of slides and limited time per slide to convey their research succinctly. It's a dynamic format that encourages clarity and conciseness.

6. Panel discussions: Researchers participate in a discussion alongside other experts, sharing their perspectives on a specific topic

or research area. These discussions provide a well-rounded view of the subject.

7. TED talks or public lectures: Researchers present their work to a general audience in an engaging and accessible manner. The focus is on making complex ideas understandable and captivating.

8. Corporate research presentations: Researchers may present their findings to colleagues, executives, or stakeholders in a business or industry setting. These presentations often have practical applications and implications for the company.

9. Pitch presentations: Researchers may need to pitch their research project to potential funders , collaborators, or sponsors. This format requires the ability to convey the research's value and potential impact effectively.

10. Media interviews: Researchers can present their work through interviews with journalists, on television, radio, podcasts, or in written articles. The challenge here is to convey complex ideas to a broad audience.

11. Educational workshops: These presentations occur in an educational context, where researchers teach others about a particular subject or research method. It's a way to transfer knowledge and skills effectively.

12. Research reports: These formal written reports communicate research findings and are presented in a document format. They are often used for thorough documentation and publication.

13. Interactive exhibits: Researchers create interactive exhibits at science centers or museums to engage the public with their research. It's about making research accessible and engaging to a wide audience.

14. Government or policy briefings: Researchers may present their work to policymakers, helping to inform decision-making. These presentations have a direct impact on policy and require clarity and relevance.

15. Peer review: In the academic realm, researchers present their work to a group of peers for constructive feedback before formal publication. It's an essential step in ensuring the quality and validity of research.

In the world of research presentations, adaptability is key. Researchers often need to tailor their content and style to suit the context and meet the expectations of their audience. Remember, the choice of presentation type should align with your goals and the nature of your research. Each format has its unique strengths and is a valuable tool for sharing knowledge, engaging your audience, and achieving your research objectives.

What should a research presentation include?

A research presentation is not just a random assortment of slides; it's a meticulously crafted narrative that informs, engages, and inspires. Regardless of the type of presentation you opt for, there are some indispensable components to consider:

Introduction: Your presentation journey begins with the introduction—a compelling opening act. This is where you introduce your topic, explain its significance, and clearly state your research question or hypothesis. Think of it as setting the stage for the story you're about to tell.

Background: The background section is your opportunity to equip your audience with the necessary context to grasp the intricacies of your research. This may encompass discussions on relevant theories, prior research, and fundamental concepts that lay the foundation for your work. It's about ensuring your audience starts on the same page.

Methodology: This section provides an insight into the "how" of your research. Share the methods you employed in conducting your research, such as data collection techniques, sampling procedures, and your chosen methods of analysis. It's a backstage pass to the mechanics of your study.

Results: With the methodology unveiled, it's time to present the star of the show—your findings. This section is where you shine a spotlight on your results, delivering them in a clear and concise manner. Visual aids, such as tables, graphs, and other visuals, can be invaluable allies in communicating your results effectively.

Discussion: As you transition from presenting results, you enter the realm of interpretation and discussion. Here, you dissect your findings, analyzing their implications and discussing their real-world significance. Don't forget to address the limitations of your study and suggest future research directions.

Conclusion: In the grand finale of your presentation, it's time to bring the pieces together. Summarize your main points, reiterate the importance of your research, and leave your audience with a lasting impression. A compelling conclusion can be the key to a memorable presentation.

Q&A session: Your presentation isn't just a monologue; it's a dialogue with your audience. Provide an opportunity for engagement and clarification through a Q&A session. Allow your audience to ask questions, offer feedback, and explore the nuances of your research.

Contact information: Consider including a slide with your contact information. This way, curious audience members can reach out to you with questions, feedback, or collaboration opportunities. It's a subtle but essential way to maintain the conversation beyond the presentation.

It's important to note that the specific content and length of your research presentation may vary based on your audience and time constraints. For instance, if your audience is general and diverse, dedicating more time to background and discussion can enhance comprehension. On the other hand, when presenting to experts in your field, you can streamline these sections and focus on the intricate details of your methodology and results.

How to structure an effective research presentation

Crafting an effective research presentation is akin to weaving a compelling narrative. It's about captivating your audience while imparting knowledge. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to structure a presentation that leaves a lasting impression:

Title slide : Your presentation begins with the title slide, your first impression. Include the title of your presentation, your name, affiliation, and the date. This slide sets the stage for your audience, providing essential information about what they are about to learn.

Introduction : The introduction is your opportunity to grab your audience's attention and set the stage for your presentation. Start with a hook, like a thought-provoking question, a surprising fact, or even a touch of humor if it fits naturally. Additionally, in the introduction, provide background and context for your research, clearly state your research question or objectives, and explain why your research is important or relevant.

Literature review : In this section, briefly summarize key research in your field related to your topic. Highlight gaps or areas where your research contributes. If relevant, mention theories or models that underpin your work, demonstrating your understanding of the existing body of knowledge.

Methodology : Explain the nuts and bolts of your research methods. Share the methods you used, whether they were surveys, experiments, case studies, or any other approach. Include details of data collection procedures, sample size, and data analysis techniques. If ethical considerations played a role, mention them here.

Data presentation : This is where you unveil your research findings using visuals like charts, graphs, and tables. Make sure to explain the significance of each visual and its relation to your research question, using clear and concise labels for data points. Highlight key results or trends that are critical to your narrative, making it easier for your audience to grasp the key takeaways.

Discussion : Interpret the data and discuss its implications. This section should explain how your findings relate to your research question or objectives. Address any limitations or potential sources of bias and offer insights into the broader implications and practical applications of your research. It's a critical part where you demonstrate your analytical skills and the value of your work.

Conclusion : In the grand finale of your presentation, summarize the main points and reiterate the significance of your research and its contribution to the field. Suggest potential areas for future research, inviting your audience to continue the journey and emphasizing the continuity of the research.

Q&A session : Now, it's time to engage your audience. Invite questions and be prepared to provide detailed answers and clarify any doubts. This interaction adds depth to your presentation and ensures your audience's comprehension.

References : Include a list of all the sources you cited during your presentation. This shows your commitment to sound research practices and allows your audience to delve deeper into the literature if they wish.

Acknowledgments (if necessary) : If your research received support from funding sources, collaborators, or institutions, acknowledge them at this point. Gratitude goes a long way in the academic community, and it's essential to recognize those who contributed to your work.

Additional Tips:

Keep your presentation concise and focused to avoid overwhelming your audience with an excess of information.
Use visual aids effectively, but remember, less is often more. Avoid overcrowding slides with excessive text or data.
Practice your presentation multiple times to ensure a smooth delivery and stay within the allotted time.
Engage with your audience throughout. Ask questions, encourage discussion, and make eye contact to maintain their interest.
Speak clearly and confidently, avoiding jargon or overly technical language whenever possible.
Adapt your style and level of detail to your audience's background and interests. The key to an effective research presentation lies in clear, organized, and engaging communication, ensuring your message not only informs but also captivates your audience.

