Communication takes many forms. This chapter offers guidance for presenting work in a poster or talk, as well as for writing a research article for publication.

Conferences are an excellent opportunity to hear about the latest news in your field. They are also a great chance to meet like-minded people, share experiences, discuss ideas and gain inspiration. Friendships, collaborations, new research directions, invitations and job offers can all arise from conversations at conferences. Conferences range from small regional or national gatherings to huge international meetings. They may address a particular topic or may be a more general meeting of a learned society, including symposia on a variety of topics as well as society business meetings. Conferences may have only one session, with all delegates in the same room at the same time or may have multiple concurrent sessions in a conference venue where all the rooms and corridors look the same and it’s very easy to get lost. Most conferences include keynote or plenary presentations by major researchers in the field. This is a great chance to meet the people whose articles you have read and admired. In this chapter, I cover preparing and submitting an abstract, then attending a conference. Next, I provide general advice on presentations, then cover preparing and presenting oral and poster presentations. I end with conference etiquette.