Enter this year's Showcase. Our entry form is open until Friday 31st May. Got a question? Send us an email!

Use the Study Zone to help with your submission

The Study Zone helpdesk is situated in the Student Services Centre. We offer online and in-person support in preparing your submission to the Showcase. See how Study Zone can help.

Submission guidance

For any type of submission to the Showcase, please make sure you read over the submission checklist first. Make sure you have read through the additional requirements and guidance below.

When your entry is ready to submit, please do so using our online entry form, which will re-open in March.

We reserve the right to reject submissions if they do not meet our submission criteria stipulated on the submission checklist.

What counts as research?

We will accept the following list of activities as being suitable content for entry:

Independent research/work you have completed or are undertaking as part of an assignment or undergraduate dissertation and are due to complete before the British Conference of Undergraduate Research
Research/work completed as part of a research internship at the University of Exeter
Research/work completed as part of a work placement integral to an undergraduate course
Enterprise activity focused on social, economic or market research
Research/work completed as part of Grand Challenges
Research findings of a Students as Change Agents project, even if this is not yet complete
Research/work completed as part of a study or work abroad year/term/placement while you were registered as a University of Exeter student

This list is not exhaustive and can also include any other extra-curricular activity so long as it has a clear focus on research and was completed whilst an undergraduate student at the University of Exeter. If you are uncertain as to whether your work counts as research or not, please contact UGresearch@exeter.ac.uk.

This tab includes guidance that applies to all submissions, whether you are submitting an abstract, poster or a video (or all three).

Additional requirements and guidance

By submitting your work, you are giving the University permission to display it on University websites and social media channels at their discretion, meaning the University may also remove it by third-party request in line with its takedown policy.
Please ensure you follow our copyright guidance for any imagery, film, quotes etc. Proof that you have read and followed copyright guidance will be required when submitting.

Submitting as a group:

There is no limit to the number of authors contributing to your work, and authors may be a mix of students and staff.
The project group must include at least one student who is either a current undergraduate, or has graduated from an undergraduate programme no earlier than Summer 2023 (recent graduate).

Any student submitting a group project must have had a high level of involvement in the research.
If the project lead is not a student, you must have obtained their permission to submit.
It is only necessary for one member of the group to submit, however, this must be a student or recent graduate.

If your work used human participation:

You must have obtained permission from participants to share the results of your findings anonymously and undertaken correct ethics procedures to conduct your research.

References

Every submission will be required to state their references. We do not mind what referencing format you use as long as it is consistent. When filling in the submission form, we will ask you upload a separate document with your references on. If submitting a video or poster, we will also ask you to put these at the end of your submission file.

Study Zone Digital has guidance on referencing that can be accessed via your university log in. You can also access Cite Them Right which is a great tool to help you format your references correctly.

Copyright

Please make sure you have read the copyright compliance section of our website before submitting and that you fully understand what you have read. Failure to follow copyright procedures may lead to your submission being rejected and an academic misconduct case.

If using any video clips, images, or audio files found online, please make sure you have read the copyright guidance document. In this document, you can find a list of Copyright free media libraries.

If you do have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch via email.

What will you be marked on?

The marking criteria is split into two sections:

1. Content

How much information you have included about the research
Approach and structure
Clarity of argument
Clear conclusion or preliminary conclusions
Use of references and secondary sources

2. Presentation

How engaging your research is to read/watch
Language (including how accessible it is) and syntax
Images and graphs (applies only to posters and video content)

What is a research poster?

Research posters are widely used in the academic community, and most conferences include poster presentations in their programme. Posters summarise information or research concisely and attractively to help publicise it and generate discussion. The poster is usually a mixture of brief text mixed with tables, graphs, pictures, and other presentation formats.

Our exhibition will be open to the university community and wider public, so will be seen by students, staff, and visitors from a variety of backgrounds and with possibly no knowledge of your background discipline. You should also consider how to make your research more accessible to those outside of your research area, but without compromising the academic quality of your poster.