Do’s and Don'ts of a Research Presentation

Delivering a successful research presentation is crucial for conveying your findings and insights effectively. Here are some do's and don'ts to keep in mind:

Know your audience: Tailor your presentation to your audience's background and interests. Consider whether they are experts in the field or have limited prior knowledge.
Structure your presentation: Organize your presentation with a clear structure. Start with an introduction, outline your methodology, present your results, and conclude with key takeaways and implications.
Practice: Rehearse your presentation multiple times to ensure a smooth and confident delivery. Practice also helps you manage your time effectively.
Use visuals: Incorporate visuals like graphs, charts, and images to make complex data more accessible. Visual aids should be clear, concise, and relevant.
Engage your audience: Use stories, anecdotes, or questions to capture your audience's attention and keep them engaged. Encourage questions and discussions.
Speak clearly and slowly: Enunciate your words clearly and avoid speaking too fast. This makes it easier for your audience to follow your presentation.
Keep slides simple: Limit the amount of information on each slide. Use bullet points, not paragraphs. Avoid excessive animations and transitions.
Cite sources: Acknowledge and cite the work of others when presenting their ideas or research. This shows academic integrity.
Anticipate questions: Be prepared to answer questions about your research. It demonstrates your expertise and thorough understanding of the topic.
Time management: Stick to your allotted time. Respect your audience's time by not going over the time limit.

Don'ts:

Don't overload slides: Avoid cluttered or text-heavy slides. They can overwhelm your audience and distract from your key points.
Don't read directly from slides: Your slides should support your presentation, not replace it. Avoid reading verbatim from your slides.
Don't rush: Speaking too quickly can make it hard for the audience to follow your presentation. Speak at a measured pace.
Don't assume prior knowledge: Don't assume that your audience is familiar with your topic. Provide sufficient background information to ensure understanding.
Don't wing it: Winging a research presentation can lead to disorganization and confusion. Preparation is key to a successful presentation.
Don't get defensive: If someone challenges your research, remain composed and open to constructive criticism. Avoid becoming defensive or confrontational.
Don't neglect visual design: Poorly designed visuals can detract from your presentation. Pay attention to design principles for your slides.
Don't oversimplify or overcomplicate: Strike a balance between simplifying complex ideas and providing enough detail for your audience to grasp the topic.
Don't use jargon unnecessarily: Avoid overusing technical jargon or acronyms. If you must use them, explain them for the benefit of non-experts.
Don't monopolize the Q&A: Give all audience members an opportunity to ask questions. Don't allow one or two people to dominate the Q&A session.

Summarizing key takeaways

Purpose of research presentation : Research presentations are essential for sharing knowledge, academic evaluation, professional communication, and more.
Types of research presentations : They come in various formats, like oral, poster, webinars, and more, and should match your goals.
Content of a research presentation : Typically includes an introduction, background, methodology, results, discussion, conclusion, Q&A, references, and acknowledgments (if needed).
Structuring an effective presentation : Organize your presentation logically, use visuals, practice, engage your audience, and speak clearly.
Do's : Do tailor to your audience, structure well, and use visuals.
Don'ts : Don't overload slides, rush, assume prior knowledge, or neglect design.

FAQ's about research Presentation

1. how can i create a research presentation that stands out.

When creating your research presentation, consider using prezent, powerpoint presentation or other presentation software to help you prepare a visually appealing presentation. Utilizing presentation templates can provide you with a professional and organized look. Try to include appropriate graphics that enhance your content and help you avoid using too much text. Remember that the purpose of your presentation is to present your research in a way that your audience can follow, so use different fonts, but make sure to keep font size and style consistent for headings and content.

2. How many slides should I have in my research presentation?

A rule of thumb for creating a research presentation is to aim for approximately one to five minutes per slide. For a 15-minute presentation, you might have around 15 to 75 slides. However, the number of slides can vary depending on your content. Avoid using too much detail, and keep it simple to maintain your audience's engagement.

3. Should I use a handout as part of my research presentation?

You don't need to provide a handout as part of your research presentation, but it can be a helpful addition. Including a handout can help your audience take notes and refer back to important things you've discussed. Be sure to include your name and contact details on the handout so that your audience knows how to reach you.

4. What should I do when giving an in-person research presentation?

When giving an in-person presentation, it's essential to use a projector and present your research paper slowly and clearly. Make sure the audience can see the content from a few feet away, and use sans-serif fonts, such as Arial, for better contrast and readability. Remember not to read word for word from your presentation slides; instead, use them as a guide. Also, be prepared to answer questions as you go and engage with your audience.

5. How can I make my research presentation suitable for a symposium in the social sciences, for example?

To make your research presentation suitable for a symposium in the social sciences or any specific field, first, decide whether your audience needs a more technical or general overview of your work. Adapt the content and the appropriate graphics accordingly. Use a table of contents to help guide your presentation, and present your research in a manner that aligns with the expectations of the audience in your field. Make sure your presentation design and content are tailored to your audience and the nature of the symposium.

Create your research presentation with prezent

Creating a compelling research presentation is an essential skill for academics and professionals alike. Prezent, a powerful communication success platform, offers an innovative solution for crafting engaging and brand-compliant research presentations. With Prezent, you can save valuable time and streamline your presentation creation process. The platform's AI presentation tool combines audience preferences, personalized fingerprints, and a presentation builder to help you deliver impactful research findings.

One of the standout features of Prezent is its emphasis on brand-approved design. The platform allows you to maintain consistency with your corporate brand and marketing team's guidelines. You can access over 35,000 slides in your company's approved design, ensuring that your research presentation is always on-brand.

To further enhance your research presentation experience, Prezent offers professional services such as overnight services and dedicated presentation specialists. These services can help you refine your content, convert meeting notes into polished presentations, and brainstorm design ideas. With a strong commitment to enterprise-grade security, Prezent ensures the safety of your data through independent third-party assurance.

Ready to supercharge your research presentations? Try our free trial or book a demo today with Prezent!

Get the latest from Prezent community

Join thousands of subscribers who receive our best practices on communication, storytelling, presentation design, and more. New tips weekly. (No spam, we promise!)

Research Process
Manuscript Preparation
Manuscript Review
Publication Process
Publication Recognition
Language Editing Services
Translation Services

How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation of Your Research Paper

4 minute read
143.1K views

Table of Contents

A research paper presentation is often used at conferences and in other settings where you have an opportunity to share your research, and get feedback from your colleagues. Although it may seem as simple as summarizing your research and sharing your knowledge, successful research paper PowerPoint presentation examples show us that there’s a little bit more than that involved.

In this article, we’ll highlight how to make a PowerPoint presentation from a research paper, and what to include (as well as what NOT to include). We’ll also touch on how to present a research paper at a conference.

Purpose of a Research Paper Presentation

The purpose of presenting your paper at a conference or forum is different from the purpose of conducting your research and writing up your paper. In this setting, you want to highlight your work instead of including every detail of your research. Likewise, a presentation is an excellent opportunity to get direct feedback from your colleagues in the field. But, perhaps the main reason for presenting your research is to spark interest in your work, and entice the audience to read your research paper.

So, yes, your presentation should summarize your work, but it needs to do so in a way that encourages your audience to seek out your work, and share their interest in your work with others. It’s not enough just to present your research dryly, to get information out there. More important is to encourage engagement with you, your research, and your work.

