COSM Summer Research Symposium

Faculty advisors must review and approve each student’s poster before it is submitted for printing or presented at the COSM Summer Research Symposium. This expectation applies especially to posters printed or funded by COSM, but all symposium posters should receive careful faculty review.

Please ensure that each poster:

• Is scientifically accurate and presents the project clearly and responsibly.
• Has been carefully proofread for spelling, grammar, punctuation, consistency, and typographical errors.
• Identifies all student and faculty co-authors accurately and in the appropriate order.
• Properly acknowledges collaborators, technical assistance, institutional support, facilities, and funding sources, including grant numbers when applicable.
• Uses a clean, professional layout with consistent alignment, spacing, headings, columns, margins, fonts, and visual style.
• Has a clear visual flow so that viewers can easily follow the project from background and objectives through methods, results, and conclusions.
• Uses font sizes large enough to be read comfortably by attendees standing several feet away. Dense paragraphs and excessive text should be avoided.
• Takes advantage of the poster format by emphasizing graphs, figures, photographs, diagrams, maps, and other visual elements whenever they communicate the work more effectively than text.
• When appropriate, includes figure titles, labels, legends, scales, units, and captions that are readable and understandable.
• Uses high-resolution images and graphics that will remain sharp when printed at full poster size.
• Keeps a fixed aspect ratio for images when adjusting image size.
• Presents data honestly and clearly, without distorted axes, misleading scaling, unsupported claims, or conclusions that go beyond the evidence. 
• Defines specialized abbreviations and avoids unnecessary jargon so that the poster is accessible to attendees outside the student’s immediate discipline.
• Includes only material that the student is authorized to share publicly. Advisors should review posters for confidential, proprietary, export-controlled, unpublished, human-subject, or otherwise restricted information.
• Uses university, college, departmental, sponsor, and partner names and logos accurately and appropriately.
• Includes reliable contact information or a QR code only when useful and appropriate, and confirms that all links and QR codes work.
• Is submitted in the correct dimensions, orientation, and file format by the announced deadline.

Faculty should also help students prepare to discuss their work with a broad audience. Students should be able to give a brief overview of the project, explain the significance of the work, answer reasonable questions, and acknowledge the limits of their findings.

The faculty advisor’s final review should occur before the poster is submitted for printing. COSM funding of poster printing does not replace the advisor’s responsibility for the accuracy, quality, completeness, and professional presentation of the final product. Due to printing volume and costs, COSM is unable to reprint posters to correct content errors or omissions that were present in the student’s submitted file.

Submission Guidelines:

• Posters may be no larger than 36″ x 48″. Posters may be smaller than this, but may not be any larger. This is also the largest size the COSM plotter printer can accommodate.
• Students must complete the submission form via Kuali prior to 5:00 PM Monday, August 10, 2026.
• If the poster needs to be printed by the COSM Dean’s Office, the student must submit a print-ready copy of the file to the Dean’s Office prior to 5:00 PM Wednesday, August 12, 2026.
  • Students should email the file to cosm@tarleton.edu. The body of the email must specify exact dimensions the poster is to be printed at (e.g. 36″ x 48″)
  • If the file does not match the dimensions in the body of the email, it will be sent back to the student for corrections.
• Poster setup will begin at 10:00 AM on Monday, August 17, 2026. Students are responsible for ensuring their posters are displayed before the symposium begins at 2:00 PM. If they need assistance getting the poster up, they can reach out to the COSM Dean’s Office in the Lamar Johanson Science Building Room 119, or at cosm@tarleton.edu.

REGISTRATION DEADLINE: 5:00 PM MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2026

Students wishing to participate in the COSM Summer Research Symposium must register via the Kuali link (link above).

NOTE: Only one student needs to submit one submission for each project; there is an opportunity to list additional student and faculty co-authors on the form.

The submission form must be completed by the student, not the faculty mentor or advisor.

If you have any questions regarding the Symposium or submitting via the Kuali form, please reach out to the COSM Dean’s Office at cosm@tarleton.edu or 254-968-9781.