An academic conference is an event where researchers present their newest work, discuss them, share ideas and discoveries, and find themselves new partners for collaboration. At an academic conference, the speakers are invited in advance to present their content, either by direct invitation by the conference organizers, or by prior registration at conference organizers “call for papers” site.
Conferences are a quick way to share academic research product, and in some fields, they are the primary method of communication between researchers, such as the field of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences.
There are various types of conferences, that can be divided into two main categories:
- Themed conferences that concentrate on narrow and specific topics
- General conferences that cover a larger more general field, and present a more diverse range of topics, and are usually the initiative of larger research organizations such as academic institutions, professional organizations etc.
The conferences may include advanced peer review, besides the preliminary screening that is done when registering at “call for papers“. Conference abstracts are published in booklets or on the webpages of the conference organizers or their designated publisher.
Some of the conferences are published, after their presentation, in scientific literature called conference proceedings.
Many nations consider participation in conferences, publication in conference proceedings, and publishing other research products at the conferences, such as uploading to depositories (such as arxiv), as an integral part of budgeting processes. In Israel, a criteria was set that according to VATAT, that as of today, research product that are considered for budgeting are the publication of books and articles in journals.
Please note that as far as international rankings, such as Shanghai, conferences and their products are indeed taken into consideration, especially those in the certain fields such as computer science.