An academic conference or scientific conference (also congress, symposium, workshop, or meeting) is an event for researchers (not necessarily academics) to present and discuss their scholarly work. Together with academic or scientific journals and preprint archives, conferences provide an important channel for exchange of information between researchers. Further benefits of participating in academic conferences include learning effects in terms of presentation skills and "academic habitus", receiving feedback from peers for one's own research, the possibility to engage in informal communication with peers about work opportunities and collaborations, and getting an overview of current research in one or more disciplines.
The first international academic conferences and congresses appeared in 19th century.
Overview
Conferences usually encompass various presentations. They tend to be short and concise, with a time span of about 10 to 30 minutes; presentations are usually followed by a discussion. The work may be bundled in written form as academic papers and published as the conference proceedings.
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 .
In addition to presentations, conferences also feature panel discussions, round tables on various issues, poster sessions and workshops. Some conferences take more interactive formats, such as the participant driven "unconference" or various conversational formats.
Format
Academic conferences have been held in three general formats: in-person, virtual or online and hybrid (in-person and virtual). Conferences have traditionally been organized in-person. Since the COVID-19 pandemic many conferences have either temporarily or permanently switched to a virtual or hybrid format. Some virtual conferences involve both asynchronous and synchronous formats. For example, there is a mix of pre-recorded and live presentations.
Because virtual or hybrid events allow people from different time zones to participate simultaneously, some will have to participate during their night-time. Some virtual conferences try to mitigate this issue by alternating their schedule in a way so that everyone has the chance to participate at day time at least once.
Presentations
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 organizers, and therefore disciplines require presenters to submit a paper, which is peer reviewed by members of the 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.
Size
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. However, there are no commonly shared definitions even within disciplines for each event type. There might be no conceivable difference between a symposium, a congress or a conference.
The larger the conference, the more likely it is that academic publishing houses may set up displays. Large conferences also may have a career and job search and interview activities.
At some conferences, social or entertainment activities such as tours and receptions can be part of the program. Business meetings for learned societies, interest groups, or affinity groups can also be part of the conference activities.
Types
Academic conferences typically 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, and held annually or on some other regular basis.
- the professional conference, large conferences not limited to academics but with academically related issues.
Infrastructure
Increasing numbers of amplified conferences are being provided which exploit the potential of WiFi networks and mobile devices in order to enable remote participants to contribute to discussions and listen to ideas.
Advanced technology for meeting with any yet unknown person in a conference is performed by active RFID that may indicate willfully identified and relatively located upon approach via electronic tags.
Organization
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 (CFP) or a Call For Abstracts, which is sent to prospective presenters and explains how to submit their abstracts or papers. It describes the broad theme and lists the meeting's topics and formalities such as what kind of abstract (summary) or paper has to be submitted, to whom, and by what deadline. A CFP is usually distributed using a mailing list or on specialized online services such as Call for Papers (CFPs) Index. Contributions are usually submitted using an online abstract or paper management service such as Submit A Manuscript or Conference Submission system.
Predatory conferences
Predatory conferences or predatory meetings are meetings set up to appear as legitimate scientific conferences but which are exploitative as they do not provide proper editorial control over presentations, and advertising can include claims of involvement of prominent academics who are, in fact, uninvolved. They are an expansion of the predatory publishing business model, which involves the creation of academic publications built around an exploitative business model that generally involves charging publication fees to authors without providing the editorial and publishing services associated with legitimate journals.BIT Life Sciences and SCIgen are some of the conferences labeled as predatory.
Environmental impact
Academic conferences are criticized for being environmentally unfriendly, due to the amount of airplane traffic generated by them. A correspondence on Nature.com points out the "paradox of needing to fly to conferences" despite increased calls for sustainability by environmental scientists. The academic community's carbon footprint is comprised in large parts by emissions caused by air travel. Few conferences enacted practices to reduce their environmental impact by 2017, despite guidelines being widely available: An analysis of academic conferences taking place in 2016 showed that only 4% of 116 conferences sampled offered carbon offset options and only 9% of these conferences implemented any form of action to their reduce environmental impact. More conferences included the use of teleconferencing after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Critique of in-person conferences
In-person conferences suffer from a number of issues. Most importantly, they are fostering the existing social inequality in academia due to their inaccessibility for researchers from low income countries, researchers with care duties or researchers facing visa restrictions.
