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24 - Presenting Your Work at a Conference

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2019

Joanna M. Setchell
Joanna M. Setchell
Affiliation:
Durham University
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Summary

Conferences are an excellent opportunity to hear about the latest news in your field. They are also a great chance to meet like-minded people, share experiences, discuss ideas and gain inspiration. Friendships, collaborations, new research directions, invitations and job offers can all arise from conversations at conferences. Conferences range from small regional or national gatherings to huge international meetings. They may address a particular topic or may be a more general meeting of a learned society, including symposia on a variety of topics as well as society business meetings. Conferences may have only one session, with all delegates in the same room at the same time or may have multiple concurrent sessions in a conference venue where all the rooms and corridors look the same and it’s very easy to get lost. Most conferences include keynote or plenary presentations by major researchers in the field. This is a great chance to meet the people whose articles you have read and admired. In this chapter, I cover preparing and submitting an abstract, then attending a conference. Next, I provide general advice on presentations, then cover preparing and presenting oral and poster presentations. I end with conference etiquette.

Keywords

conferenceabstractpresentationoral presentationposter presentation
Type
Chapter
Information
Studying Primates
How to Design, Conduct and Report Primatological Research
 , pp. 313 - 326
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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References

Further Reading

http://gonzolabs.org/dance/. Website for the Dance Your Ph.D. contest, which challenges scientists to explain their research with dance.Google Scholar
Jacobson, SK, McDuff, M, Monroe, M. 2015. Conservation Education and Outreach Techniques. 2nd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press. A very useful resource for planning, implementing, and evaluating conservation education and outreach programmes.Google Scholar
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. Communicating Science Effectively: A Research Agenda. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/23674. A report on the science of science communication and the need to go beyond simply conveying information. Freely available online.Google Scholar
Varner, J. 2014. Scientific outreach: Toward effective public engagement with biological science. BioScience 64: 333–340. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biu021. Describes common misconceptions that can undermine science communication and advocates a scientific approach to science outreach.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

24.11 Further Reading

Instructions for the conference you’re attending.

Many websites give advice on conference presentations.

Ally, M. 2013. The Craft of Scientific Presentations: Critical Steps to Succeed and Critical Errors to Avoid. 2nd edn. New York. Describes an assertion-evidence approach to presentations. See also www.craftofscientificpresentations.com.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calisi, RM and a Working Group of Mothers in Science. 2018. Opinion: How to tackle the childcare–conference conundrum. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 115: 2845–2849. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1803153115. Suggestions for how to address childcare-related barriers to conference attendance.Google Scholar
Hailman, JP, Strier, KB. 2006. Planning, Proposing, and Presenting Science Effectively. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 3 covers conference presentations.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Isbell, LA, Young, TP, Harcourt, AH. 2012. Stag parties linger: Continued gender bias in a female-rich scientific discipline. PLOS ONE 7: 2–5. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0049682. Shows gender bias in invitations to contribute to primatology symposia at the American Association of Physical Anthropology meetings. Symposia had half the number of female first authors than did submitted talks and posters. Moreover, symposia organised by men had half the number of female first authors than did symposia organised by women or by both men and women.Google Scholar
Karban, R, Huntzonger, M, Pearse, IS. 2014. How to Do Ecology: A Concise Handbook. 2nd edn. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University. Chapter 8 includes oral presentations and posters, with checklists of suggestions for each.Google Scholar
Langin, KM. 2017. Tell me a story! A plea for more compelling conference presentations. The Condor 119: 321–326. http://dx.doi.org/10.1650/CONDOR-16-209.1. Presents strategies for leading your audience through your presentation.Google Scholar
Matthews, JR, Matthews, RW. 2014. Successful Scientific Writing: A Step-by-Step Guide for the Biological and Medical Sciences. 4th edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapters 15 and 16 cover oral presentations and posters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosen, J. 2016. Find your voice. Nature 540: 157–158. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nj7631–157a. On networking and promoting your work for introverts.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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