Research Posters

The right visualizations will help others understand your research while also making your poster stand out. When choosing your images, be sure:

1. You have the rights to legally use them. When working with images keep in mind U.S. copyright laws. Use of images in scholarly work and research is subject to applicable United States copyright law and the provisions in the licenses for individual databases. Please consult the Terms of Use in each database you use, and for information regarding U.S. copyright law, see the University of Chicago Copyright Information Center;
    
2. Your image is sized correctly to print clearly on your poster;
   • There is an inverse relationship between print size and resolution (if you increase the print size the resolution decreases and vice-versa).
      
   • To get good results when inserting an image into a research poster, the image should be printed at a resolution of at least 120 pixels per inch (ppi).
      
   • Images that look good online may not be high enough resolution to look good in print at the size you want them to be. Always do a test print (scaled reasonably) to ensure your images aren't pixelated.
      
3. You clearly label each image/chart/graph etc. that you include.

The Library can provide support for your poster's visualization needs:

• The Library's Center for Digital Scholarship offers many tools like Tableau and GIS platforms, as well as individualized project support;
   
• You may use the Digitization Lab, a self-service digitization space, to scan print-based materials and turn them into a high resolution image;
   
• You can request high resolution scans of many items from the Special Collections Research Center. 

In addition to the Library's resources, the Visual Resource Center (VRC) Lab provides digitization equipment and support for a variety of materials. 

The following image databases are some of the databases licensed for the UChicago community. For more image sources, visit the Visual Resources library guide.