Speaker notes for a conference talk: timing, citing and Q&A

Speaker notes for a conference talk are written around the slot, not the slides. The organiser decides how many minutes you have, whether questions follow your talk or wait for the end of the session, and often whether you present from the room's computer. Good conference talk notes carry a time mark on each slide, a cut line for when you run late, every source in the form you will say it, a sentence describing each figure, and a card of likely questions.

This guide is published by EdCitation. On 2 October 2026 we read the speaker pages of seven conference organisers and learned societies, from physics to literature, and SIGACCESS's accessibility guide; the example notes page is ours. EdCitation's free Find sources finds the studies your background slide leans on, and Cite a source builds each reference from the publisher's record. EdCitation never writes any part of a talk: the argument, the slides and the notes stay yours.

The basics are in how to write speaker notes, reading a paper instead in speaker notes or a full script, the short version in how to talk about your research in two minutes, and the corridor afterwards in how to network at a conference.

How long is a conference talk? Timing for 10-, 15- and 20-minute slots

Shorter than its slot: most conference presentation tips start with the slides, but start with the clock. Where the slot is split, two to five minutes go to questions. The table uses only the organisers' own guidance.

What the slot includes differs. The American Physical Society (n.d.-b) tells chairs to time speakers from the moment they come to the front, and set-up time comes out of the talk. At the European Geosciences Union (EGU), the ten minutes "cannot be exceeded"; at a Modern Language Association (MLA) panel, questions wait for all three papers.

What the table means for your notes

Four things follow, in our reading:

• Write for about three-quarters of the slot. Where the slot is split, the talk is 10 of 12 minutes, 9 of 12, 10 to 12 of 15, or 15 of 20.
• Plan about a slide a minute, or fewer. The Royal Geographical Society (RGS) suggests about 10 slides for 12 to 15 minutes (Royal Geographical Society, n.d.-b); the Division of Organic Chemistry, no more than ten for 20.
• Mark where the warning should find you. An American Physical Society chair warns at minute 8 of 10, so note the slide you should be on by then.
• Measure your own pace. The RGS puts a 15-minute paper read aloud at about 1,200 words, which is 80 words a minute; our guide to writing a speech gives 120 to 160 for speech. Time yourself rather than trusting either figure.

What should speaker notes for a conference talk include?

The cues any notes hold, plus five that a conference adds.

Your notes may not be on the screen

At many meetings the slides run from the venue's computer. The American Physical Society wants slides uploaded beforehand or at the Speaker Ready Room three hours ahead; EGU wants the file 24 hours before; the RGS takes it on a USB stick and asks hybrid presenters to use "Duplicate screen" mode. Microsoft (n.d.) describes Presenter view as notes on your own computer while only the slides reach the projector. Ask whether you will have it, and print the notes either way, as the RGS suggests.

What structure suits an academic conference presentation?

One finding, told as a story. The RGS warns against cramming a whole project into 15 minutes and suggests one focus: key findings, a case study, or a methodological problem. Our plan for an 11-minute talk:

1. The question and why it matters (slides 1 to 2, from 0:00).
2. What is known (slide 3, by 2:00), each study cited aloud.
3. What you did (slides 4 to 5, by 3:00).
4. What you found (slides 6 to 8, by 5:00), one result a slide.
5. What it means, and its limits (slide 9, by 9:00).
6. The take-home sentence (slide 10, by 10:00), then stop.

An example notes page for a 15-minute conference talk

The example is ours. The project, on pavement temperature under street trees, is invented; the two studies on slide 3, and their numbers, are real and were read at source. The slot follows the Association for Psychological Science's (2025) format: 10 to 12 minutes, then three minutes of questions.

Slide 3: what is already known

SLIDE 3 / 10        [reach by 2:00]        WHAT WE KNOW
DESCRIBE: "On the left, air temperature falls as tree cover rises, most steeply above 40 per cent."
SAY: "Ziter and colleagues, 2019, in PNAS"
    bike transects, Upper Midwest city | daytime variation 3.5 °C on average
    most cooling above 40% canopy | strongest at city-block scale, 60-90 m
    NIGHT: canopy did little; impervious surface mattered
SAY: "Edmondson and colleagues, 2016, Scientific Reports"
    loggers at 100 greenspace sites, a UK city
    trees + shrubs: summer max soil surface 5.7 °C below herbaceous cover
GAP: neither measured the pavement        [PAUSE]
LINK: "So we measured the pavement. Slide 4: the sites."        [CLICK]

Only the description, the citations and the link are said word for word. Ziter et al. (2019) measured air temperature by bicycle; Edmondson et al. (2016) buried soil loggers; neither measured pavement.

