A minha vida com o doutoramento

recebi um mail do 2.º simpósio internacional sobre Comunicación del Conocimiento y Conferencias: CCC 2007, que vai decorrer integrado na 6.ª Conferência Iberoamericana de Sistemas, Cibernética e Informática: CISCI 2007, que me levou a vasculhar o site do mesmo e encontrar isto:

A Multi-Methodological Reviewing Process for Multi-Disciplinary Conferences do Professor Nagib Callaos da Simon Bolivar University e do International Institute of Informatics and Systemics.

O texto em si tem como propósito explicar a perspetiva do simpósio sobre o processo de review das submissões, descrito no final, mas gostei das referências a um tal livro "Scientific and Technical Literature" de uns tais Walker & Hurt , de 1990. Transcrevo para aqui algumas das ideias de que gostei, por estarem tão sistematizadinhas!, a seguir é giro ver os "buracos" na sistematização...

"According to these authors the main conference functions are the following:

• “To learn of the latest work being done

• To learn of the latest available equipment

• To make contacts with fellow researchers

• To discuss details with colleagues” (p.81)

They add that “Other purposes are served by conferences…there is a general sense that the “real” value of conferences and other lies in the informal communication that take place during, between, and after the formal presentation of prepared conference papers.” (pp. 81-82)"

E mais!

"The informal exchange of information among colleagues is much more important at certain periods of the research process than the formal media” (p. XX; emphasis added). It is this informality what represents the teleological essence of conferences. The degree of formality or informality is what generates such a plethora of conferences models and their inherent peer reviewing methods, if peer reviewing exists at all. Walker and Hurt affirm that conference proceedings, along with patents and technical reports, belong to what it is named “grey literature” which they associate with three features, as follow:

• “it is not necessarily literature with original scientific contributions, but of an informational nature.” (p. XXI). This is why in many conferences potential participants are invited to present position papers, case studies, white papers, etc. and in other panels are organized. This is also why we find an increasing number, in the last 25 years, of meetings with conversational formats, where no paper presentations are made at all. As it is known the input of conversational meetings are questions and problems, not answers and solutions as it is the case of conventional conferences.

• Literature “is distributed in a nonconventional manner and not within the normal marketing systems that make up the publishing and book trade.” (p. XXI). This is why some conferences have no proceedings at all, others have just electronic proceedings with no printed version, and still others have just abstracts in their proceedings. In these conferences some authors distribute copies of their papers to those who attended the session where their paper was presented and to colleagues with whom they informally interacted in coffee breaks, lunches, etc.

• Literature which “is not bibliographically controlled and therefore difficult to locate and procure.” (p. XXI)."

Pois é... viva as conferências!!! espero poder retomar, este ano, a minha frequência de frequência de conferência(s) ;)