Academic conference
Encyclopedia
An academic conference or symposium is a conference for researcher
Researcher
A researcher is somebody who performs research, the search for knowledge or in general any systematic investigation to establish facts. Researchers can work in academic, industrial, government, or private institutions.-Examples of research institutions:...

s (not always academics) to present and discuss their work. Together with academic or scientific journal
Scientific journal
In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. There are thousands of scientific journals in publication, and many more have been published at various points in the past...

s, conferences provide an important channel for exchange of information between researchers.

Overview

Conferences are usually composed of various presentation
Presentation
Presentation is the practice of showing and explaining the content of a topic to an audience or learner. Presentations come in nearly as many forms as there are life situations...

s. They tend to be short and concise, with a time span of about 10 to 30 minutes; presentation
Presentation
Presentation is the practice of showing and explaining the content of a topic to an audience or learner. Presentations come in nearly as many forms as there are life situations...

s are usually followed by a discussion. The work may be bundled in written form as academic papers and published as the conference proceedings
Proceedings
In academia, proceedings are the collection of academic papers that are published in the context of an academic conference. They are usually distributed as printed books either before the conference opens or after the conference has closed. Proceedings contain the contributions made by researchers...

. Usually a conference will include keynote speakers (often, scholars of some standing, but sometimes individuals from outside academia). The keynote lecture is often longer, lasting sometimes up to an hour and a half, particularly if there are several keynote speakers on a panel
Panel
- Art and comic books :*Panel painting, in art, either one element of a multi-element piece of art, such as a triptych, a piece of sequential art such as a graphic novel or comic strip, or a wooden panel used to paint a picture on...

.

In addition to presentations, conferences also feature panel discussions, round table
Round table (discussion)
Round table is a form of academic discussion. Participants agree on a specific topic to discuss and debate. Each person is given equal right to participate, because of the circular layout usually used in round table discussions....

s on various issues and workshops.

Prospective presenters are usually asked to submit a short abstract of their presentation, which will be reviewed before the presentation is accepted for the meeting. Some disciplines require presenters to submit a paper of about 6–15 pages, which is peer review
Peer review
Peer review is a process of self-regulation by a profession or a process of evaluation involving qualified individuals within the relevant field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards, improve performance and provide credibility...

ed by members of the program committee or referees chosen by them.

In some disciplines, such as English and other languages, it is common for presenters to read from a prepared script. In other disciplines such as the sciences, presenters usually base their talk around a visual presentation that displays key figures and research results.

A large meeting will usually be called a conference, while a smaller is termed a workshop. They might be single track or multiple track, where the former has only one session at a time, while a multiple track meeting has several parallel sessions with speakers in separate rooms speaking at the same time.

At some conferences, social or entertainment activities such as tours and receptions can be part of the program. Business meetings for learned societies
Learned society
A learned society is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline/profession, as well a group of disciplines. Membership may be open to all, may require possession of some qualification, or may be an honor conferred by election, as is the case with the oldest learned societies,...

 or interest groups can also be part of the conference activities.

The larger the conference, the more likely it is that academic publishing houses
Academic publishing
Academic publishing describes the subfield of publishing which distributes academic research and scholarship. Most academic work is published in journal article, book or thesis form. The part of academic written output that is not formally published but merely printed up or posted is often called...

 may set up displays. Large conferences also may have a career and job search and interview activities.

Academic conferences fall into three categories:
  • the themed conference, small conferences organized around a particular topic;
  • the general conference, a conference with a wider focus, with sessions on a wide variety of topics. These conferences are often organized by regional, national, or international learned societies
    Learned society
    A learned society is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline/profession, as well a group of disciplines. Membership may be open to all, may require possession of some qualification, or may be an honor conferred by election, as is the case with the oldest learned societies,...

    , and held annually or on some other regular basis.
  • the professional conference, large conferences not limited to academics but with academically related issues

Organizing an academic conference

Conferences are usually organized either by a scientific society or by a group of researchers with a common interest. Larger meetings may be handled on behalf of the scientific society by a Professional Conference Organiser or PCO.

The meeting is announced by way of a "Call For Papers
Call for papers
A call for papers ' is a method used in academic and other contexts for collecting book or journal articles or conference presentations...

" or a Call For Abstracts, which lists the meeting's topics and tells prospective presenters how to submit their abstracts or papers. Increasingly, submissions take place online using a managed service such as Community of Science
Community of Science
Community of Science is a collection of online databases, providing research information to both the public and subscribers, and services for the research community...

 or Oxford Abstracts
Oxford Abstracts
Oxford Abstracts Ltd is a UK based company that provides a widely used abstract management system notable for its low cost of ownership.Oxford Abstracts was established in the UK in 2001. The company has an extensive global client base - prominent clients include Elsevier and the UK's National...

.

See also

  • Scientific journal
    Scientific journal
    In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. There are thousands of scientific journals in publication, and many more have been published at various points in the past...

  • Colloquium
    Colloquium
    Colloquium can refer to:* the Parliament of Scotland, called a "colloquium" in Latin records.* any musical piece celebrating birth or distribution of good news, a hymn...

  • Congress
    Congress
    A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different nations, constituent states, independent organizations , or groups....

  • Convention (meeting)
    Convention (meeting)
    A convention, in the sense of a meeting, is a gathering of individuals who meet at an arranged place and time in order to discuss or engage in some common interest. The most common conventions are based upon industry, profession, and fandom...

  • Seminar
    Seminar
    Seminar is, generally, a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some particular subject, in which everyone present is...

  • Symposium
    Symposium
    In ancient Greece, the symposium was a drinking party. Literary works that describe or take place at a symposium include two Socratic dialogues, Plato's Symposium and Xenophon's Symposium, as well as a number of Greek poems such as the elegies of Theognis of Megara...

  • Poster session
    Poster session
    A poster session or poster presentation is the presentation of research information by an individual or representatives of research teams at a congress or conference with an academic or professional focus. The work is usually peer reviewed...

  • Plenary session
    Plenary session
    Plenary session is a term often used in conferences to define the part of the conference when all members of all parties are to attend.These sessions may contain a broad range of content from keynotes to panel discussions and are not necessarily related to a specific style of delivery.The term has...

  • Professional conference
    Professional conference
    A professional conference is a meeting of professionals in a given subject or profession, dealing with organizational matters, matters concerning the status of the profession, and scientific or technical developments. It differs from an academic conference in having broader goals, and usually a...

  • Abstract management
    Abstract management
    Abstract management is the process of accepting and preparing abstracts for presentation at an academic conference. The process consists of either invited or proffered submissions of the abstract or summary of work...


Professional Conference Organisers – trade bodies


Lists of conferences


Conference publishing services

  • Proceedings of Science, an Open Access publishing service, born from the JHEP and organized by SISSA Medialab
  • CEUR Workshop Proceedings, a free electronic publication service under the umbrella of RWTH Aachen University and has the ISSN 1613-0073
  • Computing Research Repository, a free repository of scientific papers sponsored by ACM
    Association for Computing Machinery
    The Association for Computing Machinery is a learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 as the world's first scientific and educational computing society. Its membership is more than 92,000 as of 2009...

    , arXiv
    ArXiv
    The arXiv |Chi]], χ) is an archive for electronic preprints of scientific papers in the fields of mathematics, physics, astronomy, computer science, quantitative biology, statistics, and quantitative finance which can be accessed online. In many fields of mathematics and physics, almost all...

    , NCSTRL, and AAAI
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK