The Error You Found in Your Own Poster
You are presenting a poster at an undergraduate research symposium. Your abstract, submitted six weeks ago, reports that a treatment reduced a measure by '32%.' While reviewing your data the night before, you realize the correct figure is 23%-you had pulled from the wrong spreadsheet column. The poster is already printed; reprinting costs $60 and two hours you don't have before your 9 a.m. session. Your faculty mentor, Dr. Lin, is traveling and won't see the poster. A graduate student who helped with the analysis says, 'Just say 32% verbally if anyone asks; nobody's going to check your spreadsheet.' Several attendees are researchers who might cite your work.
1. What do you do about the incorrect figure?
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The central issue is research integrity vs. convenience and image.
- A 9-percentage-point error in a reported effect is not cosmetic; it misrepresents findings to an audience that may cite them.
- 'Nobody will check' is irrelevant to whether the number is true.
- The grad student's suggestion to verbally repeat the wrong number makes it worse-it's knowingly stating a false result.
Best path: correct it openly and visibly. Options in order of preference: (1) reprint or print a corrected overlay if feasible; (2) if not, print a large corrected-figure notice to attach to the poster and state the correction at the start of any conversation; (3) email Dr. Lin immediately so she isn't blindsided. The $60 and two hours are real costs but small against publishing a false result.
Grading looks for: prioritizing accuracy over appearance, rejecting the 'just say it verbally' rationalization, and taking a concrete corrective action plus notifying the mentor.
2. A researcher stops by, reads the poster, and says, 'Great, a 32% effect-that's stronger than what I found. Can I cite this?' What do you tell them?
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Correct them immediately and unambiguously, even though it's uncomfortable.
- Say plainly: 'The correct figure is 23%, not 32%-there's an error on the printed poster that I'm correcting.'
- Don't let them leave with the wrong number or cite it; offer to share the corrected data or your contact for follow-up.
- Resist the urge to soften it into ambiguity ('it's around 30%')-that still misleads.
The momentary embarrassment of correcting yourself is far smaller than the harm of a colleague citing a wrong result. This is also a chance to model good scientific practice.
Grading looks for: immediate, clear correction; no hedging that preserves the false impression; and a constructive follow-up offer.
3. Afterward, Dr. Lin emails asking how the symposium went. What do you include?
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Disclose the error and the correction proactively, before she hears it elsewhere.
- Explain what happened (wrong column), that you caught it, how you corrected it on-site, and that you told at least one researcher who asked about citing it.
- Acknowledge the root cause and propose a fix (a double-check step before future submissions).
- Don't bury it in a cheerful summary of the event.
A mentor needs accurate information to trust your data and to decide whether the abstract needs a formal correction. Owning the mistake early builds credibility; hiding it and being discovered later destroys it.
Grading looks for: proactive honesty, clear description of the corrective action, and reflection on preventing recurrence.