Academic conference
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An academic conference or scientific conference (also congress, symposium, workshop, or meeting) is an
Overview
Conferences usually encompass various
Usually a conference will include
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.[3]
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.[4]
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.[5][6]
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 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.
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
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 wilfully 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
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
Predatory conferences
Predatory conferences or predatory meetings are meetings set up to appear as legitimate
Environmental impact
Academic conferences are criticized for being environmentally unfriendly, due to the amount of airplane traffic generated by them.
Critique of in-person conferences
In-person conferences suffer from a number of issues.[15] 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
- PMC 7499794.
- .
- ^ 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.
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: CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ "Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard Professors at the Alma Mater Europaea Symposium". www.sloveniatimes.com. 10 July 2020. 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) - ISBN 9780750657471. Retrieved 2012-07-13.
- ISBN 9781107276420.
- PMID 9890770.
- S2CID 252586199.
- PMID 18971997.
- ^ S2CID 205564331.
- .
- S2CID 232242249.