What should my poster look like?

They must be A1 portrait. You can use our Poster Template - Portrait
Submitted in an editable format
Title is short and draws interest (max. 100 characters)
Language is clear and to the point
Use of bullet points, numbering, and headlines make it easy to read
Effective use of graphics, colour and fonts
Consistent and clean layout
Includes your name and the University logo in the left-hand corner as per the Design Studio’s visual identity guidelines. Please see the poster templates on the website.
References at the end
Submitted in an editable format such as Microsoft Word or Microsoft Publisher

Your poster should address three key questions for anyone engaging with it:

What is the most important/interesting/astounding finding from your research project?
How can you visually share your research with others? Should you use charts, graphs, photos, images?
How can you structure and phrase your work so it is accessible for as many visitors to the exhibition as possible?

There are also a variety of other online resources available to help you create a good research poster. You can also find lots of examples of previous submissions here on our website.

What is a research video?

A research video is a visual way to present your research to an audience. Videos summarise information or research concisely and attractively to help publicise it and generate discussion.

What should my video look like?

Videos must be between two and three minutes
Videos must be subtitled (the UGRS team can do this for you if necessary)
The voice over (if there is one) is clear and concise
The research is presented in a visually interesting way
Effective use of editing and transitions
Effective use of colours and fonts (if text in the video)
The video is easy to follow
Opening clip includes name and University logo in the left-hand corner as per the Design Studio's visual identity guidelines. You can download a PowerPoint template here and create a title slide including the logo.
End clip includes references
Submitted as an .mp4 version

Your video should address three key questions for anyone engaging with it:

What is the most important/interesting/astounding finding from your research project?
How can you visually share your research with others? Should you use video clips, charts, graphs and photos?
How can you structure and edit your work so it is accessible for as many visitors to the exhibition as possible?

We recommend editing your submission on Video Editor (for Windows), iMovie (for Mac) or Microsoft Clipchamp. As long as your video is submitted to us in .mp4 format, we do not mind what editor you use.

We do ask that videos are subtitled. As videos will be stored as unlisted on our YouTube channel, we can add the subtitles for you when uploading. If you wish for us to do this, please email UGresearch@exeter.ac.uk and let us know before you submit.

There are also a variety of other online resources available to help you create a good research video; a simple Internet search will show lots of results. The UGRS team have also created our own example, which you can view here.

What is an abstract?

Abstracts are a summary of research conducted. Every long piece of research you read or write can be summed up in a short abstract. The BCUR states an abstract is ‘a summary of your research presentation of up to 250 words’.

You are also welcome to submit an accompanying photo or figure with your main abstract.

What should my abstract look like?

It must follow this Abstract template
Accompanying media file is optional
Title is short and draws interest (max. 100 characters)
Maximum 250 words
Language is clear and to the point
Includes your name
Submitted in an editable format on Microsoft PowerPoint

The key features of a successful abstract are:

A clear statement of your research question
A clear statement on how you have conducted your research
The background to your research project
A summary of your conclusions (or preliminary conclusions)

There are also a variety of other online resources available to help you create a good abstract; a simple internet search will show lots of results. For example, the BCUR have an in-depth abstract guidance page.

You can also find lots of examples of previous submissions here on our website.

How can Study Zone help you?

Study Zone offers on-campus and online drop-in appointments where you can get help with your Showcase submission. For times of drop-in appointments, please see the Study Zone website.

Study Zone Digital offers a range of study resources that you can use when preparing your submission, including resources on referencing, using tables and figures, and academic honesty and plagiarism. Please note that Study Zone Digital can only be accessed using your university login.

Based at Penryn?

If you are an Exeter student based at Penryn campus and are looking for support submitting to the Showcase, please contact ASK.

The deadline for poster entries wishing to be considered for Posters in Parliament 2024 closes at 12noon, Monday 5th February 2024. If you have any further questions about submitting to the Showcase, please email us at UGresearch@exeter.ac.uk.