How long to spend on a conference commentary?

In our most recent "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

How long should commenters spend on reading/writing commentaries for conference presentations?

Fair question, though I think it's entirely up to you! 

How much time do other readers spend on commentaries?

Comments

[my thoughts]

Spend enough time to do a good job. Certainly in the US, many people are able to have their conference travel paid for by their university, if (only only if) they are on the conference program. So take that into account as well.

[Trevor Hedberg]

I expect for most folks who are experienced with reading and writing philosophy that the time commitment is between 4 and 6 hours of work.

Conference papers are usually short -- between 3000 and 4000 words -- so they shouldn't take long to read. Conference commentaries are even shorter -- typically between 1000 and 1500 words -- and they don't require extensive citations. They also don't need to be immaculate in their polish or presentation so long as they provide good feedback to the presenter and help raise relevant points for discussion. The main variable in the time commitment is how long one takes to mull over the contents of the paper before writing up the commentary.

[Sort of Veteran]

I would say about half a day to a day is a reasonable amount of time. You want to be sure you understand the paper and have a few substantial comments. For me, that means (1) reading the paper several times (probably two times through, then going back to certain parts when necessary), (2) sitting around and thinking about it, and (3) writing up my thoughts and ensuring that they aren't confused, et cetera.

[grymes]

It just totally depends on the details. If the paper you’re commenting on is directly in your area of research, then Trevor and SoV’s answers make sense. Sometimes that’s how commentaries go for me. On other occasions, I’ve used them as opportunities to carefully read related literature that I had already meant to get around to (sometimes for research purposes, sometimes for teaching purpoes)—and even (on one occasion) to start to develop a new project of my own. In those cases, they can take weeks or months of work!

As Marcus says: it’s up to you. Figure out how valuable it is to you to spend research time thinking about the paper (and related lit), and dedicate more or less time accordingly.