Conference Papers Still Exist
We have AI capable of composing symphonies, cars that drive themselves, and fridges that can tell us when our milk has soured. And the academic process is still looking to conference papers for more theoretical & applied sharing and rigor. Why? Let’s dive into this tradition and explore why submitting a conference paper in the 2020s feels a lot like sending a pigeon with a scroll into the void.
1. The Submission Process: A Job Application
Writing and sharing a conference paper is supposed to be about advancing knowledge, but it often feels more like applying for a competitive, unpaid job. The CFP (Call for Papers) can be vague yet have highly specific frameworks for acceptance, which could be summed up as "We want groundbreaking ideas, but only within the outline we’ve set and nothing too radical that makes us uncomfortable."
After laboring over a paper (far from aiming for perfection and with buzzwords to make it palatable to a committee), it is submitted unceremoniously with the hope that it is deemed worthy of gracing the hallowed grounds of the conference. The submission deadline is designed to get you going without delay, yet somehow ends up strategically positioned to overlap with the busiest time of year. And like college, nothing says innovation like wrapping up a paper at 2 AM to meet the deadline… Hawaii time.
2. Peer Review: The Good, the Bad, and the Indifferent
Next is the peer review process, sometimes known as ‘comment Russian roulette.’ In theory, peer review is to ensure a higher quality of research, rigor, and output before publishing. In practice, it feels more like a lottery where you hit the jackpot with insightful feedback, or you might encounter the gatekeeper of mediocrity. One review might praise a methodology as cutting-edge, while the next will call your entire paper ‘fundamentally flawed’ and suggest you reconsider your career choices. And we’re not sure that the second reviewer got past the abstract.
Within a few weeks, the paper is rewritten to better improve the communication (did you go into engineering to avoid this?), reworking the argument and incorporating feedback that can be contradictory—while still not letting any projects flounder at your real job. Conference papers are a side hustle, one that pays in prestige & adding credibility to LinkedIn, if you really need those boosts.
On the other side, as a conference paper reviewer, there are several things that could be improved by the writers:
3. Presentation Day: Hello? Is Anyone There?
Fast forward to the day of the conference, after the writing effort, time, and travel to deliver a thrilling 15-minute PowerPoint presentation. After months of detailed research, rewriting, and more, you get a quarter of an hour to present it to an audience of... ten people. Two of whom are there only because their papers are scheduled right after yours, another four are sweeping rapidly through a scrolling app, and the remaining are either napping or aren’t remotely involved in your industry. There might be a delightful moment when someone asks about your work, but then another asks ‘Can this be done in a neural network with a blockchain?’
4. Publication: The Black Hole
Having survived the gauntlet of reviews and presenting your work, your paper will be published in the conference proceedings, a prestigious collection that no one will ever read unless they add it to their long list of references.
Conference papers in 2020s have the shelf life of a banana. By the time your work is published, it's already outdated, and the cutting-edge research you presented may be considered yesterday's news. Or it sits behind an association or publication paywall that even students at well-funded institutions hesitate to pay for access.
5. The Impact Factor: Hitting Like a Pillow
Then there is the impact factor, the goal academics may see as the metric of relevance. In the realm of conference papers, the impact factor might be like popularity; it may or may not matter to you on whether others see, read, cite, and respond to you or not. Telling colleagues and industry peers about the publication and in which prestigious conference, book, or magazine might matter, but outside your niche field, no one is searching for this work. Did the paper inspire real-world change and solve any problems? Or is it just another PDF scooped from the internet by a data hoarder that may, one day, use it as a citation reference.
6. AI, But Only for the Busywork
What is also frustrating about conference papers is that it’s 2024, and AI can automate half of these tedious processes. AI can write much of a paper, review them, and even create generic questions for Q&A sessions. But instead of leveraging technology to streamline this part of the academic process, we’re still formatting references in APA style and manually uploading files to submission portals that were designed in 2002. How long will we continue with AI supporting critical operations and not yet implemented for basic conference logistics?
7. The Networking Myth
One of the larger myths about conferences is that they’re instantly great for networking. This depends solely on the individual, as awkwardly hovering around a coffee table and trying to strike up a conversation can be difficult if everyone there just wants to check their email. Better networking happens at dinner and the bar afterward, but either way it can be done even when jet-lagged, sleep-deprived, and trying to navigate the local surroundings.
Will We Evolve?
With more information traveling faster than ever, the conference paper process feels like a bloated, outdated fax. We have better tools, faster communication methods, and the ability to collaborate globally in real-time. Yet, here we are, still sacrificing trees for paper handouts and burning bandwidth on glorified academic résumés.
Perhaps by 2030 we will have figured out a way to share the same information for conversation that doesn’t involve torturing researchers, reviewers, and conference attendees is the next step of intellectual exchange. Until then it seems we will trudge onward, submitting and reviewing on the conference paper mill, staying moderately informed, while the world outside moves at 5G.