See also
- Abstract management
- Academia
- Category:Academic terminology
- Academic writing
- Bullying in academia
- Congress
- Convention (meeting)
- Education
- French mathematical seminars
- Learned society
- Plenary session
- Poster session
- Proceedings
- Professional conference
- Research
- Scholarly article
- Scholarly method
- Scientific community
- Scientific method
- Scientific journal
- Seminar
References
- Hauss, Kalle (7 October 2021). "What are the social and scientific benefits of participating at academic conferences? Insights from a survey among doctoral students and postdocs in Germany". Research Evaluation. 30 (1): rvaa018. doi:10.1093/reseval/rvaa018. PMC 7499794.
- Sha, Mandy (2019-05-14). "Professional Association and Pathways to Leadership in Our Profession". Survey Practice. 12 (1): 1–6. doi:10.29115/SP-2018-0039.
- Bigg, Charlotte; Reinisch, Jessica; Somsen, Geert; Widmalm, Sven (2023). "The art of gathering: histories of international scientific conferences" (PDF). The British Journal for the History of Science. 56 (4): 423–433. doi:10.1017/S0007087423000638. ISSN 0007-0874.
- See e.g. Hohl, M., & Sweeting, B. (Eds.). (2015). Composing conferences. Special issue of Constructivist Foundations, 11(1). Retrieved from http://www.univie.ac.at/constructivism/journal/11/1
- "75th Anniversary Conference" (PDF). American Association for Public Opinion Research. Chaired by Mandy Sha. June 11, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2023.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link) - "Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard Professors at the Alma Mater Europaea Symposium". www.sloveniatimes.com. 10 July 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-11-16. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
- "Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard Professors at the Alma Mater Europaea symposium". en.almamater.si. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
- "Cross-cultural & Multilingual Research Affinity Group". American Association for Public Opinion Research. Chaired by Mandy Sha. 2022-05-26. Retrieved 2023-12-28.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link) - Rogers, Tony (2003). Conferences and Conventions: a global industry by Tony Rogers. Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN 9780750657471. Retrieved 2012-07-13.
- "Call for Papers - Explore Submission Opportunities in Journals & Conferences". Call for Papers. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
- "Submit A Manuscript - Manuscript Submission Management System". Submit A Manuscript. 2023-11-26. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
- Kirwan, Gráinne; Power, Andrew (2013). Cybercrime: The Psychology of Online Offenders. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107276420.
- Rymer, J (1998). "Fraud. Fraud at conferences needs to be addressed". BMJ. 317 (7172): 1591. doi:10.1136/bmj.317.7172.1590. PMC 1114400. PMID 9890770.
- Whitmarsh, Lorraine; Kreil, Agnes (2022). "Challenging the values of the polluter elite: A global consequentialist response to Evensen and Graham's (2022) 'The irreplaceable virtues of in-person conferences'". Journal of Environmental Psychology. 83: 101881. doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101881. ISSN 0272-4944. S2CID 252586199.
- Grémillet, David (2008-10-30). "Paradox of flying to meetings to protect the environment". Nature. 455 (7217): 1175–6. Bibcode:2008Natur.455.1175G. doi:10.1038/4551175a. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 18971997.
- Holden, Matthew H.; Butt, Nathalie; Chauvenet, Alienor; Plein, Michaela; Stringer, Martin; Chadès, Iadine (2017-08-07). "Academic conferences urgently need environmental policies" (PDF). Nature Ecology & Evolution. 1 (9): 1211–1212. Bibcode:2017NatEE...1.1211H. doi:10.1038/s41559-017-0296-2. ISSN 2397-334X. PMID 29046545. S2CID 205564331.
- Achten, Wouter M. J.; Almeida, Joana; Muys, Bart (1 November 2013). "Carbon footprint of science: More than flying". Ecological Indicators. 34: 352–355. Bibcode:2013EcInd..34..352A. doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2013.05.025.
- Sarabipour, Sarvenaz; Khan, Aziz; Seah, Yu Fen Samantha; Mwakilili, Aneth D.; Mumoki, Fiona N.; Sáez, Pablo J.; Schwessinger, Benjamin; Debat, Humberto J.; Mestrovic, Tomislav (March 2021). "Changing scientific meetings for the better". Nature Human Behaviour. 5 (3): 296–300. doi:10.1038/s41562-021-01067-y. hdl:20.500.12123/9396. PMID 33723404. S2CID 232242249.
