Research Presentations | How To Prepare & Best Practices

Introduction

One of the most important soft research skills that scholars should have is the ability to give an effective research presentation. The research may be done, but what the research contributes to the field can only be realized if it is shared with the broader academic community.

It's important not to take the details of a successful research presentation for granted. After all, the research seldom, if ever, speaks for itself. Researchers can benefit from understanding what makes for compelling presentation slides and persuasive delivery. We'll examine these aspects of presentations in this article.

What is a research presentation?

Research dissemination takes many different forms, but presentations are often the first step in the process of sharing research with the broader scientific community. Research papers can be developed through the feedback garnered at an academic conference, while a written dissertation is never final until the doctoral student successfully defends their work in an oral defense.

A presentation is oftentimes an abridged version of what will become a larger written work, oftentimes a paper in a scholarly journal or a full-length monograph. Many research presentations are given at conferences and symposia that serve as forums for researchers to discuss their work and the development of the field in a real-time environment, in contrast with journals and other written publications.

Research presentations are not as prestigious as research papers but they are sometimes listed as being among a researcher's scholarly accomplishments when universities and research institutions invite job applicants to submit their resumes or curricula vitae. Also, audience members at a presentation may cite a persuasive presentation in their own research papers when the proposed theoretical developments or insights aren't available in other publicly available research.

In other words, while presentations may be seen as simply a forum for preliminary research dissemination, their value cannot be overlooked in crafting a research agenda.

Purpose of a research presentation

Presentations serve a specific set of purposes within the broader research dissemination process. Keep in mind that researchers tend to disseminate research through multiple channels and shouldn't rely on conference presentations alone. That said, there are benefits to presenting research in a forum such as a conference.

Promoting and developing your research agenda

The most obvious purpose for presenting at conferences is to share your research with the broader scientific community. A research conference is an opportunity to see a study situated among other research within a given area or topic of interest.

Especially within the social sciences, researchers depend on seeing how their proposed theories hold up to similar scholarship so they can develop their research agenda accordingly. Besides time spent conducting literature reviews and synthesizing the prevailing theories in the field, conferences are the other main opportunity for researchers to see how they can craft their ongoing study and future research through presentations and engagement with other scholars.

Gathering feedback on your research

Unlike a research paper, a conference presentation gathers instant feedback from audience members. After a presentation, the audience usually has the opportunity to ask questions or provide comments about the research. It's a source of useful advice that can contribute to the development of a study or the argumentation surrounding the findings.

Researchers, knowing this potential for feedback, may sometimes use a research presentation as a sort of early iteration of the research they will eventually publish. Scientific knowledge is generated through a consensus of scholars, without which theories aren't given sufficient credibility or developed further.

While a presentation may be considered a draft version of what will become a larger paper, keep in mind that a presentation should not be incomplete. The audience still has expectations about the necessary components of a research project such as a research question, a thorough literature review, discussion of methodology, and research findings. As a result, an informed audience will give feedback about any missing components in a presentation.

Beyond that, presenters get more than just substantive feedback. The presence of an audience gives researchers the opportunity to determine if their research resonates with scholars in the field or not in a way that written publication of research doesn't easily provide.

By assessing the audience in one's own presentation or in other presentations, a researcher can get a sense of whether they are on the right track with their own study, need to adjust their research agenda, or pursue other, more compelling lines of inquiry.

Networking with other researchers

Presenters also use these presentations as an opportunity to network with other researchers to plan future research and develop their academic careers. Dialogue within academic research can often be confined to one's own institution, making the research presentation a rare opportunity to directly engage with the broader scientific community.

Research design, papers, and grant applications all benefit from collaboration across institutions. Oftentimes, these collaborations are formed in person, making networking at conferences an important function of scientific research.

What are the steps to creating an effective research presentation?

While a research presentation may lead to the development of a full research paper, the two genres are different enough that researchers have to consider how best to effectively present their research in both forums.

Design effective presentation slides

Researchers who are used to the text-heavy format of research papers and are comfortable with describing their analysis and findings at length may find the concise format of a short presentation challenging.

Slides in a research presentation are more persuasive if the information contained within is straightforward and to the point, while also being balanced with the necessary detail about theory and analysis that a research audience expects.

With some exceptions, presentations are divided into slides, each of which offers a limited amount of space to effectively convey information. Slides should be divided along the major elements of a study (e.g., background, data collection, data analysis, findings) while also taking time into consideration.

With only so much information to communicate in a certain amount of space and time, it's important to limit what you put into any particular slide so each part of your presentation is easy for the audience to understand.

Summarize the key takeaways

Unless you are excerpting segments of an interview or other data verbatim, the text in a research presentation should be limited to the main takeaways in a list identified by bullet points. Oftentimes, what belongs in prose in a research paper needs to be repackaged in a more concise format in a research presentation.

This often means limiting the main aspects of a literature review or a theoretical framework to a narrow set of keywords, each describing a major element generated from a synthesis of the literature. Findings from a thematic analysis or a grounded theory study can be broken down into separate themes or aspects in a theory, each of which can be described through short but descriptive phrases that an audience can read quickly and easily.

