How to write and publish a scientific paper - Barbara Gastel, Robert A. Day 2022

Presenting new ideas
How to write a conference report
Conference communications

As stated, the conference report can be relatively short because most of the experimental detail and much of the literature review can be eliminated. In addition, the results can usually be presented in brief form. Because the full results will be presumably published later in a primary journal, only the highlights need be presented in the conference report.

On the other hand, the conference report might give greater space to speculation. Editors of primary journals can get quite nervous about discussion of theories and possibilities that are not thoroughly buttressed by the data. The conference report, however, should serve the purpose of the true preliminary report; it should present and encourage speculation, alternative theories, and suggestions for future research.

Conferences themselves can be exciting precisely because they do serve as the forum for presentation of the very newest ideas. If the ideas are truly new, they are not yet fully tested. They may not hold water. Therefore, the typical scientific conference should be designed as a sounding board, and the published proceedings should reflect that ambience. The strict controls of stern editors and peer review are fine for the primary journal but are out of place for the conference literature.

Because conference reports may interest readers largely because of the newness of the ideas, submit your report promptly. Sometimes the reports are due before the conference. Other times, they are due shortly afterward, allowing you to add ideas that emerged at the conference. In either case, submit your report by the deadline so as not to delay publication or posting. If your paper is due shortly after the conference, a good approach can be to draft it before the conference and start revising it during the conference, while any discussion of your presentation is fresh in your mind.

The typical conference report, therefore, need not follow the usual introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion progression that is standard for the primary research paper. Instead, an abbreviated approach may be used. The problem is stated; the methodology used is stated (but not described in detail); and the results are presented briefly, with one, two, or three tables or figures. Then, the meaning of the results is speculated about, often at considerable length. There is likely to be description of related or planned experiments in the author’s own laboratory or in the laboratories of colleagues who are currently working on related problems.