======= Date Modified 29 14 2010 22:14:10 =======
I start my PhD on Monday so I am going to be new to it all. However, I have already had an email about a postgrad conference calling for papers. I am seriously tempted to put a paper in, but I wanted to ask everyone if it is common to co-author a conference paper? I am sharing an office with a guy who is the same age as me and who is doing a topic which has some fair elements of overlap with mine. Should I approach him with an idea, or are conference papers always written by one person only?

Conference papers can be written by multiple authors - you don't usually get both authors presenting though. Have a look at the guidance for presenters to see what it says (if anything) about multiple authored papers - usually it is just somethign along the lines of "at least one author must present"

Don't worry about it being very early in your research to be presenting at a conference - I submitted an abstract three weeks after I registered and presented it at an international conference onlyfourmonths after I started my part time PhD. The networking opportunities offered by the conference were invaluable in shaping my thinking.

Go for it (either with the other person or alone)

Thanks for the advice. We are both new to the scene but I want to strike a good relationship with him from the very start. I guess the whole presenting thing will have to be kept in mind, but it doesn't say anything about that yet as this is a while off. I don't have a clue what we could write yet.