Hi,
What is the difference between conference papers and research papers published in journals? My supervisor wants me to prepare a paper for a conference in May. Any links, hints etc?

Conferences are occasional or annual 'meets' organised by a committee, with a group of appointed paper reviewers who review submissions and select the most suitable, original, best etc. papers for publication in a book: 'conference proceedings'. Conferences are self-funded - i.e. people attend because they are interested in the conference subject matter. People who attend pay a registration fee, which provides for e.g. a printed book of proceedings for all registrants. It's like an 'expo' for [insert cool academic subject here]. If you get a paper published, you need to present either a poster or a talk about your document at the event

On the flip side are journals, that are established publications, ranging from the popular (e.g. New Scientist) to the academic (e.g. Nature) that have their own panel of reviewers (I think so at least ). There's no 'deadline' to journal submissions, whereas conference submissions have a time frame to get the papers checked in time for printing for the event. Please feel free to disagree if I'm wrong anywhere here! This is my understanding of it, and I still have a lot to learn.

Symposium: A 'super-conference' of smaller conferences, e.g.: http://www.ieee-ssci.org/

Conference: e.g. http://www.computelligence.org/sis/2007/
- one of the conferences as part of the symposium, above.

Journal: e.g. one of Nature's publications, http://www.nature.com/ng/index.html

Journals tend to be more prestigious than conferences? I guess that depends on the journal and it's reputation in academia. It also has to be said that conferences are an excuse to go somewhere really nice, e.g. Hawaii

I get the impression that conference papers are easier to get published (though you will have to present something as has been said previously). They are peer reviewed-ish, but to me it doesn't seem as rigorous as a journal submission.

Conference papers are a good way therefore of getting a few publications under your belt at the start of your academic career.

You're writing for the same audience, but some conference papers focus on specific aspects (e.g. the trial of a new methodology) rather than both method, results and analysis. It means that some conference papers are good springboards for future journal publications.