ConfIDent: A platform for academic events

As a researcher, do you sometimes worry that you have missed a conference that would have been a great match with your current research topic, because you were simply unaware of its existence? Or do you sometimes feel unsure about which conference you should participate at? To provide you with an overview of academic events relevant to you and to support you in choosing the right conference we are developing the ConfIDent platform.

In fact, we just recently launched an early version (there’s still a lot that needs to be done) of ConfIDent! This blog post will give you an overview about what you can expect from the platform now and in the future.

• Search for events in your field: In the beginning ConfIDent launches with academic events mainly from Computer Science and Traffic Engineering. The database will grow continuously and will cover more fields over time. You can now already search for Event Series in a particular field, e. g. Artificial Intelligence.
• Specify a range of other search criteria: Are you looking for a national, international, virtual or hybrid event? When would you prefer to attend an event? What is the highest fee you are willing to pay? We plan to provide information about events that goes beyond their location, time and price. Convenient search queries for these conference attributes will be implemented soon.
• Inform yourself about a series’ history: You can already look up a conference series and get an overview of the corresponding individual events (e. g. this Event series), with more detailed information available on the individual events pages. There you will also for example find links to the publication outputs from past events like the proceedings.
• Find out where a paper was originally presented: In the future, because of the links between event and proceedings, If you have the ISBN or DOI of the proceedings a paper appeared in, you will have a good chance of finding the corresponding conference.
• Additional Features like a Calendar and a export functionality for your own calendar are all planned.

You want the event you are organizing or have had great experiences participating at to be listed in ConfIDent? In the future you will be able to create an account and enter your event through our form. Our metadata schema allows for a detailed description of your event. After having made sure that the event you entered is “trustworthy” / not predatory, it will be findable for everyone else on ConfIDent. Additionally you can choose to have a DOI issued for your event. This way other services like DataCite Commons will index your event. For now however, please contact us if you want your event listed in ConfIDent and we will index it for you.

For any feedback, which is always highly appreciated, or questions contact us at confident@tib.eu.

Julian Franken

Research Assistant in the Lab Non-Textual Materials at TIB