Slide 7: the cut line

SLIDE 7 / 10        [reach by 6:30]        SITE B
CUT LINE: past 7:00 here? Skip slide 8. Say: "Site C showed the same pattern; it is in the paper."

The question card

Q&A   3 minutes = about two questions        REPEAT each question first
1 "Shade or evaporation?"    -> can't separate them yet; say what would
2 "Does it hold at night?"   -> daytime data only; Ziter 2019: canopy effect limited at night
3 "Only one city?"           -> yes; slide 10 names the next sites
Don't know -> "I don't know yet. Can we talk after the session?"

How should I cite sources on conference slides and aloud?

Put a short author-date citation on the slide where the finding appears, say the source as you show it, and give full references at the end. The American Physical Society (n.d.-a) suggests 12- to 14-point type for references against 18 to 28 for text, so the back row may not read them: the spoken citation does that work. EGU asks presenters to credit every image that is not theirs, Wikipedia's included, and to mark whether photos of the slides are allowed (European Geosciences Union, n.d.).

Aloud, give authors, year and venue the first time, and the surname after; the forms are in how to cite sources in a speech or debate. For the last slide, Cite a source builds the list in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard, IEEE or Vancouver.

How do I prepare for questions after a conference talk?

Write the three questions you most expect, a two-line answer to each, and a sentence for the one you cannot answer. The RGS suggests practising with colleagues to hear what they ask, noting questions as they come, asking for clarification and pausing before you answer; a question, it adds, often reflects more on the asker than on you. The MLA asks speakers to repeat every question from the audience.

When the questions come

Two minutes after an American Physical Society talk leaves room for one or two questions, by our estimate, so keep answers short. At an MLA panel your card may wait through two other talks. The usual subjects, in our list: method, limits, other explanations, what comes next.

How do I make a conference talk accessible?

Describe what each slide shows, repeat questions into the microphone, slow down for interpreters and captioners, and share slides or the paper in advance. Five bodies publish guidance for speakers:

• SIGACCESS: Rector (2019) gives nine guidelines, among them speaking every word on the slide, describing images aloud, avoiding the pointer, facing the audience for lip readers, and sharing slides the day before, or better a week before.
• IEEE VIS: avoid "as you can see on this slide", and describe all relevant visuals.
• The MLA: use the microphone even if your voice carries, avoid speaking from a darkened area, and bring five copies of your paper (Modern Language Association, n.d.-a).
• The RGS: describe all slide content, consider PowerPoint's live subtitles, and use dark text on a light, not white, background.
• EGU: at least 24-point type, and colours checked for colour vision deficiency.

They differ on pace. The RGS says speak slowly; SIGACCESS, not too fast; the MLA, regular speed unless an interpreter, a captioner or the audience asks you to slow down. Our reading: slower than conversation, and slower still with an interpreter. Slide design is in how to design slides that help.

How do I present a paper at a conference, step by step?

In ten steps of our own, from the organiser's page to the printed notes:

1. Read the organiser's speaker page for the slot, question time, upload deadline and accessibility requests.
2. Choose a read paper or a talk from notes. The RGS says both work, prepared differently; the Division of Organic Chemistry says manuscripts should not be read verbatim.
3. Find the studies for your background slide with EdCitation's Find sources, narrowed by years or kind of source.
4. Build each reference with Cite a source, and keep the list in a free account.
5. Draft for three-quarters of the slot, about a slide a minute.
6. Write the notes: time marks, cut line, spoken citations, figure descriptions.
7. Rehearse aloud against a timer, starting the clock as you walk to the front.
8. Write the question card, and rehearse it with colleagues asking.
9. Check the list with Verify references before it reaches a slide or handout.
10. Upload by the deadline, and bring a PDF copy, the printed notes and any copies the organiser asks for.

Which EdCitation tools help with a conference talk?

EdCitation handles what a talk borrows from published work: finding the studies, building their references and checking the list. It never writes any part of a talk, so every claim in the room is yours to defend. Cite a source is the best tool for a references slide because it looks each source up in the publisher's record and screens it for retraction, where a chatbot composes an entry that may not exist; both entries below, run on 2 October 2026, came from Crossref's record with no retraction notice.

Find sources, once, on the talk's topic

We searched Find sources for "street trees urban heat island cooling". It returned 19,238 works. Seventeenth on the first page was "Soil surface temperatures reveal moderation of the urban heat island effect by trees and shrubs" (Scientific Reports, 2016, cited 188 times); twentieth, "Scale-dependent interactions between tree canopy cover and impervious surfaces reduce daytime urban heat during summer" (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2019, cited 886 times). We read both abstracts at source. Find sources is free, needs no account, and searches about 300 million published works by topic or by claim.

