Poster Presentation Citation Generator
Cite a poster you saw or presented at a conference. Enter the presenters, title, conference, location, dates and the poster's URL, and get the APA 7 reference with the [Poster presentation] label, the MLA 9 entry and the Chicago 18 notes — with italics that survive the paste into Word. Free, no sign-up.
Poster details
One per line, as First Last or Last, First, in the order printed on the poster. Initials are fine if that is all the poster gives.
Type it in sentence case: capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon and proper nouns. MLA and Chicago get title case automatically.
The full name of the meeting, as the program prints it, with its edition number if it has one.
City, and the state or province and country where they help. Type Online for a virtual conference.
APA dates a poster by the whole run of the conference, not by the hour of your session.
Link to the poster itself or its DOI. If there is none, the conference program page is the fallback.
Chicago shortens a long title to its key words, by hand. Leave blank for a suggestion.
Your citations
Enter the poster's title to see your citations.
How to Use the Poster Citation Generator
- 1. Enter the presenters and the title. Use the names and the title printed on the poster. Type the title in sentence case; the generator capitalizes it for MLA and Chicago.
- 2. Name the conference and the place. Use the meeting's full name from the program, and the city, with the state and country where they help.
- 3. Give the dates of the whole conference. Enter its first and last days, not the hour of your poster session. A one-day meeting needs only the first.
- 4. Add the poster's URL. Link to the poster itself or its DOI. With no copy online, leave it blank.
- 5. Copy the style you need. Each entry copies with its italics intact.
How Each Style Handles a Poster
| Element | APA 7 | MLA 9 | Chicago 18 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Title | Italic, sentence case | Quotation marks, title case | Quotation marks, title case |
| Label | [Poster presentation] after the title | Poster presentation. at the end (optional) | poster presented at, before the meeting |
| Date | The whole run of the conference, after the author | The conference dates, after its name | The conference dates, at the end of the note |
| Conference | Plain type, after the label | Plain type, as the container | Plain type, after presented at |
| Bibliography | Reference list entry | Works Cited entry | Usually the note only |
APA 7 treats a poster as a standalone work: the title is italic and the bracketed description tells the reader it is a poster, not an article. The date is the whole run of the conference — 2016, April 26–28 — because the conference, not the session, is what a reader can look up. With no DOI, link to the poster itself; if that is not possible, link to the conference's program page. MLA 9 has no poster example. The generator follows the MLA Style Center's answer on a paper presented at a conference — title in quotation marks, the conference name and date, then the location — and ends with the label Poster presentation., which is the practice of library guides rather than an MLA example. Chicago 18 (§14.115) writes poster presented at, then the sponsor or meeting, the place and the date, and no longer wraps those details in parentheses. Chicago normally keeps a poster in a note or the text, so the bibliography entry here is for an instructor who asks for one.
Poster Citation Examples
A poster by R. Fothergill and R. Bromnick at the 2016 British Psychological Society Annual Conference in Nottingham, as the University of Lincoln's APA guide prints it. The initials are all the poster gives.
APA 7th edition
Reference list:
Fothergill, R., & Bromnick, R. (2016, April 26–28). Intentions to work with older adults: A critical exploration of psychology students’ motivations and ambition [Poster presentation]. British Psychological Society Annual Conference, Nottingham. http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/id/eprint/24576/
In-text (parenthetical):
(Fothergill & Bromnick, 2016)
In-text (narrative):
Fothergill and Bromnick (2016)
MLA 9th edition
Works Cited:
Fothergill, R., and R. Bromnick. “Intentions to Work with Older Adults: A Critical Exploration of Psychology Students’ Motivations and Ambition.” British Psychological Society Annual Conference, 26-28 Apr. 2016, Nottingham, eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/id/eprint/24576/. Poster presentation.
In-text citation:
(Fothergill and Bromnick)
Chicago 18th edition (notes and bibliography)
Footnote:
R. Fothergill and R. Bromnick, “Intentions to Work with Older Adults: A Critical Exploration of Psychology Students’ Motivations and Ambition,” poster presented at British Psychological Society Annual Conference, Nottingham, April 26–28, 2016, http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/id/eprint/24576/.
Shortened note:
Fothergill and Bromnick, “Intentions to Work with Older Adults.”
Bibliography:
Fothergill, R., and R. Bromnick. “Intentions to Work with Older Adults: A Critical Exploration of Psychology Students’ Motivations and Ambition.” Poster presented at British Psychological Society Annual Conference, Nottingham, April 26–28, 2016. http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/id/eprint/24576/.
Poster or Conference Paper?
A poster is not the paper behind it. If the conference published its proceedings and your poster has a paper or an abstract in them, cite that published item — for a paper, with the Conference Paper Citation Generator. Cite the poster itself when it is the only version: a PDF on a repository or a conference site, or a poster you saw on the day. If the poster was shown at a meeting and nothing was ever posted, you may still cite it as a poster with no URL, but a reader cannot check it, so say what you saw in your text.
When a Field Is Missing
- No URL. Leave the box empty. APA and MLA end the entry at the location.
- No date. APA uses n.d. in place of the date. MLA and Chicago leave it out.
- No location. Leave it blank. A virtual conference takes Online in the location box.
- No presenter named. The title moves to the front. Check the poster's header and the program first.
- Several conference days. Enter the first and the last day. APA writes 2019, May 30–June 2 across a month break.
Common Mistakes
- Dating the poster by your session. APA dates it by the whole conference.
- Italicizing the conference name. It stays in plain type in all three styles.
- Leaving out the label. A poster is a different kind of source from an article, and the label says so.
- Citing a poster when the paper exists. Prefer the published proceedings when you can read them.
- Linking to the database, not the poster. Use the link to the poster file or its DOI; failing that, the conference program page.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How do I cite a poster presentation in APA 7?
- Give the presenters, the dates of the conference, the poster's title in italics, [Poster presentation], the conference name and location, and a URL if there is one: Fothergill, R., & Bromnick, R. (2016, April 26–28). Intentions to work with older adults: A critical exploration of psychology students’ motivations and ambition [Poster presentation]. British Psychological Society Annual Conference, Nottingham. In text: (Fothergill & Bromnick, 2016).
- How do I cite a conference poster in MLA 9?
- Name the presenter, put the title in quotation marks, then the conference, its dates and the location: Fothergill, R., and R. Bromnick. “Title of the Poster.” British Psychological Society Annual Conference, 26-28 Apr. 2016, Nottingham. The closing label Poster presentation. is optional. In text: (Fothergill and Bromnick).
- How do I cite a poster in Chicago style?
- CMOS 18 §14.115 uses the same pattern as a paper: R. Fothergill and R. Bromnick, “Title,” poster presented at British Psychological Society Annual Conference, Nottingham, April 26–28, 2016. The meeting details are no longer in parentheses. Chicago usually keeps such a citation to a note or the text and leaves it out of the bibliography.
- Which date do I use for a poster?
- APA uses the whole run of the conference, as in 2016, April 26–28. MLA and Chicago also give the conference dates after its name. If only one day applies, enter the first day and leave the last day blank.
- What if the poster has no URL?
- Leave the URL blank and cite it as a poster you saw at the meeting. The reference is then complete as far as it can be, but it cannot be checked, so name the conference clearly. If a PDF of the poster is online, link to it; failing that, link to the conference's program page.
- How do I cite the poster I presented myself?
- The same way as any other poster, with your own name as presenter. If your university or a repository holds a copy, use its link or DOI so readers can find it.