Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0006344, Tue, 5 Feb 2002 09:14:46 -0800

Subject
Poster papers at VN SYMPOSIUM (St. Petersburg: July 222
Date
Body
EDITOR's NOTE. The announcement for the ST. Petersburg Nabokv Conference
in July 2002 mades a distinction between "full-fledged" papers and
"poster" papers. There have been several questions about just what a
"poster" is. Brian Boyd offers a description below. Address further
questions to Tatyana Pomomarev at <azint@mail.wplus.net>

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: poster papers
Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2002 16:26:53 +1300
From: "Brian Boyd (FOA ENG)" <b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz>


A poster paper is a brief paper presented in poster format, a device now
used widely at scientific conferences, and more rarely at humanities
conferences, that allows many people with particular points to air to
make
their results public outside the tight competition for regular
conference
slots.

The papers are often either work in progress, too small in scope for a
full paper, or first attempts by graduate and even undergraduate
students to subject their own findings to the intellectual exchange of a
conference.

Usually a particular slot, often an evening one, is reserved as the
poster
paper session. As I have seen it work best, the poster papers (usually
no
more than 2 printed pages) are all stuck up somewhere at the conference
venue, where they can be read during breaks, and are still up at the
poster paper session. Conference attendees wander around at will at the
poster session (armed with eyeglasses and wineglasses) from paper to
paper, reading the papers and discussing them, if they wish, with the
author, who usually remains beside the poster. (It's hard seeing a proud
and anxious author standing there not to say something.) In fact the
format can allow for more detailed feedback from more conference
participants than many ordinary conference papers receive.

As I have also seen it work best, authors of poster papers also submit
abstracts which are collected along with regular paper abstracts in the
conference schedule. Addresses of course facilitate ongoing contacts
between poster paper authors and other participants.

At some conferences it is possible to present a regular paper AND one or
more poster papers (or simply more than one poster paper).

The system allows exposure for far more papers, broad or highly focused,
finished or in progress, than the regular conference format, and the
security that priority for an idea floated in this format is established
in the printed conference schedule. It seems especially useful for
younger
students and scholars as an early exposure to a kind of publication with
instant feedback. Some institutions will contribute to costs of
conference participation by their staff or students giving a poster
paper when they would not to attendees not presenting any kind of paper.

Brian Boyd