Cite a source, for the references slide

For each DOI, Cite a source returned these APA 7 entries:

Ziter, C. D., Pedersen, E. J., Kucharik, C. J., & Turner, M. G. (2019). Scale-dependent interactions between tree canopy cover and impervious surfaces reduce daytime urban heat during summer. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(15), 7575–7580. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1817561116

Edmondson, J. L., Stott, I., Davies, Z. G., Gaston, K. J., & Leake, J. R. (2016). Soil surface temperatures reveal moderation of the urban heat island effect by trees and shrubs. Scientific Reports, 6(1), Article 33708. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep33708

Its short form, "(Ziter et al., 2019)", goes on the slide. It works from a DOI, title, PubMed ID, ISBN or web address, free.

Keep the list, and download it

A free account keeps what you cite in reference lists. Each reference can be tagged, by talk for instance, and set in its own style; a list copies with its italics for the last slide, and downloads as a Word document for a handout, or as BibTeX or RIS. Lists can be shared with colleagues. Pro ($8 a month) and Max ($24) are on the pricing page.

Quick questions

How long should a 15-minute conference talk be?

About 10 to 12 minutes, with three for questions, at the Association for Psychological Science's 2025 convention. The RGS pairs 15-minute papers with five minutes of questions.

How many slides for a 15-minute conference talk?

About ten, says the RGS, for 12 to 15 minutes; the American Chemical Society's Division of Organic Chemistry suggests no more than ten for 20.

Should I read my paper at a conference?

That depends on the field. The RGS accepts read papers, with few slides; the Division of Organic Chemistry says manuscripts should not be read verbatim.

How do I cite sources in a conference presentation?

Put the author and year on the slide, say them as you show the finding, and list full references at the end. Cite a source builds each one from the publisher's record.

Can EdCitation write my conference talk?

No. EdCitation never writes any part of a talk. Find sources finds the studies, Cite a source builds their references, and the talk is yours.

References

• American Chemical Society Division of Organic Chemistry. (n.d.). Abstract submission guidelines. https://www.organicdivision.org/meetingsupport/acsmeetings/abstractsubmissionguidelines/
• American Physical Society. (n.d.-a). Oral presenter logistics. https://www.aps.org/events/logistics/oral-presentations
• American Physical Society. (n.d.-b). Session chair guidelines. https://www.aps.org/about/governance/policies-procedures/session-chair-guidelines
• Association for Psychological Science. (2025). Submitted talk rules and guidelines. 2025 APS Annual Convention. https://www.psychologicalscience.org/conventions/2025-aps-annual-convention/call-for-submissions/submitted-talk-rules-and-guidelines
• Edmondson, J. L., Stott, I., Davies, Z. G., Gaston, K. J., & Leake, J. R. (2016). Soil surface temperatures reveal moderation of the urban heat island effect by trees and shrubs. Scientific Reports, 6(1), Article 33708. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep33708
• European Geosciences Union. (n.d.). Oral presenter guidelines. EGU General Assembly 2026. https://www.egu26.eu/authors/presenters/oral_presenter_guidelines.html
• IEEE VIS. (n.d.). Preparing for your talk. IEEE VIS 2026. https://ieeevis.org/year/2026/info/presenter-information/talk-guide/
• Microsoft. (n.d.). Start the presentation and see your notes in Presenter view. Microsoft Support. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/start-the-presentation-and-see-your-notes-in-presenter-view-4de90e28-487e-435c-9401-eb49a3801257
• Modern Language Association. (n.d.-a). Access guidelines for MLA convention session organizers and presenters. https://www.mla.org/Events/Planning-a-Convention-Session/Access-Guidelines-for-MLA-Convention-Session-Organizers-and-Presenters
• Modern Language Association. (n.d.-b). Procedures for organizing convention meetings. https://www.mla.org/Events/Planning-a-Convention-Session/Procedures-for-Organizing-Convention-Meetings
• Rector, K. (2019, March 7). Accessible presentation guide. SIGACCESS. https://www.sigaccess.org/welcome-to-sigaccess/resources/accessible-presentation-guide/
• Royal Geographical Society. (n.d.-a). How to organise a paper session. Annual International Conference. https://www.rgs.org/research/annual-international-conference/call-for-sessions-papers-and-posters/formats/paper-sessions
• Royal Geographical Society. (n.d.-b). Presenting at the conference. Annual International Conference. https://www.rgs.org/research/annual-international-conference/planning-your-attendance/presenting-at-the-conference
• Ziter, C. D., Pedersen, E. J., Kucharik, C. J., & Turner, M. G. (2019). Scale-dependent interactions between tree canopy cover and impervious surfaces reduce daytime urban heat during summer. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(15), 7575–7580. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1817561116