Tips for Creating Your Research Paper Presentation

In addition to basic PowerPoint presentation recommendations, which we’ll cover later in this article, think about the following when you’re putting together your research paper presentation:

Know your audience : First and foremost, who are you presenting to? Students? Experts in your field? Potential funders? Non-experts? The truth is that your audience will probably have a bit of a mix of all of the above. So, make sure you keep that in mind as you prepare your presentation.

Know more about: Discover the Target Audience .

Your audience is human : In other words, they may be tired, they might be wondering why they’re there, and they will, at some point, be tuning out. So, take steps to help them stay interested in your presentation. You can do that by utilizing effective visuals, summarize your conclusions early, and keep your research easy to understand.
Running outline : It’s not IF your audience will drift off, or get lost…it’s WHEN. Keep a running outline, either within the presentation or via a handout. Use visual and verbal clues to highlight where you are in the presentation.
Where does your research fit in? You should know of work related to your research, but you don’t have to cite every example. In addition, keep references in your presentation to the end, or in the handout. Your audience is there to hear about your work.
Plan B : Anticipate possible questions for your presentation, and prepare slides that answer those specific questions in more detail, but have them at the END of your presentation. You can then jump to them, IF needed.

What Makes a PowerPoint Presentation Effective?

You’ve probably attended a presentation where the presenter reads off of their PowerPoint outline, word for word. Or where the presentation is busy, disorganized, or includes too much information. Here are some simple tips for creating an effective PowerPoint Presentation.

Less is more: You want to give enough information to make your audience want to read your paper. So include details, but not too many, and avoid too many formulas and technical jargon.
Clean and professional : Avoid excessive colors, distracting backgrounds, font changes, animations, and too many words. Instead of whole paragraphs, bullet points with just a few words to summarize and highlight are best.
Know your real-estate : Each slide has a limited amount of space. Use it wisely. Typically one, no more than two points per slide. Balance each slide visually. Utilize illustrations when needed; not extraneously.
Keep things visual : Remember, a PowerPoint presentation is a powerful tool to present things visually. Use visual graphs over tables and scientific illustrations over long text. Keep your visuals clean and professional, just like any text you include in your presentation.

Know more about our Scientific Illustrations Services .

Another key to an effective presentation is to practice, practice, and then practice some more. When you’re done with your PowerPoint, go through it with friends and colleagues to see if you need to add (or delete excessive) information. Double and triple check for typos and errors. Know the presentation inside and out, so when you’re in front of your audience, you’ll feel confident and comfortable.

How to Present a Research Paper

If your PowerPoint presentation is solid, and you’ve practiced your presentation, that’s half the battle. Follow the basic advice to keep your audience engaged and interested by making eye contact, encouraging questions, and presenting your information with enthusiasm.

We encourage you to read our articles on how to present a scientific journal article and tips on giving good scientific presentations .

Language Editing Plus

Improve the flow and writing of your research paper with Language Editing Plus. This service includes unlimited editing, manuscript formatting for the journal of your choice, reference check and even a customized cover letter. Learn more here , and get started today!

Know How to Structure Your PhD Thesis

Systematic Literature Review or Literature Review?

What is a Good H-index?

What is a Corresponding Author?

How to Submit a Paper for Publication in a Journal

Input your search keywords and press Enter.

Google Slides Presentation Design
Pitch Deck Design
Powerpoint Redesign
Other Design Services

How to present a research paper in PPT: best practices

Guide & How to's
How to present a research paper in PPT: best practices

A research paper presentation is frequently used at conferences and other events where you have a chance to share the results of your research and receive feedback from colleagues. Although it may appear as simple as summarizing the findings, successful examples of research paper presentations show that there is a little bit more to it.

In this article, we’ll walk you through the basic outline and steps to create a good research paper presentation. We’ll also explain what to include and what not to include in your presentation of research paper and share some of the most effective tips you can use to take your slides to the next level.

Research paper PowerPoint presentation outline

Creating a PowerPoint presentation for a research paper involves organizing and summarizing your key findings, methodology, and conclusions in a way that encourages your audience to interact with your work and share their interest in it with others. Here’s a basic research paper outline PowerPoint you can follow:

1. Title (1 slide)

Typically, your title slide should contain the following information:

Title of the research paper
Affiliation or institution
Date of presentation

2. Introduction (1-3 slides)

On this slide of your presentation, briefly introduce the research topic and its significance and state the research question or objective.

3. Research questions or hypothesis (1 slide)

This slide should emphasize the objectives of your research or present the hypothesis.

4. Literature review (1 slide)

Your literature review has to provide context for your research by summarizing relevant literature. Additionally, it should highlight gaps or areas where your research contributes.

5. Methodology and data collection (1-2 slides)

This slide of your research paper PowerPoint has to explain the research design, methods, and procedures. It must also Include details about participants, materials, and data collection and emphasize special equipment you have used in your work.

6. Results (3-5 slides)

On this slide, you must present the results of your data analysis and discuss any trends, patterns, or significant findings. Moreover, you should use charts, graphs, and tables to illustrate data and highlight something novel in your results (if applicable).

7. Conclusion (1 slide)

Your conclusion slide has to summarize the main findings and their implications, as well as discuss the broader impact of your research. Usually, a single statement is enough.

8. Recommendations (1 slide)

If applicable, provide recommendations for future research or actions on this slide.

9. References (1-2 slides)

The references slide is where you list all the sources cited in your research paper.

10. Acknowledgments (1 slide)

On this presentation slide, acknowledge any individuals, organizations, or funding sources that contributed to your research.

11. Appendix (1 slide)

If applicable, include any supplementary materials, such as additional data or detailed charts, in your appendix slide.

The above outline is just a general guideline, so make sure to adjust it based on your specific research paper and the time allotted for the presentation.

Steps to creating a memorable research paper presentation

Creating a PowerPoint presentation for a research paper involves several critical steps needed to convey your findings and engage your audience effectively, and these steps are as follows:

Step 1. Understand your audience:

Identify the audience for your presentation.
Tailor your content and level of detail to match the audience’s background and knowledge.

Step 2. Define your key messages:

Clearly articulate the main messages or findings of your research.
Identify the key points you want your audience to remember.

Step 3. Design your research paper PPT presentation:

Use a clean and professional design that complements your research topic.
Choose readable fonts, consistent formatting, and a limited color palette.
Opt for PowerPoint presentation services if slide design is not your strong side.

Step 4. Put content on slides:

Follow the outline above to structure your presentation effectively; include key sections and topics.
Organize your content logically, following the flow of your research paper.

Step 5. Final check:

Proofread your slides for typos, errors, and inconsistencies.
Ensure all visuals are clear, high-quality, and properly labeled.

Step 6. Save and share:

Save your presentation and ensure compatibility with the equipment you’ll be using.
If necessary, share a copy of your presentation with the audience.

By following these steps, you can create a well-organized and visually appealing research paper presentation PowerPoint that effectively conveys your research findings to the audience.

What to include and what not to include in your presentation

In addition to the must-know PowerPoint presentation recommendations, which we’ll cover later in this article, consider the following do’s and don’ts when you’re putting together your research paper presentation:

Focus on the topic.
Be brief and to the point.
Attract the audience’s attention and highlight interesting details.
Use only relevant visuals (maps, charts, pictures, graphs, etc.).
Use numbers and bullet points to structure the content.
Make clear statements regarding the essence and results of your research.

Don’ts:

Don’t write down the whole outline of your paper and nothing else.
Don’t put long, full sentences on your slides; split them into smaller ones.
Don’t use distracting patterns, colors, pictures, and other visuals on your slides; the simpler, the better.
Don’t use too complicated graphs or charts; only the ones that are easy to understand.
Now that we’ve discussed the basics, let’s move on to the top tips for making a powerful presentation of your research paper.

8 tips on how to make research paper presentation that achieves its goals

You’ve probably been to a presentation where the presenter reads word for word from their PowerPoint outline. Or where the presentation is cluttered, chaotic, or contains too much data. The simple tips below will help you summarize a 10 to 15-page paper for a 15 to 20-minute talk and succeed, so read on!

Tip #1: Less is more

You want to provide enough information to make your audience want to know more. Including details but not too many and avoiding technical jargon, formulas, and long sentences are always good ways to achieve this.

Tip #2: Be professional

Avoid using too many colors, font changes, distracting backgrounds, animations, etc. Bullet points with a few words to highlight the important information are preferable to lengthy paragraphs. Additionally, include slide numbers on all PowerPoint slides except for the title slide, and make sure it is followed by a table of contents, offering a brief overview of the entire research paper.

Tip #3: Strive for balance

PowerPoint slides have limited space, so use it carefully. Typically, one to two points per slide or 5 lines for 5 words in a sentence are enough to present your ideas.

Tip #4: Use proper fonts and text size

The font you use should be easy to read and consistent throughout the slides. You can go with Arial, Times New Roman, Calibri, or a combination of these three. An ideal text size is 32 points, while a heading size is 44.

Tip #5: Concentrate on the visual side

A PowerPoint presentation is one of the best tools for presenting information visually. Use graphs instead of tables and topic-relevant illustrations instead of walls of text. Keep your visuals as clean and professional as the content of your presentation.

Tip #6: Practice your delivery

Always go through your presentation when you’re done to ensure a smooth and confident delivery and time yourself to stay within the allotted limit.

Tip #7: Get ready for questions

Anticipate potential questions from your audience and prepare thoughtful responses. Also, be ready to engage in discussions about your research.

Tip #8: Don’t be afraid to utilize professional help

If the mere thought of designing a presentation overwhelms you or you’re pressed for time, consider leveraging professional PowerPoint redesign services . A dedicated design team can transform your content or old presentation into effective slides, ensuring your message is communicated clearly and captivates your audience. This way, you can focus on refining your delivery and preparing for the presentation.

Lastly, remember that even experienced presenters get nervous before delivering research paper PowerPoint presentations in front of the audience. You cannot know everything; some things can be beyond your control, which is completely fine. You are at the event not only to share what you know but also to learn from others. So, no matter what, dress appropriately, look straight into the audience’s eyes, try to speak and move naturally, present your information enthusiastically, and have fun!

If you need help with slide design, get in touch with our dedicated design team and let qualified professionals turn your research findings into a visually appealing, polished presentation that leaves a lasting impression on your audience. Our experienced designers specialize in creating engaging layouts, incorporating compelling graphics, and ensuring a cohesive visual narrative that complements content on any subject.

#ezw_tco-2 .ez-toc-widget-container ul.ez-toc-list li.active::before { background-color: #ededed; } Table of contents

Presenting techniques
50 tips on how to improve PowerPoint presentations in 2022-2023 [Updated]
Present financial information visually in PowerPoint to drive results
Keynote VS PowerPoint

Design Tips

8 rules of effective presentation

Business Slides

Employee training and onboarding presentation: why and how

How to structure, design, write, and finally present executive summary presentation?

Reference management. Clean and simple.

How to make a scientific presentation

Scientific presentation outlines

Questions to ask yourself before you write your talk, 1. how much time do you have, 2. who will you speak to, 3. what do you want the audience to learn from your talk, step 1: outline your presentation, step 2: plan your presentation slides, step 3: make the presentation slides, slide design, text elements, animations and transitions, step 4: practice your presentation, final thoughts, frequently asked questions about preparing scientific presentations, related articles.

A good scientific presentation achieves three things: you communicate the science clearly, your research leaves a lasting impression on your audience, and you enhance your reputation as a scientist.

But, what is the best way to prepare for a scientific presentation? How do you start writing a talk? What details do you include, and what do you leave out?

It’s tempting to launch into making lots of slides. But, starting with the slides can mean you neglect the narrative of your presentation, resulting in an overly detailed, boring talk.

The key to making an engaging scientific presentation is to prepare the narrative of your talk before beginning to construct your presentation slides. Planning your talk will ensure that you tell a clear, compelling scientific story that will engage the audience.

In this guide, you’ll find everything you need to know to make a good oral scientific presentation, including:

The different types of oral scientific presentations and how they are delivered;
How to outline a scientific presentation;
How to make slides for a scientific presentation.

Our advice results from delving into the literature on writing scientific talks and from our own experiences as scientists in giving and listening to presentations. We provide tips and best practices for giving scientific talks in a separate post.

There are two main types of scientific talks:

Your talk focuses on a single study . Typically, you tell the story of a single scientific paper. This format is common for short talks at contributed sessions in conferences.
Your talk describes multiple studies. You tell the story of multiple scientific papers. It is crucial to have a theme that unites the studies, for example, an overarching question or problem statement, with each study representing specific but different variations of the same theme. Typically, PhD defenses, invited seminars, lectures, or talks for a prospective employer (i.e., “job talks”) fall into this category.

➡️ Learn how to prepare an excellent thesis defense

The length of time you are allotted for your talk will determine whether you will discuss a single study or multiple studies, and which details to include in your story.

The background and interests of your audience will determine the narrative direction of your talk, and what devices you will use to get their attention. Will you be speaking to people specializing in your field, or will the audience also contain people from disciplines other than your own? To reach non-specialists, you will need to discuss the broader implications of your study outside your field.

The needs of the audience will also determine what technical details you will include, and the language you will use. For example, an undergraduate audience will have different needs than an audience of seasoned academics. Students will require a more comprehensive overview of background information and explanations of jargon but will need less technical methodological details.

Your goal is to speak to the majority. But, make your talk accessible to the least knowledgeable person in the room.

This is called the thesis statement, or simply the “take-home message”. Having listened to your talk, what message do you want the audience to take away from your presentation? Describe the main idea in one or two sentences. You want this theme to be present throughout your presentation. Again, the thesis statement will depend on the audience and the type of talk you are giving.

Your thesis statement will drive the narrative for your talk. By deciding the take-home message you want to convince the audience of as a result of listening to your talk, you decide how the story of your talk will flow and how you will navigate its twists and turns. The thesis statement tells you the results you need to show, which subsequently tells you the methods or studies you need to describe, which decides the angle you take in your introduction.