A good rule of thumb to keep in mind is that an audience should never be expected to simply read the slides during a research presentation to understand the main points of a study. An effective research presentation utilizes both the slides and the speech given by the presenter in tandem to successfully communicate the information that the audience should take away from the study.

Answer questions from the audience

The idea of a research presentation may evoke images of a speaker conveying information to an attentive but otherwise passive audience. However, the transmission of knowledge is only one part of an effective research presentation, as speakers are often expected to take questions from the audience and engage in more of a conversation than a monologue.

The audience will use this time to highlight gaps in the research, raise any points of clarification about the research topic or design, and make suggestions for future research. Presenters should take advantage of this feedback to further develop their research in subsequent iterations of data collection and analysis, or into a publication in scholarly journals or books.

Simplify visual aids

The main challenge of a conference presentation is that complex ideas need to be simplified in presentation slides that are clear and concise. Tables and figures are also key in a full research paper, but journal articles have the benefit of space for extended text to help explain scientific knowledge in detail.

Conversely, presentations rely on visualizations to carry more of the meaning-making processes that the presenter needs to effectively deliver the main messages of their research while also ensuring that the audience isn't bogged down in unnecessary minutiae. To that end, presenters should carefully distill information from their data into simple tables and figures so they can be easily read by the audience in a short amount of time.

What about presentation delivery?

One of the biggest mistakes a researcher can make is overlook the value of a smooth and confident delivery in a research presentation, particularly if they assume that the findings speak for themselves. Many ineffective oral presentations end up being a reading of a draft manuscript for an academic journal or a rushed speech with few visual aids and too much text. With that in mind, here are a few things to optimize the delivery of your presentation.

Capture the audience's attention

Imagine that you're in your office searching for articles for your literature review. Generally, you only read articles that capture your interest and match your research inquiry. Once you set your sights on an article, you can take all the time you need to read it thoroughly for all the salient points.

An audience may come to a research presentation under different circumstances. Some conferences group presentations into sessions that have a common theme. Audience members who attend a session for one presentation may find other presentations that are not in their immediate interest.

As a result, your presentation may encounter a general audience whose full attention may not be trained on your research. Capturing the interest of your entire audience depends on your ability to speak in accessible terms and to broadly emphasize the significance and implications of your research in both theoretical developments and practical implications.

Speak to a general audience

Good research dissemination in any form involves informing the audience with the key takeaways of the study. This also means understanding the different levels of expertise among those in attendance.

To account for the wide audience that your presentation might attract, consider how to simplify your research so it is more accessible to researchers in your field and in adjacent fields.

This is less about "dumbing down" the research but ensuring that your audience can have a conversation with you about your research presentation afterward, in questions and answers and beyond.

It might be useful to limit any technical jargon or at least explain the necessary jargon in simple terms. Drawing parallels between complex ideas and everyday concepts (e.g., "teaching is like flying an airplane given all the complexities practitioners need to navigate dynamic situations") can help make sure the audience understands the dimensions of the research.

Finally, consider how to place the necessary data that addresses your research question into context so that each presentation slide is clear and concise.

Develop your presence with the audience

No matter how good you think your research is or how novel your insights are, you should never underestimate the value of having an impactful presence with the audience. Scholars might make the mistake of overlooking how a lasting impression with audience members can benefit a researcher, their study, and their overall research agenda.

A presenter should take into account how presentation elements such as gestures, eye contact, posture, and even clothing and hairstyle can influence an audience to be more attentive and likely to be persuaded. In doing so, an effective researcher can make their research more impactful when it is shared more broadly with an eager audience.

Other tips for how to make a successful research presentation

What makes giving an effective research presentation a soft skill is the lack of a defined formula for success, not to mention the many little details that can help a researcher make a lasting impression. With that in mind, here are some other tips that can benefit you when planning and preparing for your research presentation.

• Watch other research presentations. A stellar research presentation is determined by whatever best captures the audience's attention. Therefore, finding that out by watching other presentations is a good way to find good examples after which you can model your own presentation. What does a good presenter do that resonates with the audience? How can you adapt their presentation practices to your own? Consider how best to emulate successful presentations in your field.
• Consider presentation software alternatives. Most researchers rely on a PowerPoint presentation or a Google Slides presentation to present their research at a conference. Oftentimes, researchers turn to common presentation templates, potentially making presentation slides predictable and unremarkable. Beyond PowerPoint or Google Slides, there are other platforms that offer choices for visual aids, animations, and other elements less commonly found in typical presentations and that may be worth exploring to make a lasting impact.
• Keep your presentation brief. A typical conference presentation can be as short as 10 minutes and seldom more than 20 minutes. This is a challenge for any qualitative research project, particularly when research methods such as ethnography and discourse analysis are employed. Respect the audience members by staying within the allotted time and limiting your research findings to only the key points that audience members should take away from your presentation.
• Avoid plenaries and keynotes as models. The top researchers in any field occupy the most prominent places in a conference because their research and theories are widely cited and shared within the scientific community. Their keynote speeches draw the biggest crowds regardless of their presentation style. As a result, you may be better served by taking cues from presentation styles from regular presentations in concurrent sessions than from the main speeches.