External links
An academic conference or scientific conference also congress symposium workshop or meeting is an event for researchers not necessarily academics to present and discuss their scholarly work Together with academic or scientific journals and preprint archives conferences provide an important channel for exchange of information between researchers Further benefits of participating in academic conferences include learning effects in terms of presentation skills and academic habitus receiving feedback from peers for one s own research the possibility to engage in informal communication with peers about work opportunities and collaborations and getting an overview of current research in one or more disciplines Conference on Opioid agonist therapy in Oslo Norway The first international academic conferences and congresses appeared in 19th century OverviewPresentations form the core of most conferences Conferences usually encompass various presentations They tend to be short and concise with a time span of about 10 to 30 minutes presentations are usually followed by a discussion The work may be bundled in written form as academic papers and published as the conference proceedings 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 discussions are intended to bring multiple perspectives on a topic In addition to presentations conferences also feature panel discussions round tables on various issues poster sessions and workshops Some conferences take more interactive formats such as the participant driven unconference or various conversational formats Format Academic conferences have been held in three general formats in person virtual or online and hybrid in person and virtual Conferences have traditionally been organized in person Since the COVID 19 pandemic many conferences have either temporarily or permanently switched to a virtual or hybrid format Some virtual conferences involve both asynchronous and synchronous formats For example there is a mix of pre recorded and live presentations Because virtual or hybrid events allow people from different time zones to participate simultaneously some will have to participate during their night time Some virtual conferences try to mitigate this issue by alternating their schedule in a way so that everyone has the chance to participate at day time at least once Presentations Presentations may be Plenary sessions designed for all attendees shown here or breakout sections designed for smaller groups 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 organizers and therefore disciplines require presenters to submit a paper which is peer reviewed by members of the 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 Size 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 However there are no commonly shared definitions even within disciplines for each event type There might be no conceivable difference between a symposium a congress or a conference The larger the conference the more likely it is that academic publishing houses may set up displays Large conferences also may have a career and job search and interview activities At some conferences social or entertainment activities such as tours and receptions can be part of the program Business meetings for learned societies interest groups or affinity groups can also be part of the conference activities Types Academic conferences typically 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 and held annually or on some other regular basis the professional conference large conferences not limited to academics but with academically related issues Infrastructure Larger conferences may have exhibits and displays for participants between sessions Increasing numbers of amplified conferences are being provided which exploit the potential of WiFi networks and mobile devices in order to enable remote participants to contribute to discussions and listen to ideas Advanced technology for meeting with any yet unknown person in a conference is performed by active RFID that may indicate willfully identified and relatively located upon approach via electronic tags OrganizationConferences 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 CFP or a Call For Abstracts which is sent to prospective presenters and explains how to submit their abstracts or papers It describes the broad theme and lists the meeting s topics and formalities such as what kind of abstract summary or paper has to be submitted to whom and by what deadline A CFP is usually distributed using a mailing list or on specialized online services such as Call for Papers CFPs Index Contributions are usually submitted using an online abstract or paper management service such as Submit A Manuscript or Conference Submission system Predatory conferencesPredatory conferences or predatory meetings are meetings set up to appear as legitimate scientific conferences but which are exploitative as they do not provide proper editorial control over presentations and advertising can include claims of involvement of prominent academics who are in fact uninvolved They are an expansion of the predatory publishing business model which involves the creation of academic publications built around an exploitative business model that generally involves charging publication fees to authors