➡️ Learn how to write a thesis statement

The goal of your talk is that the audience leaves afterward with a clear understanding of the key take-away message of your research. To achieve that goal, you need to tell a coherent, logical story that conveys your thesis statement throughout the presentation. You can tell your story through careful preparation of your talk.

Preparation of a scientific presentation involves three separate stages: outlining the scientific narrative, preparing slides, and practicing your delivery. Making the slides of your talk without first planning what you are going to say is inefficient.

Here, we provide a 4 step guide to writing your scientific presentation:

Outline your presentation
Plan your presentation slides
Make the presentation slides
Practice your presentation

4 steps for making a scientific presentation.

Writing an outline helps you consider the key pieces of your talk and how they fit together from the beginning, preventing you from forgetting any important details. It also means you avoid changing the order of your slides multiple times, saving you time.

Plan your talk as discrete sections. In the table below, we describe the sections for a single study talk vs. a talk discussing multiple studies:

The following tips apply when writing the outline of a single study talk. You can easily adapt this framework if you are writing a talk discussing multiple studies.

Introduction: Writing the introduction can be the hardest part of writing a talk. And when giving it, it’s the point where you might be at your most nervous. But preparing a good, concise introduction will settle your nerves.

The introduction tells the audience the story of why you studied your topic. A good introduction succinctly achieves four things, in the following order.

It gives a broad perspective on the problem or topic for people in the audience who may be outside your discipline (i.e., it explains the big-picture problem motivating your study).
It describes why you did the study, and why the audience should care.
It gives a brief indication of how your study addressed the problem and provides the necessary background information that the audience needs to understand your work.
It indicates what the audience will learn from the talk, and prepares them for what will come next.

A good introduction not only gives the big picture and motivations behind your study but also concisely sets the stage for what the audience will learn from the talk (e.g., the questions your work answers, and/or the hypotheses that your work tests). The end of the introduction will lead to a natural transition to the methods.

Give a broad perspective on the problem. The easiest way to start with the big picture is to think of a hook for the first slide of your presentation. A hook is an opening that gets the audience’s attention and gets them interested in your story. In science, this might take the form of a why, or a how question, or it could be a statement about a major problem or open question in your field. Other examples of hooks include quotes, short anecdotes, or interesting statistics.

Why should the audience care? Next, decide on the angle you are going to take on your hook that links to the thesis of your talk. In other words, you need to set the context, i.e., explain why the audience should care. For example, you may introduce an observation from nature, a pattern in experimental data, or a theory that you want to test. The audience must understand your motivations for the study.

Supplementary details. Once you have established the hook and angle, you need to include supplementary details to support them. For example, you might state your hypothesis. Then go into previous work and the current state of knowledge. Include citations of these studies. If you need to introduce some technical methodological details, theory, or jargon, do it here.

Conclude your introduction. The motivation for the work and background information should set the stage for the conclusion of the introduction, where you describe the goals of your study, and any hypotheses or predictions. Let the audience know what they are going to learn.

Methods: The audience will use your description of the methods to assess the approach you took in your study and to decide whether your findings are credible. Tell the story of your methods in chronological order. Use visuals to describe your methods as much as possible. If you have equations, make sure to take the time to explain them. Decide what methods to include and how you will show them. You need enough detail so that your audience will understand what you did and therefore can evaluate your approach, but avoid including superfluous details that do not support your main idea. You want to avoid the common mistake of including too much data, as the audience can read the paper(s) later.

Results: This is the evidence you present for your thesis. The audience will use the results to evaluate the support for your main idea. Choose the most important and interesting results—those that support your thesis. You don’t need to present all the results from your study (indeed, you most likely won’t have time to present them all). Break down complex results into digestible pieces, e.g., comparisons over multiple slides (more tips in the next section).

Summary: Summarize your main findings. Displaying your main findings through visuals can be effective. Emphasize the new contributions to scientific knowledge that your work makes.

Conclusion: Complete the circle by relating your conclusions to the big picture topic in your introduction—and your hook, if possible. It’s important to describe any alternative explanations for your findings. You might also speculate on future directions arising from your research. The slides that comprise your conclusion do not need to state “conclusion”. Rather, the concluding slide title should be a declarative sentence linking back to the big picture problem and your main idea.

It’s important to end well by planning a strong closure to your talk, after which you will thank the audience. Your closing statement should relate to your thesis, perhaps by stating it differently or memorably. Avoid ending awkwardly by memorizing your closing sentence.

By now, you have an outline of the story of your talk, which you can use to plan your slides. Your slides should complement and enhance what you will say. Use the following steps to prepare your slides.

Write the slide titles to match your talk outline. These should be clear and informative declarative sentences that succinctly give the main idea of the slide (e.g., don’t use “Methods” as a slide title). Have one major idea per slide. In a YouTube talk on designing effective slides , researcher Michael Alley shows examples of instructive slide titles.
Decide how you will convey the main idea of the slide (e.g., what figures, photographs, equations, statistics, references, or other elements you will need). The body of the slide should support the slide’s main idea.
Under each slide title, outline what you want to say, in bullet points.

In sum, for each slide, prepare a title that summarizes its major idea, a list of visual elements, and a summary of the points you will make. Ensure each slide connects to your thesis. If it doesn’t, then you don’t need the slide.

Slides for scientific presentations have three major components: text (including labels and legends), graphics, and equations. Here, we give tips on how to present each of these components.

Have an informative title slide. Include the names of all coauthors and their affiliations. Include an attractive image relating to your study.
Make the foreground content of your slides “pop” by using an appropriate background. Slides that have white backgrounds with black text work well for small rooms, whereas slides with black backgrounds and white text are suitable for large rooms.
The layout of your slides should be simple. Pay attention to how and where you lay the visual and text elements on each slide. It’s tempting to cram information, but you need lots of empty space. Retain space at the sides and bottom of your slides.
Use sans serif fonts with a font size of at least 20 for text, and up to 40 for slide titles. Citations can be in 14 font and should be included at the bottom of the slide.
Use bold or italics to emphasize words, not underlines or caps. Keep these effects to a minimum.
Use concise text . You don’t need full sentences. Convey the essence of your message in as few words as possible. Write down what you’d like to say, and then shorten it for the slide. Remove unnecessary filler words.
Text blocks should be limited to two lines. This will prevent you from crowding too much information on the slide.
Include names of technical terms in your talk slides, especially if they are not familiar to everyone in the audience.
Proofread your slides. Typos and grammatical errors are distracting for your audience.
Include citations for the hypotheses or observations of other scientists.
Good figures and graphics are essential to sustain audience interest. Use graphics and photographs to show the experiment or study system in action and to explain abstract concepts.
Don’t use figures straight from your paper as they may be too detailed for your talk, and details like axes may be too small. Make new versions if necessary. Make them large enough to be visible from the back of the room.
Use graphs to show your results, not tables. Tables are difficult for your audience to digest! If you must present a table, keep it simple.
Label the axes of graphs and indicate the units. Label important components of graphics and photographs and include captions. Include sources for graphics that are not your own.
Explain all the elements of a graph. This includes the axes, what the colors and markers mean, and patterns in the data.
Use colors in figures and text in a meaningful, not random, way. For example, contrasting colors can be effective for pointing out comparisons and/or differences. Don’t use neon colors or pastels.
Use thick lines in figures, and use color to create contrasts in the figures you present. Don’t use red/green or red/blue combinations, as color-blind audience members can’t distinguish between them.
Arrows or circles can be effective for drawing attention to key details in graphs and equations. Add some text annotations along with them.
Write your summary and conclusion slides using graphics, rather than showing a slide with a list of bullet points. Showing some of your results again can be helpful to remind the audience of your message.
If your talk has equations, take time to explain them. Include text boxes to explain variables and mathematical terms, and put them under each term in the equation.
Combine equations with a graphic that shows the scientific principle, or include a diagram of the mathematical model.
Use animations judiciously. They are helpful to reveal complex ideas gradually, for example, if you need to make a comparison or contrast or to build a complicated argument or figure. For lists, reveal one bullet point at a time. New ideas appearing sequentially will help your audience follow your logic.
Slide transitions should be simple. Silly ones distract from your message.
Decide how you will make the transition as you move from one section of your talk to the next. For example, if you spend time talking through details, provide a summary afterward, especially in a long talk. Another common tactic is to have a “home slide” that you return to multiple times during the talk that reinforces your main idea or message. In her YouTube talk on designing effective scientific presentations , Stanford biologist Susan McConnell suggests using the approach of home slides to build a cohesive narrative.

