Hi everyone,

Recently gave talk at conference. It went well and several people were interested and one even requested the slides. But there was one question which I now would answer differently... and basically, that question has now led me to look more closely at a particular aspect of the data... which has led me to re-analyse the data and get different (and presumably more accurate) results...

I dread telling my mentor/collaborator who was also present in the talk and heard me answer the question in a way that might now seem disingenuous (it wasn't disingenuous - actually I thought I was answering the question accurately - but now I realise I hadn't dug deep enough to spot this issue before - which feels equally or more damning).

It's good that the issue came up and now can be better dealt with in the actual paper that we are currently revising for publication in a journal. But I feel pretty rotten about a) the results changing from what I presented at the conference, and b) potentially losing face with my mentor/collaborator and others (ie those at the talk).

Any advice / tips would be appreciated from experienced others...

Thanks
Tudor

Ps. Having written this, I am not sure that the title of my thread is the main issue... it is an issue but it's the second one (b - above) that is bothering me the most now I've reflected on it all. Any advice appreciated.

OK, I think I was catastrophising a bit - things seem OK today. It isn't SUCH a major thing - just a modification that can be made based on the discussion at the conference. It will alter the results I expect - but at least they'll be more accurate for the actual publication. And I will be more careful to think before answering questions and answer more cautiously. Thanks folks.

I don't think there is anything wrong here. The scrutiny you got at the conference is similar to that of a journal's review process. Nobody criticises you for changing some of your conclusions/language during the review process and the questioner at the conference will understand. The only difference is that you found it yourself.

Cheers Rewt... :) I think that two things were going on here... one - it was my first conference presentation and I wasn't sure about how things work... and so two - I freaked out that my results had changed and that I'd shared the slides with my conclusions on them - which were presented in a very convincing way...

But it turns out that as you said, it's just part of the process and OK for things to change. I didn't really know this and I was having some sort of paranoid thing... In reality the results hardly change - and we have decided to stick with doing it the original way as it made sense anyway. Oh my goodness... is this what doing a PhD does to some people :-/ :-o

You sound like you're okay with things now but I just wanted to say that I agree with rewt. Conference papers are usually seen as works in progress that you're presenting in order to get feedback. No one reasonable would hold the new conclusions against you! It's a normal part of the process, as you say.

Thanks for the reassurance :)

Nothing to worry about. A CONFERENCE paper is usually based on preliminary results and further analysis or concrete analysis can change the direction. Your collaborator will be excited that you found out another interesting aspect and you can now consider the conference input
At least if I was the collaborator🤣

Thank you! I suppose this is the sort of thing you come to learn/realise with more experience. Phew!