without providing the editorial and publishing services associated with legitimate journals BIT Life Sciences and SCIgen are some of the conferences labeled as predatory Environmental impactAcademic conferences are criticized for being environmentally unfriendly due to the amount of airplane traffic generated by them A correspondence on Nature com points out the paradox of needing to fly to conferences despite increased calls for sustainability by environmental scientists The academic community s carbon footprint is comprised in large parts by emissions caused by air travel Few conferences enacted practices to reduce their environmental impact by 2017 despite guidelines being widely available An analysis of academic conferences taking place in 2016 showed that only 4 of 116 conferences sampled offered carbon offset options and only 9 of these conferences implemented any form of action to their reduce environmental impact More conferences included the use of teleconferencing after the COVID 19 pandemic Critique of in person conferencesIn person conferences suffer from a number of issues Most importantly they are fostering the existing social inequality in academia due to their inaccessibility for researchers from low income countries researchers with care duties or researchers facing visa restrictions See alsoAbstract management Academia Category Academic terminology Academic writing Bullying in academia Congress Convention meeting Education French mathematical seminars Learned society Plenary session Poster session Proceedings Professional conference Research Scholarly article Scholarly method Scientific community Scientific method Scientific journal SeminarReferencesHauss Kalle 7 October 2021 What are the social and scientific benefits of participating at academic conferences Insights from a survey among doctoral students and postdocs in Germany Research Evaluation 30 1 rvaa018 doi 10 1093 reseval rvaa018 PMC 7499794 Sha Mandy 2019 05 14 Professional Association and Pathways to Leadership in Our Profession Survey Practice 12 1 1 6 doi 10 29115 SP 2018 0039 Bigg Charlotte Reinisch Jessica Somsen Geert Widmalm Sven 2023 The art of gathering histories of international scientific conferences PDF The British Journal for the History of Science 56 4 423 433 doi 10 1017 S0007087423000638 ISSN 0007 0874 See e g Hohl M amp Sweeting B Eds 2015 Composing conferences Special issue of Constructivist Foundations 11 1 Retrieved from http www univie ac at constructivism journal 11 1 75th Anniversary Conference PDF American Association for Public Opinion Research Chaired by Mandy Sha June 11 2020 Retrieved December 27 2023 a href wiki Template Cite web title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint others link Oxford Cambridge and Harvard Professors at the Alma Mater Europaea Symposium www sloveniatimes com 10 July 2020 Archived from the original on 2020 11 16 Retrieved 2020 10 27 Oxford Cambridge and Harvard Professors at the Alma Mater Europaea symposium en almamater si Retrieved 2020 10 27 Cross cultural amp Multilingual Research Affinity Group American Association for Public Opinion Research Chaired by Mandy Sha 2022 05 26 Retrieved 2023 12 28 a href wiki Template Cite web title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint others link Rogers Tony 2003 Conferences and Conventions a global industry by Tony Rogers Butterworth Heinemann ISBN 9780750657471 Retrieved 2012 07 13 Call for Papers Explore Submission Opportunities in Journals amp Conferences Call for Papers Retrieved 2024 12 17 Submit A Manuscript Manuscript Submission Management System Submit A Manuscript 2023 11 26 Retrieved 2024 12 17 Kirwan Grainne Power Andrew 2013 Cybercrime The Psychology of Online Offenders Cambridge University Press ISBN 9781107276420 Rymer J 1998 Fraud Fraud at conferences needs to be addressed BMJ 317 7172 1591 doi 10 1136 bmj 317 7172 1590 PMC 1114400 PMID 9890770 Whitmarsh Lorraine Kreil Agnes 2022 Challenging the values of the polluter elite A global consequentialist response to Evensen and Graham s 2022 The irreplaceable virtues of in person conferences Journal of Environmental Psychology 83 101881 doi 10 1016 j jenvp 2022 101881 ISSN 0272 4944 S2CID 252586199 Gremillet David 2008 10 30 Paradox of flying to meetings to protect the environment Nature 455 7217 1175 6 Bibcode 2008Natur 455 1175G doi 10 1038 4551175a ISSN 0028 0836 PMID 18971997 Holden Matthew H Butt Nathalie Chauvenet Alienor Plein Michaela Stringer Martin Chades Iadine 2017 08 07 Academic conferences urgently need environmental policies PDF Nature Ecology amp Evolution 1 9 1211 1212 Bibcode 2017NatEE 1 1211H doi 10 1038 s41559 017 0296 2 ISSN 2397 334X PMID 29046545 S2CID 205564331 Achten Wouter M J Almeida Joana Muys Bart 1 November 2013 Carbon footprint of science More than flying Ecological Indicators 34 352 355 Bibcode 2013EcInd 34 352A doi 10 1016 j ecolind 2013 05 025 Sarabipour Sarvenaz Khan Aziz Seah Yu Fen Samantha Mwakilili Aneth D Mumoki Fiona N Saez Pablo J Schwessinger Benjamin Debat Humberto J Mestrovic Tomislav March 2021 Changing scientific meetings for the better Nature Human Behaviour 5 3 296 300 doi 10 1038 s41562 021 01067 y hdl 20 500 12123 9396 PMID 33723404 S2CID 232242249 External linksLook up colloquium in Wiktionary the free dictionary