To deliver a polished presentation, it is essential to practice it. Here are some tips.

For your first run-through, practice alone. Pay attention to your narrative. Does your story flow naturally? Do you know how you will start and end? Are there any awkward transitions? Do animations help you tell your story? Do your slides help to convey what you are saying or are they missing components?
Next, practice in front of your advisor, and/or your peers (e.g., your lab group). Ask someone to time your talk. Take note of their feedback and the questions that they ask you (you might be asked similar questions during your real talk).
Edit your talk, taking into account the feedback you’ve received. Eliminate superfluous slides that don’t contribute to your takeaway message.
Practice as many times as needed to memorize the order of your slides and the key transition points of your talk. However, don’t try to learn your talk word for word. Instead, memorize opening and closing statements, and sentences at key junctures in the presentation. Your presentation should resemble a serious but spontaneous conversation with the audience.
Practicing multiple times also helps you hone the delivery of your talk. While rehearsing, pay attention to your vocal intonations and speed. Make sure to take pauses while you speak, and make eye contact with your imaginary audience.
Make sure your talk finishes within the allotted time, and remember to leave time for questions. Conferences are particularly strict on run time.
Anticipate questions and challenges from the audience, and clarify ambiguities within your slides and/or speech in response.
If you anticipate that you could be asked questions about details but you don’t have time to include them, or they detract from the main message of your talk, you can prepare slides that address these questions and place them after the final slide of your talk.

➡️ More tips for giving scientific presentations

An organized presentation with a clear narrative will help you communicate your ideas effectively, which is essential for engaging your audience and conveying the importance of your work. Taking time to plan and outline your scientific presentation before writing the slides will help you manage your nerves and feel more confident during the presentation, which will improve your overall performance.

A good scientific presentation has an engaging scientific narrative with a memorable take-home message. It has clear, informative slides that enhance what the speaker says. You need to practice your talk many times to ensure you deliver a polished presentation.

First, consider who will attend your presentation, and what you want the audience to learn about your research. Tailor your content to their level of knowledge and interests. Second, create an outline for your presentation, including the key points you want to make and the evidence you will use to support those points. Finally, practice your presentation several times to ensure that it flows smoothly and that you are comfortable with the material.

Prepare an opening that immediately gets the audience’s attention. A common device is a why or a how question, or a statement of a major open problem in your field, but you could also start with a quote, interesting statistic, or case study from your field.

Scientific presentations typically either focus on a single study (e.g., a 15-minute conference presentation) or tell the story of multiple studies (e.g., a PhD defense or 50-minute conference keynote talk). For a single study talk, the structure follows the scientific paper format: Introduction, Methods, Results, Summary, and Conclusion, whereas the format of a talk discussing multiple studies is more complex, but a theme unifies the studies.

Ensure you have one major idea per slide, and convey that idea clearly (through images, equations, statistics, citations, video, etc.). The slide should include a title that summarizes the major point of the slide, should not contain too much text or too many graphics, and color should be used meaningfully.

Loading metrics

Open Access

Ten simple rules for effective presentation slides

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation Biomedical Engineering and the Center for Public Health Genomics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States of America

Kristen M. Naegle

Published: December 2, 2021

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009554
Reader Comments

Citation: Naegle KM (2021) Ten simple rules for effective presentation slides. PLoS Comput Biol 17(12): e1009554. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009554

Copyright: © 2021 Kristen M. Naegle. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Funding: The author received no specific funding for this work.

Competing interests: The author has declared no competing interests exist.

Introduction

The “presentation slide” is the building block of all academic presentations, whether they are journal clubs, thesis committee meetings, short conference talks, or hour-long seminars. A slide is a single page projected on a screen, usually built on the premise of a title, body, and figures or tables and includes both what is shown and what is spoken about that slide. Multiple slides are strung together to tell the larger story of the presentation. While there have been excellent 10 simple rules on giving entire presentations [ 1 , 2 ], there was an absence in the fine details of how to design a slide for optimal effect—such as the design elements that allow slides to convey meaningful information, to keep the audience engaged and informed, and to deliver the information intended and in the time frame allowed. As all research presentations seek to teach, effective slide design borrows from the same principles as effective teaching, including the consideration of cognitive processing your audience is relying on to organize, process, and retain information. This is written for anyone who needs to prepare slides from any length scale and for most purposes of conveying research to broad audiences. The rules are broken into 3 primary areas. Rules 1 to 5 are about optimizing the scope of each slide. Rules 6 to 8 are about principles around designing elements of the slide. Rules 9 to 10 are about preparing for your presentation, with the slides as the central focus of that preparation.

Rule 1: Include only one idea per slide

Each slide should have one central objective to deliver—the main idea or question [ 3 – 5 ]. Often, this means breaking complex ideas down into manageable pieces (see Fig 1 , where “background” information has been split into 2 key concepts). In another example, if you are presenting a complex computational approach in a large flow diagram, introduce it in smaller units, building it up until you finish with the entire diagram. The progressive buildup of complex information means that audiences are prepared to understand the whole picture, once you have dedicated time to each of the parts. You can accomplish the buildup of components in several ways—for example, using presentation software to cover/uncover information. Personally, I choose to create separate slides for each piece of information content I introduce—where the final slide has the entire diagram, and I use cropping or a cover on duplicated slides that come before to hide what I’m not yet ready to include. I use this method in order to ensure that each slide in my deck truly presents one specific idea (the new content) and the amount of the new information on that slide can be described in 1 minute (Rule 2), but it comes with the trade-off—a change to the format of one of the slides in the series often means changes to all slides.

