TY - JOUR T1 - Doing Science: Oral presentations JF - Breathe JO - Breathe SP - 79 LP - 81 DO - 10.1183/20734735.101214 VL - 10 IS - 1 AU - Tiago Jacinto AU - Agnes Boots AU - Andras Bikov AU - Georgia Hardavella AU - Neil Saad AU - Anders Bjerg Y1 - 2014/03/01 UR - http://breathe.ersjournals.com/content/10/1/79.abstract N2 - In the last edition of Doing Science, we covered the creation and presentation of a poster [1], and so we shall move on to the other main way of presenting at scientific meetings: the oral presentation. Early in your career, getting your abstract accepted for an oral presentation may raise some eyebrows, your pulse and quite a few questions. After all, only 13% of the accepted abstracts were granted oral presentations at the ERS Annual Congress 2013 in Barcelona and, in 2012, the corresponding number was 14% [2]. Thus, naturally, getting accepted for an oral presentation is generally harder than getting a poster.Rather than reflecting merely a scoring system, the two formats represent two different sides of the same coin, and present different challenges as well as opportunities. This article will serve as a walk-through for first-time presenters, and will hopefully help also more seasoned speakers improve their presentations and presentation technique.After reading the last article in the Doing Science series [1], you should be familiar with the unique features of a poster. The standard oral presentation at, for example, an ERS International Congress is 10 minutes plus 5 additional minutes for questions from the audience [3]. Thus, considerably less text can (and should!) be used in an oral presentation. The trick is to know what should be in text, in figures, merely said or, maybe most importantly, completely left out. Use the on-screen/voice dynamics to your advantage.Now put yourself as presenter aside for a moment, and consider the audience [4] (after all, you are presenting to … ER -