Research presented at conferences is sometimes but not always published as proceedings. If published, these may be appear as abstracts or as the full papers.
Conference proceedings can offer useful insights - a 'sneak peek' - into the latest research undertaken by academic, government and/or industry researchers and may highlight findings that have not yet been published in the journal literature.
However, there are a number of challenges associated with finding conference proceedings:
- The event associated with these presentations may be called something other than a 'conference', e.g. symposia/um, meeting(s), colloquy/ia, workshop, congress, etc.
- Some conference organizers may restrict access to their published materials (in print or online) to attendees or members of the sponsoring society
- Some conference organizers may publish materials online but only maintain a current archive
- There can be a significantt lag-time between the date of the conference and the date of publication
- Databases offer spotty coverage of conference proceedings
Use the resources listed below to help find conference proceedings.
