Rules and Guidelines for Presentations(*)

E-mail to: sb.talks@cern.ch

Please follow these simple rules and guidelines in preparing your presentation. You save us work and help us speed up your rehearsal. Before you get started, have a look also at our collection of Materials for Presentations. Thanks a lot for your collaboration!

LHCb results:

• As a general rule, you are only allowed to show LHCb results (plots and numbers) from published papers (we regard papers as published when they have been submitted to arxiv) and from approved conference notes. The cds entry for each submitted paper and conference note should have a ZIP file with the individual plots attached to it. Please use these original files rather than copy/paste from other people's presentations. You are not allowed to show figures or numbers from analysis notes.
• All results (plots and numbers) from conference notes must be clearly marked as "preliminary".
• Each slide that shows an LHCb result (plot or number) must have a reference to the corresponding paper or conference note; in the case of papers, this should be the journal reference if the paper has been published or a reference to the arxiv otherwise.
• In exceptional cases, you might be allowed to show results from papers that have not yet been submitted to arxiv but have completed collaboration-wide circulation. These exceptions are decided by the Physics Coordinator on a case by case basis. In such cases, all quoted results (plots and numbers) must be clearly marked as "preliminary". A reference to the LHCb paper number has to be added with the remark "in preparation".
• Concentrate on recent results (new conference note, new arxiv, paper just published in Journal). If a result is shown for the first time at a conference, clearly mark it as "new".

Other LHCb plots and LHCb performance numbers:

• We have prepared a nice collection of LHCb detector, trigger and performance plots; please use these plots whenever possible. If you have new or better plots, please send them to the Speakers' Bureau and we will be happy to add them to the collection.
• We have also prepared a list of approved LHCb performance numbers (accumulated luminosity, acceptance, resolutions, efficiencies). You should use these numbers and only these numbers when you refer to LHCb performance.

Results from other experiments, theory predictions:

• If you show results from other experiments (plots or numbers) or theory predictions, add appropriate references on the corresponding slide.

Title slide:

The title slide should have

• the title of the talk,
• your name "on behalf of the LHCb collaboration",
• the LHCb logo, and
• the name and date of the conference.

We leave it up to your discretion if you want to add the name and logo of your institute.

General layout:

• Number your slides and make sure page numbers are visible on each slide.
• Avoid jargon and define abbreviations that might not be obvious to your audience.
• Be consistent throughout your presentation in the use symbols and nomenclature, both in figures and text (e.g. do not mix φ and Φ to refer to the same quantity; do not mix B → [f]_D K and B → D(f) K, etc.).
• Quote results and other numbers with meaningful units (e.g. use "k" for "kilo", "K" for "Kelvin").
• Avoid line breaks in between numbers and units. When quoting results, avoid line breaks in between mean value and uncertainty.
• If a result is quoted with several uncertainties, indicate clearly what each uncertainty means
• Make sure that equations and symbols are easily readable and good quality: if you copy/paste using screen shots from exisiting documents, make sure the resolution is good enough and the result does not look pixelated.
• Make sure figures are large enough and good quality: legends, axis labels and axis titles should be readable; when including plots and figures from LHCb publications, use the original files that are attached to the cds entry for each paper and conf note; if you have to copy/paste using screen shots from exisiting documents, make sure the resolution is good enough and the result does not look pixelated.
• We do not impose a specific layout for slides, but please use common sense when preparing your presentation. Make sure all text is easily readable on a beamer: use large enough fonts, avoid dark backgrounds, avoid yellow or green font colours. Slides should not be too dense: as a rule of thumb, more than 13 lines of text on a slide is too much.
• Finally, run a spell-checker over your slides.

(*) These rules apply for all presentations at events that fall under the responsibility of the LHCb Speakers' Bureau as defined in its Mandate.