Editing Conference proceedings

{{short description|Collection of scholarly papers published in the context of an academic conference}}
{{redirect|Proceedings}}
In academia and librarianship, '''conference proceedings''' are a collection of [[academic paper]]s published in the context of an [[academic conference]] or workshop. Conference proceedings typically contain the contributions made by researchers at the conference. They are the written record of the work that is presented to fellow researchers. In many fields, they are published as supplements to [[academic journal]]s; in some, they are considered the main dissemination route; in others they may be considered [[grey literature]]. They are usually distributed in printed or electronic volumes, either before the conference opens or after it has closed.

A less common, broader [[:wikt:proceedings|meaning]] of '''proceedings''' are the acts and happenings of an [[discipline (academia)|academic field]], a [[learned society]]. For example, the title of the ''[[Acta Crystallographica]]'' journals is [[Neo-Latin]] for "Proceedings in [[Crystallography]]"; the ''[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America]]'' is the main journal of that academy. [[Scientific journal]]s whose [[ISO 4]] title abbreviations start with ''Proc'', ''Acta'', or ''Trans'' are journals of the proceedings (transactions) of a field or of an organization concerned with it, in that secondary meaning of the word.

==Authorship and editorship==
Selecting and collecting papers for conferences is organized by one or more persons, who form the ''editorial team''. The quality of the papers is typically ensured by having external people read the papers before they are accepted in the proceedings. The level of quality control varies considerably from conference to conference: some have only a binary accept/reject decision, others go through more thorough feedback and revisions cycles ([[scholarly peer review|peer reviewing]] or refereeing). Depending on the level of the conference, this process can take up to a year. The editors decide about the composition of the proceedings, the order of the papers, and produce the preface and possibly other pieces of text. Although most changes in papers occur on basis of consensus between editors and authors, editors can also single-handedly make changes in papers.{{cn|date=March 2024}}

Since the collection of papers comes from individual researchers, the character of proceedings is distinctly different from an educational textbook. Each paper typically is quite isolated from the other papers in the proceedings. Mostly there is no general argument leading from one contribution to the next.{{cn|date=March 2024}}

In some cases, the [[editing|editors]] of the proceedings may decide to further develop the proceedings into a textbook. This may even be a goal at the outset of the conference.

==Publication==
Conference proceedings are published in-house by the organizing institution of the conference or via an [[academic publishing|academic publisher]]. For example, the ''[[Lecture Notes in Computer Science]]'' by Springer take much of their input from proceedings. Conference proceedings also get published through dedicated proceedings series as an edited volume where all their inputs comes from the conference papers. For example, AIJR Proceedings<ref>{{Cite web |title=AIJR Proceedings |url=https://books.aijr.org/index.php/press/catalog/series/proceedings |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240412035012/https://books.aijr.org/index.php/press/catalog/series/proceedings |archive-date=Apr 12, 2024 |website=AIJR Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Conference Proceedings Publication » About AIJR Proceedings » |url=https://aijr.org/conference-proceedings/about-aijr-proceedings/ |access-date=2020-12-12 |website=AIJR Publisher |language=en-US}}</ref> series published by academic publisher [[AIJR Publisher|AIJR]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Proceedings Publication Process » |url=https://aijr.org/conference-proceedings/organizer/publication-process/ |access-date=2020-12-12 |website=AIJR Publisher |language=en-US}}</ref> Publication of proceedings as edited volume in such series are different from publishing conference paper in the journals;<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-10-01 |title=Proceedings vs Special Issue of Academic Meetings |url=https://aijr.org/proceedings-vs-special-issue/ |access-date=2020-12-12 |website=AIJR Publisher |language=en}}</ref> also known as conference issue. Increasingly, proceedings are published in electronic format via the internet or on CD, USB, etc.

In the sciences, the quality of publications in conference proceedings is usually not as high as that of international [[scientific journal]]s. However, in [[computer science]], papers published in conference proceedings are accorded a higher status than in other fields, due to the fast-moving nature of the field.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Vrettas |first1=George |last2=Sanderson |first2=Mark |title=Conferences versus journals in computer science |journal=Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology |date=December 2015 |volume=66 |issue=12 |pages=2674–2684 |url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1002/asi.23349 |doi=10.1002/asi.23349|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

A number of full-fledged [[academic journal]]s unconnected to particular conferences also use the word "proceedings" as part of their name, for example, ''[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America]]''.

==Format==
Conference proceedings may be published as a book or [[book series]], in a [[academic journal|journal]], or otherwise as a [[serial (publishing)|serial]] publication (see [[:Category:Conference proceedings|examples]]).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Testa |first=Jim |date=July 2012 |title=Clarivate conference proceedings selection process |url=http://wokinfo.com/products_tools/multidisciplinary/webofscience/cpci/cpciessay/ |website=wokinfo.com}}</ref> In many cases, [[impact factor]]s are not available,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://conferenceseries.iop.org/content/quick_links/Policy%20on%20Impact%20Factor |title=Proceedings policy on Impact Factors}}</ref> although other [[journal metrics]] (such as [[Google Scholar]] [[h-index]] and [[Scimago]]-metrics) might exist.{{cn|date=July 2015}} [[Bibliographic indexing]] often is done in separate [[bibliographic databases]] and [[citation indexes]], e.g., [[Conference Proceedings Citation Index]] instead of [[Science Citation Index]].

==See also==
{{main cat|Conference proceedings}}
* [[Serial (publishing)]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Academic publishing}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Conference proceedings| ]]
[[Category:Academic conferences| ]]
[[Category:Academic publishing]]
[[Category:Publications by format]]
[[Category:Grey literature]]