Currently searching for conferences related to workplace training and learning and saw that on some websites they ask potential participants to submit papers to attend. Do people submit these papers to get published at the conferences? Can I attend such conferences just to listen?
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ELI5 version – it’s like being a musician. academics write a paper, a musician writes a song. academics present at conferences to advertise their work, musicians give concerts. in some fields papers at conferences are published, which is a main avenue for career advancement, whereas most musicians make the majority of their money through concerts. in both cases the majority of attendees are not the artists presenting. actually a conference is more like a music festival, except instead of a roster of awesome bands you have a roster of rocking nerds 😉
less ELI5 – Depends on the exact field of research. So for example for workplace training a conference might have different goals than one in say machine learning. in general, unless the conference is by invite, everyone is welcome to attend. in fact if there is a registration fee, it is most certainly welcome to maximize participants, as it helps the local organizers cover their costs. Here I’m assuming an academic institution is organizing the conference. there are a growing number of scam conferences which presumably must be for profit. you can usually spot them by the fact that they cover wayyyy too many areas, eg all of physics (unless it’s run by a government entity), and are run by a strange corporate entity rather than an academic or governmental body. ask an expert in the area if not sure.
As for why paper submission. in my area you submit papers to have them published at conference proceedings, which you then put on your cv to pad your list of accomplishments, important for career advancement. also is huge publicity at the major conferences to speak, even if there are no proceedings.
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