Let’s give conference attendance its rightful place.

Abstract

Conference attendance helps researchers keep track of advances in their fields. It also provides a fertile ground for research synergies and networking. Conference attendance by Nigerian researchers has markedly and progressively reduced over the years as conference publications/presentation are given very little cognisanse during appraisal for staff promotion. Researchers rather choose to invest funds they would have used to attend
conference on publishing in learned journals, as this earns them more marks during promotion appraisal than conference attendance.
Research-based institutions should increase the scores allotted for conference attendance/presentation/articles published in learned conference proceedings during staff appraisal for promotion. Government and cooperate organisations should increase their investment on research and general funding as research and personal development are a sine qua none to national development.