PPT PowerPoint slide
PNG larger image
TIFF original image

Top left: A background slide that describes the background material on a project from my lab. The slide was created using a PowerPoint Design Template, which had to be modified to increase default text sizes for this figure (i.e., the default text sizes are even worse than shown here). Bottom row: The 2 new slides that break up the content into 2 explicit ideas about the background, using a central graphic. In the first slide, the graphic is an explicit example of the SH2 domain of PI3-kinase interacting with a phosphorylation site (Y754) on the PDGFR to describe the important details of what an SH2 domain and phosphotyrosine ligand are and how they interact. I use that same graphic in the second slide to generalize all binding events and include redundant text to drive home the central message (a lot of possible interactions might occur in the human proteome, more than we can currently measure). Top right highlights which rules were used to move from the original slide to the new slide. Specific changes as highlighted by Rule 7 include increasing contrast by changing the background color, increasing font size, changing to sans serif fonts, and removing all capital text and underlining (using bold to draw attention). PDGFR, platelet-derived growth factor receptor.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009554.g001

Rule 2: Spend only 1 minute per slide

When you present your slide in the talk, it should take 1 minute or less to discuss. This rule is really helpful for planning purposes—a 20-minute presentation should have somewhere around 20 slides. Also, frequently giving your audience new information to feast on helps keep them engaged. During practice, if you find yourself spending more than a minute on a slide, there’s too much for that one slide—it’s time to break up the content into multiple slides or even remove information that is not wholly central to the story you are trying to tell. Reduce, reduce, reduce, until you get to a single message, clearly described, which takes less than 1 minute to present.

Rule 3: Make use of your heading

When each slide conveys only one message, use the heading of that slide to write exactly the message you are trying to deliver. Instead of titling the slide “Results,” try “CTNND1 is central to metastasis” or “False-positive rates are highly sample specific.” Use this landmark signpost to ensure that all the content on that slide is related exactly to the heading and only the heading. Think of the slide heading as the introductory or concluding sentence of a paragraph and the slide content the rest of the paragraph that supports the main point of the paragraph. An audience member should be able to follow along with you in the “paragraph” and come to the same conclusion sentence as your header at the end of the slide.

Rule 4: Include only essential points

While you are speaking, audience members’ eyes and minds will be wandering over your slide. If you have a comment, detail, or figure on a slide, have a plan to explicitly identify and talk about it. If you don’t think it’s important enough to spend time on, then don’t have it on your slide. This is especially important when faculty are present. I often tell students that thesis committee members are like cats: If you put a shiny bauble in front of them, they’ll go after it. Be sure to only put the shiny baubles on slides that you want them to focus on. Putting together a thesis meeting for only faculty is really an exercise in herding cats (if you have cats, you know this is no easy feat). Clear and concise slide design will go a long way in helping you corral those easily distracted faculty members.

Rule 5: Give credit, where credit is due

An exception to Rule 4 is to include proper citations or references to work on your slide. When adding citations, names of other researchers, or other types of credit, use a consistent style and method for adding this information to your slides. Your audience will then be able to easily partition this information from the other content. A common mistake people make is to think “I’ll add that reference later,” but I highly recommend you put the proper reference on the slide at the time you make it, before you forget where it came from. Finally, in certain kinds of presentations, credits can make it clear who did the work. For the faculty members heading labs, it is an effective way to connect your audience with the personnel in the lab who did the work, which is a great career booster for that person. For graduate students, it is an effective way to delineate your contribution to the work, especially in meetings where the goal is to establish your credentials for meeting the rigors of a PhD checkpoint.

Rule 6: Use graphics effectively

As a rule, you should almost never have slides that only contain text. Build your slides around good visualizations. It is a visual presentation after all, and as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. However, on the flip side, don’t muddy the point of the slide by putting too many complex graphics on a single slide. A multipanel figure that you might include in a manuscript should often be broken into 1 panel per slide (see Rule 1 ). One way to ensure that you use the graphics effectively is to make a point to introduce the figure and its elements to the audience verbally, especially for data figures. For example, you might say the following: “This graph here shows the measured false-positive rate for an experiment and each point is a replicate of the experiment, the graph demonstrates …” If you have put too much on one slide to present in 1 minute (see Rule 2 ), then the complexity or number of the visualizations is too much for just one slide.

Rule 7: Design to avoid cognitive overload

The type of slide elements, the number of them, and how you present them all impact the ability for the audience to intake, organize, and remember the content. For example, a frequent mistake in slide design is to include full sentences, but reading and verbal processing use the same cognitive channels—therefore, an audience member can either read the slide, listen to you, or do some part of both (each poorly), as a result of cognitive overload [ 4 ]. The visual channel is separate, allowing images/videos to be processed with auditory information without cognitive overload [ 6 ] (Rule 6). As presentations are an exercise in listening, and not reading, do what you can to optimize the ability of the audience to listen. Use words sparingly as “guide posts” to you and the audience about major points of the slide. In fact, you can add short text fragments, redundant with the verbal component of the presentation, which has been shown to improve retention [ 7 ] (see Fig 1 for an example of redundant text that avoids cognitive overload). Be careful in the selection of a slide template to minimize accidentally adding elements that the audience must process, but are unimportant. David JP Phillips argues (and effectively demonstrates in his TEDx talk [ 5 ]) that the human brain can easily interpret 6 elements and more than that requires a 500% increase in human cognition load—so keep the total number of elements on the slide to 6 or less. Finally, in addition to the use of short text, white space, and the effective use of graphics/images, you can improve ease of cognitive processing further by considering color choices and font type and size. Here are a few suggestions for improving the experience for your audience, highlighting the importance of these elements for some specific groups:

Use high contrast colors and simple backgrounds with low to no color—for persons with dyslexia or visual impairment.
Use sans serif fonts and large font sizes (including figure legends), avoid italics, underlining (use bold font instead for emphasis), and all capital letters—for persons with dyslexia or visual impairment [ 8 ].
Use color combinations and palettes that can be understood by those with different forms of color blindness [ 9 ]. There are excellent tools available to identify colors to use and ways to simulate your presentation or figures as they might be seen by a person with color blindness (easily found by a web search).
In this increasing world of virtual presentation tools, consider practicing your talk with a closed captioning system capture your words. Use this to identify how to improve your speaking pace, volume, and annunciation to improve understanding by all members of your audience, but especially those with a hearing impairment.

Rule 8: Design the slide so that a distracted person gets the main takeaway

It is very difficult to stay focused on a presentation, especially if it is long or if it is part of a longer series of talks at a conference. Audience members may get distracted by an important email, or they may start dreaming of lunch. So, it’s important to look at your slide and ask “If they heard nothing I said, will they understand the key concept of this slide?” The other rules are set up to help with this, including clarity of the single point of the slide (Rule 1), titling it with a major conclusion (Rule 3), and the use of figures (Rule 6) and short text redundant to your verbal description (Rule 7). However, with each slide, step back and ask whether its main conclusion is conveyed, even if someone didn’t hear your accompanying dialog. Importantly, ask if the information on the slide is at the right level of abstraction. For example, do you have too many details about the experiment, which hides the conclusion of the experiment (i.e., breaking Rule 1)? If you are worried about not having enough details, keep a slide at the end of your slide deck (after your conclusions and acknowledgments) with the more detailed information that you can refer to during a question and answer period.

