Conference papers

Conference proceedings collect papers that report on presentations delivered at conferences, seminars, or workshops. Conference papers often contain original research, and details of research in progress, but they are not always developed into full academic publications (e.g., book chapters or journal articles). Conference papers can therefore be a useful source of information on topics where there is not a large amount of published literature available.

Conference proceedings are an ideal way of finding current research and ideas:

• Current issues in a particular field are often debated at conferences, with the discussions included in the proceedings
• Even where papers are developed into articles, proceedings can appear long before the articles themselves

Conference papers and proceedings are covered by many of the databases listed under the ‘Databases’ option on NUsearch (UK / China / Malaysia).

Examples include:

• IEEE / IET Electronic Library:  This is contained within IEEE Xplore and holds conference proceedings in electrical and electronics engineering. To find proceedings, run a search and then select the 'Conferences' box at the top of the results page. 
• Scopus: Use this to find conference proceedings in science, technical and medical subject areas. Run a search and select 'Conference paper' from the 'Document type' filter. When running an Advanced Search, you can also use the CONF operator to search for details of specific conferences. 
• Web of Science: Use this to find conference papers across the sciences and social sciences. In the 'Editions' drop-down menu, select one of the 'Conference Proceedings Citation Index' options before searching.

NUsearch (UK / China / Malaysia) provides details of conference proceedings available through University of Nottingham Libraries.

Search by subject area or use keywords from the conference name and select ‘Conference proceedings’ from the ‘All items’ drop-down menu.

If the library does not hold the conference proceeding you are looking for, you can request a copy through the interlibrary loans service.

• Conferences may also be called meetings, symposia, seminars, colloquia, congresses, workshops, or conventions.
• Conferences may be published in journals (as a supplement or special issue), as a book of collected papers, or on the internet.
• If you are looking for a specific conference, search using the conference title, the name of a sponsor, or the location or date of the conference.
• If you are looking for a specific paper, search for the author’s name and the paper title.
• Some conference proceedings may only include abstracts, rather than full papers. To see whether papers have been published as articles, search using the author’s name and keywords from the title (or contact the author directly).