Sending an abstract for a conference AFTER deadline

[osteza]

I am interested in sending an abstract for a conference but I missed the deadline (it was yesterday). I would like to send an email to the conference organizers. What can I include in the body of the email? Should I attach the abstract or first ask for the permission to send the abstract. The conference is in the UK and I am a non-native english speaker. email samples are welcome. Thanks

[orphic_mel528]

Honestly, if it were me, I'd cut my losses and remember to be more attentive next time. I would not want to reach out to an academic entity and ask them to make an exception for me. 

[osteza]

OK thank you for your answer

 

[TakeruK]

I actually think you should definitely ask for an exception. If you don't ask for things, you won't get them. In my opinion, learning to overcome the fear of asking for concessions from authorities is an important part of becoming a professional academic. If you ask politely, (i.e. don't come off as arrogant and expecting them to grant it to you) the worst that can happen is that they say no. Disclaimer: Maybe this is the norm in my field but not in yours---if in doubt, ask your advisor for advice on navigating this situation.

However, since it's only one day late, what you should first do is try to submit it through their regular online system, as if it was not late. If the system lets you submit an abstract, you should go ahead and do so. Then, you should email the conference organizers** (see note though) to notify them that you've submitted your abstract one day late and you're very sorry but hope they will still consider it. If the system has already locked you out, I think you should "ask permission" to send the abstract and then attach it at the bottom of your email. By "ask permission", I mean stating the request in a polite, non-demanding way and then saying something like, in case you grant my request, I've attached the abstract below for your convenience. Make sure you include all the information that the web submission would have included and formatted in the right way. Having it all there makes it easier for them to say yes---they just have to confirm it and they won't have to ask you for another email.

Note: By "conference organizers" above, I don't necessary mean the people who are listed as in charge of the conference. You want to contact the person that is in charge of the abstract collection/submission process. Depending on the size of the conference, it might be the chair of the organizing committee, or it might be a staff member assigned to this task, or a researcher on the committee that is assigned to this task. For the big national society conference in my field, there are thousands of abstracts submitted and there's a whole office of staffers that work on the conference logistics. Email them!

Finally, it's common practice in academia to have fake deadlines because people forget and stuff happens. There may be one posted/published deadline but the true cutoff might be a few days later. Or, sometimes, for smaller conferences, they might publish a fake deadline 1-2 weeks before the real cutoff to encourage earlier registration to help them get an accurate count for bookings. Then, if there are still room for more people, they'll announce something like "Due to popular demand, the deadline has been extended by X days" etc.

 

[osteza]

I have emailed them and attached the abstract (there is no online submission system for this one). Hopefully they'll agree to consider it. Thank you very much!

 

[Silabus]

I did that once! I finished writing this paper for my Shakespeare class on Julius Caesar. I just happened to find out there was a whole conference on that play! It was past the deadline but I was like: Fuck it, doesn't hurt to try. And sent it off.

[osteza]

did it work? how late was it?

 

[TK2]

I can give a very small and local perspective as a very junior person hired to be in charge of collecting and keeping track of abstract submissions for a very tiny conference (but one with a bit of funding for participants flights, even) and, yeah, we didn't really care if someone got to us a day or three late. Adding one more abstract to the pile on Monday morning when the deadline had been Friday was no big deal, particularly if the abstract was good. Truth be told, if an abstract was especially well written and unique, we'd probably have put it into consideration even if it was weeks late. On the other hand, abstracts being late or written in wildly different formats than we asked for (do not go over the wordcount, abstract submitters!) made for an easy first straining mechanism for the big pile of bad-to-meh sumbissions, and someone with just a so-so abstract had a much better chance of getting in (and even getting some funding) if they'd been on time and on format.

[Silabus]

16 hours ago, osteza said:

did it work? how late was it?

 

Ha ha! I did get in! I was a month late.

I got a very nice email saying they'd love to include a topic paper on Translations. (I was talking about the fact that the first Shakespeare play to be translated to Japanese was Julius Caesar.) I mean it could have been a number of things I wouldn't know about, like they didn't have a lot of interest, someone dropped out, ect. But it was fun!

Moral of the Story: If you do nothing you will get back nothing. It doesn't hurt to try and show interest---they will never dislike you for that!

Edited March 3, 2017 by Silabus

[osteza]

18 hours ago, Silabus said:

Ha ha! I did get in! I was a month late.

I got a very nice email saying they'd love to include a topic paper on Translations. (I was talking about the fact that the first Shakespeare play to be translated to Japanese was Julius Caesar.) I mean it could have been a number of things I wouldn't know about, like they didn't have a lot of interest, someone dropped out, ect. But it was fun!

Moral of the Story: If you do nothing you will get back nothing. It doesn't hurt to try and show interest---they will never dislike you for that!

Excellent!