Paper Presentation in Conferences- Dr C R Meera

 

Conferences are platform for scientists, academicians, research scholars and students to update and exchange information and advances in a particular field.  Many of the papers presented and published in conferences are published as research articles in journals within 2 or more years. The refereeing time for publication of conference papers is relatively less and have greater success in the refereeing process. Conference presentations help the authors to get an initial review about their work and the areas of the work need improvement.  Papers published in conference proceedings are found to be more influential than the papers that had not been previously presented in conferences and also their chance of acceptance is more in journals.

“Call for Papers” or CFP for both oral and poster presentations are made several months before the conference date by the Conference Chairs. Authors are invited to submit papers which will be published in the “Conference proceedings” and to be presented at the venue of conference. Presentations are usually 2 types, Poster and Oral. The CFP includes information like Title, acronym, date and venue of conference, Scope or special theme of the conference, topics of interest enlisting the topics for the subject area of the particular conference, submission guidelines to authors etc. Other information like sponsors, publisher, invited speakers etc. would be also included.

 

A section for “Deadlines” will be also there which includes:   

·  Submission deadline- Last date to submit the abstract or complete paper. Some conferences initially invite abstract or extended abstract for pre-selection of papers, followed by the full paper submission. Both extended abstract and full papers follow almost the general pattern of Journal papers which includes Title, Author information, Abstract, Key words, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusions, Tables and Figures, References, Acknowledgements.   Submission deadlines are firm and submission after the date are usually rejected. Many conferences are conducted annually and researchers in that field know well in advance the due submission date.  

·   Notification date- Author will be notified about the status of submitted paper, either acceptance or rejection. Accepted papers will be published as Conference proceedings and could be presented as poster or as oral paper during the conference which is an excellent opportunity to receive review and feedback in discussions with peers in the field. Rejected papers will not be published, but reviewer’s comments help authors on how to improve their work. Unlike journals, conferences do not ask for revision and usually papers are either accepted or rejected.

·  Camera-ready paper deadline: This is the submission deadline for ‘camera-ready’ papers, i.e. final versions of accepted papers to be included in the conference proceedings. Papers submitted after this deadline may not be included in the conference proceedings, even it is an accepted paper.

 

Conference papers are not only written matter, but also to be presented and communicated with the audience. Authors usually present papers with the help of visual aids. For poster presentations specific format will be given to authors to display their work and findings. Oral presentations are usually done with computer based slides with Power Point Software. Power Point presentations should have clarity and legibility with attractive typographic layouts and colour combinations. “7 x 7 rule”, use of not more than seven words per line, and seven lines per slide are usually preferred.  The presenter should not simply read out the slides, it should be communicated effectively with the audience with confidence and clarity. Presenter, both Oral and Poster, should be able to clarify the questions and doubts raised by the audience.   

 

References

1.     Michael Derntl (2014). Basics of research paper writing and publishing, International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning, 6 (2),105-123. https://dx.doi.org/10.1504/IJTEL.2014.066856

2.     James Hartely, 2008. Academic writing and publishing-A practical handbook (ISBN 0-203-92798-2), Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, New York