Hi all,

New to the forum, and a few months into my PhD so relatively new to that as well.

I'm just wondering about an abstract for a conference I submitted - I didn't get a confirmation of receipt and it had been a couple of weeks, so I emailed to confirm they had got the email and the attachment. So i got response from one of the selectors, saying sorry etc for forgetting to confirm, and that it looked very interesting and they will let me know in a couple of weeks.

Since this is my first submission, i'm just wondering if the whole "it looks very interesting' is basically a standard response for all submissions, or if this is actually a positive thing?

Hi PhDnewbie, I've had that comment both times when submitting abstracts and was also accepted both times, but I don't know if its a standard response or not. All I can say is that waiting to hear about these things is always hard!! but if it'
s right for you then you'll get it and if not you won't. Good luck!! and Merry Christmas

Well, upon submitting your abstract, the best is to forget about it. It takes time for the committee to check and reply. Thus, carry on with your research and concentrate on other works than worrying on whether your abstract have been accepted. If accepted, that is fine, if not, be happy too and try to spend more time in selecting correct conference or journal that more relates to your research. Perhaps you can always check with them like you did when about a month prior to the conference date. Merry X’mas and have a successful 2009 New Year research folks. Cheers.

Well, upon submitting your abstract, the best is to forget about it. It takes time for the committee to check and reply. Thus, carry on with your research and concentrate on other works than worrying on whether your abstract have been accepted. If accepted, that is fine, if not, be happy too and try to spend more time in selecting correct conference or journal that more relates to your research. Perhaps you can always check with them like you did when about a month prior to the conference date. Merry X’mas and have a successful 2009 New Year research folks. Cheers.

The submission deadline for conference abstracts was 15th Jan - haven't heard anything yet, they said they'de let me know by Mid-Jan.

Would it be bad practice to email them at the end of the week if I haven't had a response? Or just assume it wasn't successful.....

If the deadline was the 15th, that's also likely to be the first proper week back for many uni people, then they'll be sorting through all the submissions...I think emailing them at the end of next week to see what's going on would be the very earliest, I'd say. I think I've waited for at least a month after submission deadlines to chase them up in the past, I just assumed they had other workloads on top of the conference admin. Or the organisers might not be as organised as you'd like! How long is it until the actual conference?

Well the conference is some time away, 20th March, but I'd kind of like to be out out of my misery! Also earlier I know, earlier i can plan around it.....

That's quite soon, yeah, chase them up next week when they said they'll know! If it's accepted, you have to plan as you say and write the paper. I didn't mind being messed around early in the year for an autumn conf when there was loads of time, but yours is nearer. Hope you get accepted!