Information on Producing Conference Reports

Requirements for Reports and Reporters

The interdisciplinary and international dialogs FQS pursues are also expected of reports and reporters. Reporters have the charge to offer through their reports insights into a particular research field, as reflected in conference proceedings, for the varied readership of FQS. Above all, reports should not only contain specialized information for sub-groups but should introduce the context in which a conference was held, and explicate the questions and lines of development of a field of activity in an understandable way, thereby outlining the specific contribution of the event. Therefore it is necessary to critically classify and evaluate the respective conference topics and contributions. Three "functions" shall be provided by reports:

1. Content depiction: Readers should be presented with a first outline of the conference's contents and the topics raised. It should also illustrate the (explicit/implicit) claims made by conference participants.

2. Evaluation: The report should also include a critical appreciation (of single contributions) of the event, thus giving readers an assessment of how successful a conference was in reaching its stated goals. At the same time—in order to unfold this critical appreciation—it is necessary to place the reported conference in a broader context. To do this effectively, the methodologies (e.g. ethnography, text analysis) employed by the presenters need to be adequately described and how they relate to issues within the field explained.

3. Contextualization: The report should adequately introduce the research field represented by the conference and should offer some explication of the issues and arguments within that field. Therefore, as a starting point, reporters are required to introduce a topic area/research field and to reveal the pressing issues and concerns within that field and to offer critical comments on the ways these issues and concerns are being dealt with. This should be represented by the achievements and desiderata contained in the conference's contributions and the reporter's comments.

Beyond considering the subject background of the conference, describing central topics and evaluating them, it is requested that reports provide references on conference information (abstracts, proceedings or the URL of the event) as well as information about a published volume of conference papers, future conferences on related topics, workshops, or other activities related to the reported conference, all contributing to an extensive impression of the event. Also, if possible, we urge reporters to make use of other forms of presentation such as conference photographs, audio- or video-files of sessions, and making them accessible as external files.

To be selected, a conference report must address the wide area of qualitative social research, and in particular it must deal with the theoretical and methodological bases of qualitative research. Moreover conference reports on different topic areas of social and cultural sciences research as well as on "Online Research—(New) Media" are desired. You will find further information in the Editorial Note FQS Conferences.

Report forms

Reports on conferences, symposia, workshops and working-group-meetings, depending on the respective event, may take on the form of

1. Conference Note

2. Conference Essay

3. Discussing several events collectively

4. Conference Symposia

a) Conference Note

Conference Notes should present a meaningful outline of the research field as represented by the conference, framed by a short introduction that makes a connection between the conference and the research field under consideration and should be followed by an evaluation.

b) Conference Essay

Conference Essays should offer a deep consideration of the conference's contents. The research field should be briefly introduced and a description of how the conference did or did not contribute to the field offered. Conference Essays will be understood to be independent contributions similar to articles and will summarize the "state of the art," making the summary available for discussion.

c) Collective Reports

Collective Reports contain reports made by a reporter or a report team of two (or several) conferences considering the same or similar topic. The aim of the report is to make known how these events contribute to the research area under consideration in a comparative discussion. Collective reports are not a loose collection of single reports. Rather, collective reports should help to clarify the respective research field by synthesizing significant main lines and fields of discussion.

d) Conference Symposia

Conference Symposia are reports of one or more event(s) by several reporters or report teams, who write individual brief reports. One author should write an introduction and a concluding comment. In addition, an on-line conference symposium could take place; for example, a chat-conference with the organizer(s) of a conference.

Note: We do not prescribe a range of minimum/maximum words allowed for a contribution, as the length of the report should depend on the respective event and the individual reporter's perspective.

Announcement of Conference Reports

Suggestions for reports can be submitted to the Conference Report-Editor(s) by interested authors. It is not advisable to send a report without previous consultation as we would like first to decide whether the proposed report overlaps with other reports and whether the event is likely to be interesting and relevant for the FQS readership. For reports submitted without prior inquiry there is no guarantee of publication. Conferences, symposia, and work shops that are regarded as interesting and relevant for a report by the editorial board will be placed on the list of conference announcements.

Time Schedule for Reviewing

Reports should be submitted within six months after the event took place. Earlier submissions are appreciated; if you are not able to finish the report on time, please inform the Conference Report-Editor(s). Although this deadline might seem rather short, it is necessary in order to provide current information to readers.

The submitted reports will be evaluated according to the criteria listed in the paragraph "Requirements for Reports." If submissions do not fulfil these criteria suggestions for revisions may be given by the FQS editorship.

Guidelines for Layout

The guidelines for FQS Conferences follow the Guidelines for Layout valid for any manuscripts submitted to FQS (while report essays should provide a descriptive header, this is not necessary for report notes). In addition to these guidelines, report notes and report essays should contain extensive information on organizers, organizing institutions, conference title, and place of event.

Günter Mey, Editor FQS Conferences
Rebeca Mejía Arauz, Associate Editor FQS Conferences (Spanish)
Robert Faux, Associate Editor FQS Conferences (English)

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© 1999-2008 Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research
(ISSN 1438-5627)

Supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the Center für Digitale Systeme, Freie Universität Berlin