Hello! There is a conference in March that I'd like to present some work at. I have the data and the idea for the analysis but haven't yet conducted the analysis. Do you think that the abstract is likely to get anywhere (be accepted) without having the results yet announced on it? Also it is an investigation with no specific hypotheses so I can't say what it would be expecting to find either. The deadline is next week so I'm just trying to decide what to do.

Hi. You can try anyway it won't hurt.
I have worked with two supervisors. One of them always believed what we have is enough and worth publishing and pushed me to do it. So in a research assistant job for one and half years I got 3 conference papers and one journal. The other one used to say wait until we confirm by measurements to publish in a better ranked journal so ended up with one conference in 5 years period.
Of course there were other reasons including myself but the attitude of believing in what you did and persistence of publication is really helpful.

Hi Eng, thanks. I understand the pushing to publish /present what you've got so far - but in my case at the time of writing the abstract I have nothing. You still advise that? Worst case scenario I find nothing of interest and end up presenting an incredibly boring poster! Mind you, given the nature of the study, whatever the outcome should be interesting... (ie. observational looking at the nature of interaction between participants).

Hi. I think you have some analysis which is not yet concluded. If the abstract is accepted, you will conclude it (because you will have to). If rejected, you would have worked more on the analysis and you can submit it somewhere else.

I have done this and mostly got away with it. Just be vague and say what you think/literature expects the results to be. Talk about the concept and the possible benefits of the concept instead of actual results.

The reviewers know enough to see a no data abstract from a mile away and they can make up their own mind. If they are interested they might take a risk, if not they can only reject you.

Awesome - thanks everyone. I will probably go for it anyway - not that much too lose. Basically, your odds of getting help with funding to attend the conf are increased if you are presenting two things. So I am trying to come up with a second thing to present. Will see what happens.