A long day yesterday and tiresome night so today I am just resting. This morning, some organization has called me for the umpteenth time to see if I can submit an abstract for their upcoming conference. Earlier, I had nicely told them that I will not be in attendance due to competing duties so I wouldn’t be submitting anything for review. On their side, they’ve been insisting that someone else will present it on my behalf and this morning I gave in. The theme/purpose of this conference is not exactly in my line of work so I don’t see why I should attend. Last year I submitted four abstracts to the AMREF Health Africa International Conference and all of them were selected. I had expected at least one would and was ready for a total rejection because it was an international conference, but I was shocked to see all of them go through. Compare that to a global conference in Japan last year where only 2 of our 7 abstracts went through but still were not “good enough” for sponsorship. I think the organizers of this upcoming conference have received minimal abstracts for review and are now begging people to send and/or register. Which begs the question kwani what are all these research institutions, PHD holders and professors in this country doing if they can’t submit papers and abstracts to these conferences? Why did universities scrap the condition that masters students must publish or present an abstract in a major conference before graduation? Come to think of it, I may design a poster (I have never designed one) and submit it for review, that would be a learning experience. Hey for those of you that are interested in the Amref conference here is a link with the complete book of abstracts for your consumption http://www.ahaic.org/
Hakuna per diem boss…presenting papers in reputable conferences requires you to pay money and meet your costs…publishing a paper on a peer reviewed journal requires you to pay in cash. Late submissions always attract fines.