hey, i feel like my abstract was accepted by mistake. i literally have ten days to write a paper on an area am not too familiar with.
any advice to how to survive this. the thought of cancelling my presentation seems so attractive right now, but trouble is, conference programmes is out with my name and unwritten paper's title on it.

what to do????????????????????????????

Excuse my ignorance (after 9 years of postgrad research!) but what exactly is meant by a 'conference paper'? Do you mean you need to write your presentation i.e. produce slides and something to say about them, or do you mean produce a poster or an abstract? NB this is a genuine question, I often see posts on here talking about a 'conference paper' but it's not a term I've ever see anywhere else (could it be a social science thing?).

Clearly not an abstract as you say yours was accepted. I'm sure it was no mistake, it's very normal to feel nervous but I'm sure you'll come through with something great, good luck with it

conference paper is like a journal paper, only it's not so perfect - coz ideally you are presenting it to get views on how to improve it. in the real world tho, it is expected that it is ready for publication.

oh, does publishing an article in a book, diminish the originality of your thesis as opposed to a stand alone article? they are offering to publish our articles.

i just did some 600 words.... hopefully more tomorrow. 6000 is the target.

normally a 'conference paper' in reality is just a presentation - you don't actually have to write a formal paper & take it along to the conference. It's rather misleading really.
It is standard for the conference to have a disclaimer advising they may seek to publish - but in my limited expierence I've never actually seen this happen.

Pea, that is exactly what I thought - although if Jojo is planning to write 6000 words...?

Jojo - in science (my field), it is definitely a good thing to have work published (as conference abstracts and full journal papers) as you undertake your PhD. It shows that your work has undergone peer review and found to be acceptable.

To me, a conference paper is a 10 page or so 'mini paper', the contents of which you present at the conferencnce. I would not pay to present at a conference who did not peer review my contribution and publish my paper in proceedings with an ISSN or ISBN number so you have something to reference.

Also, The presentations tend to be of a very high standard and certainly involve more than reading out some of your paper. If anyone dared to do that I'd boo and throw stuff at them, to be honest

i guess thats why you haven't presented a paper yet?