Q: What is the best way of responding to a conference committee request for a proposed paper presentation?

Detailed Question -

Hi. I submitted a paper for presentation to an international economics conference and received from the program committee the following questions: 'What analytic[al] methods will be used? Are they qualitative or quantitative?' What is the best format/wording for responding to them?

1 Answer to this question
Answer:

Hi Peter – Welcome back to the forum.

The questions of the committee are straightforward enough and were probably asked because your abstract did not supply the information. Because the validity of any result depends a great deal on the method used for arriving at that result, we guess the committee would like to ensure that the results you intend to present are based on appropriate methods.

Now, although there cannot be any single “best” format or wording to respond, one way is to begin by thanking the committee for considering your abstract for possible presentation and for asking for more details. Next, you may tell the committee whether the method you used was qualitative, quantitative, or a combination of both (mixed methods) and only then supply the details of the method you used and the statistical tests if any that you used.

One thing though. Do ensure that this is a genuine conference and not a predatory or deceptive conference. Do check whether it is a regular event (annual, once every two years, or something similar) and look up details of the previous conference, such as when and where it was held, who the speakers were, whether the proceedings were published, and if so, where. You may use this checklist to identify predatory conferences.

For some of the other points discussed above, you may also find the following resources helpful.

Finally, as these are (post-)COVID-19 times and you’re probably attending this conference virtually, you may find it helpful to learn about our Virtual Conference Presentation service and how it can help equip you for your conference. Know more here.

Hope that helps. All the best for the conference!

PS. We wonder how the submission on which your earlier query was based eventually turned out. Hope it got published!

[With inputs from Yateendra Joshi]

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