Rule 9: Iteratively improve slide design through practice

Well-designed slides that follow the first 8 rules are intended to help you deliver the message you intend and in the amount of time you intend to deliver it in. The best way to ensure that you nailed slide design for your presentation is to practice, typically a lot. The most important aspects of practicing a new presentation, with an eye toward slide design, are the following 2 key points: (1) practice to ensure that you hit, each time through, the most important points (for example, the text guide posts you left yourself and the title of the slide); and (2) practice to ensure that as you conclude the end of one slide, it leads directly to the next slide. Slide transitions, what you say as you end one slide and begin the next, are important to keeping the flow of the “story.” Practice is when I discover that the order of my presentation is poor or that I left myself too few guideposts to remember what was coming next. Additionally, during practice, the most frequent things I have to improve relate to Rule 2 (the slide takes too long to present, usually because I broke Rule 1, and I’m delivering too much information for one slide), Rule 4 (I have a nonessential detail on the slide), and Rule 5 (I forgot to give a key reference). The very best type of practice is in front of an audience (for example, your lab or peers), where, with fresh perspectives, they can help you identify places for improving slide content, design, and connections across the entirety of your talk.

Rule 10: Design to mitigate the impact of technical disasters

The real presentation almost never goes as we planned in our heads or during our practice. Maybe the speaker before you went over time and now you need to adjust. Maybe the computer the organizer is having you use won’t show your video. Maybe your internet is poor on the day you are giving a virtual presentation at a conference. Technical problems are routinely part of the practice of sharing your work through presentations. Hence, you can design your slides to limit the impact certain kinds of technical disasters create and also prepare alternate approaches. Here are just a few examples of the preparation you can do that will take you a long way toward avoiding a complete fiasco:

Save your presentation as a PDF—if the version of Keynote or PowerPoint on a host computer cause issues, you still have a functional copy that has a higher guarantee of compatibility.
In using videos, create a backup slide with screen shots of key results. For example, if I have a video of cell migration, I’ll be sure to have a copy of the start and end of the video, in case the video doesn’t play. Even if the video worked, you can pause on this backup slide and take the time to highlight the key results in words if someone could not see or understand the video.
Avoid animations, such as figures or text that flash/fly-in/etc. Surveys suggest that no one likes movement in presentations [ 3 , 4 ]. There is likely a cognitive underpinning to the almost universal distaste of pointless animations that relates to the idea proposed by Kosslyn and colleagues that animations are salient perceptual units that captures direct attention [ 4 ]. Although perceptual salience can be used to draw attention to and improve retention of specific points, if you use this approach for unnecessary/unimportant things (like animation of your bullet point text, fly-ins of figures, etc.), then you will distract your audience from the important content. Finally, animations cause additional processing burdens for people with visual impairments [ 10 ] and create opportunities for technical disasters if the software on the host system is not compatible with your planned animation.

Conclusions

These rules are just a start in creating more engaging presentations that increase audience retention of your material. However, there are wonderful resources on continuing on the journey of becoming an amazing public speaker, which includes understanding the psychology and neuroscience behind human perception and learning. For example, as highlighted in Rule 7, David JP Phillips has a wonderful TEDx talk on the subject [ 5 ], and “PowerPoint presentation flaws and failures: A psychological analysis,” by Kosslyn and colleagues is deeply detailed about a number of aspects of human cognition and presentation style [ 4 ]. There are many books on the topic, including the popular “Presentation Zen” by Garr Reynolds [ 11 ]. Finally, although briefly touched on here, the visualization of data is an entire topic of its own that is worth perfecting for both written and oral presentations of work, with fantastic resources like Edward Tufte’s “The Visual Display of Quantitative Information” [ 12 ] or the article “Visualization of Biomedical Data” by O’Donoghue and colleagues [ 13 ].

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the countless presenters, colleagues, students, and mentors from which I have learned a great deal from on effective presentations. Also, a thank you to the wonderful resources published by organizations on how to increase inclusivity. A special thanks to Dr. Jason Papin and Dr. Michael Guertin on early feedback of this editorial.

View Article
PubMed/NCBI
Google Scholar
3. Teaching VUC for Making Better PowerPoint Presentations. n.d. Available from: https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/making-better-powerpoint-presentations/#baddeley .
8. Creating a dyslexia friendly workplace. Dyslexia friendly style guide. nd. Available from: https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/advice/employers/creating-a-dyslexia-friendly-workplace/dyslexia-friendly-style-guide .
9. Cravit R. How to Use Color Blind Friendly Palettes to Make Your Charts Accessible. 2019. Available from: https://venngage.com/blog/color-blind-friendly-palette/ .
10. Making your conference presentation more accessible to blind and partially sighted people. n.d. Available from: https://vocaleyes.co.uk/services/resources/guidelines-for-making-your-conference-presentation-more-accessible-to-blind-and-partially-sighted-people/ .
11. Reynolds G. Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery. 2nd ed. New Riders Pub; 2011.
12. Tufte ER. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. 2nd ed. Graphics Press; 2001.

IMAGES

PPT
Presentation Research Outline Powerpoint Topics
20+ Best Research PowerPoint Templates (For Research Presentations)
PPT
Research Powerpoint Templates
🎉 Research paper presentation ppt. Using PowerPoint for a Research Presentation. 2019-02-10

VIDEO

Prepare & deliver a research presentation
How To Prepare an Oral Research Presentation
A Good Research Presentation
2014 Three Minute Thesis winning presentation by Emily Johnston
How to make an outstanding research presentation. All you need to know
Research Proposal Presentation

COMMENTS

Top 10 Research Proposal PowerPoint Presentation Templates
A research proposal PowerPoint presentation template is a versatile tool designed to assist researchers, academics, and students in presenting their proposed research projects in a clear and professional manner.
How to Create and Deliver a Research Presentation
Learn the key slides, tips, and templates for creating a research presentation in PowerPoint. Find out how to communicate your research findings, analysis, and …
How to Make a Successful Research Presentation
Learn tips and tricks for turning your research paper into a visual presentation that engages and informs your audience. Follow the iceberg analogy, craft a compelling narrative, and use your medium to enhance the …
How To Create An Effective Research Presentation
Follow our guide with best practices to creating a research presentation that shares your results and will help you win grants.
Research presentation: A comprehensive guide
Master research presentations with this comprehensive guide. Learn how to choose a topic, conduct research, create visuals, and deliver your presentation with confidence.
How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation of Your …
In this article, we’ll highlight how to make a PowerPoint presentation from a research paper, and what to include (as well as what NOT to include). We’ll also touch on how to present a research paper at a conference.
Research Paper Presentation: Best Practices and Tips
Research paper PowerPoint presentation outline. Creating a PowerPoint presentation for a research paper involves organizing and summarizing your key findings, …
How to make a scientific presentation
This guide provides a 4-step process for making a good scientific presentation: outlining the scientific narrative, preparing slide outlines, constructing slides, and practicing the talk. We give advice on how to make effective slides, including …
Ten simple rules for effective presentation slides
The rules are broken into 3 primary areas. Rules 1 to 5 are about optimizing the scope of each slide. Rules 6 to 8 are about principles around designing elements of the slide. Rules 9 to 10 are about preparing for your …

Top 10 Research Proposal PowerPoint Presentation Templates in 2024