Hello,

it happened weird situation that looks quite unprofessional, and I will find out if is correct , completely legal and what action I can take against.

I attended to a very expensive 10 days conference, where I was obliged to attend all sessions from 8 am to 8 pm, being the beneficiary of an award.

The university paid almost 3000 euros for travel, hotel and conference fees.

My abstract was accepted after the call for papers. At the conference my presentation was so welcome, since I reviewed a question that has been for many years unanswered. It is many year that I research in this field, not a novice' I knew many people there and I am part of a wide scholar community.

We had no proceedings on the days of the conference, since the completed articles were submitted later. After some months I submitted the completed paper, after 7 months and it was reviewed in all punctuation in a very obsessive way by the reviewer, also very unusual.

Finally, almost one year after the conference I received an email saying that the society publishing the proceedings has decided that my paper (I suppose only mine, I have to double check with the other participants) will not be included, since the society does not agree with my proposed interpretation , and they believe that 'my methodology could be misleading for the future work of the society on the topic'. There are no issues of ethics here, we are just talking of the denomination to be assigned to ancient Roman water structures! Therefore we are in a case of discrimination, based on absolutely subjective opinions and also an offence to the freedom of speak and opinion that we have as constitutional rights.

Do proceedings have to represent all the work that has been done at the conference, or can they represent part of the presented studies, without occurring in a false in transcripts?

I believe that all participant have the right to receive the papers of the other participants, the others would love to read my paper , I do know!! On what bases can mine be excluded?

Is the 'publication' act at a conference happening when the author presents publicly its study?

In some conferences the paper is not included in the proceedings if the author was not presenting, missing the element of 'publication'.

So I did present and make my study public on the 18/11/2018. In fact ,if I am not in the proceedings, on the contrary they will testify that I was not there. Does not make sense.

I had to move my family and arrange expensive care to get in the conference.

My son had to go with me, spent 8 hours a day with a baby sitter he never met before, I paid 1200 euros between hotel ad babysitter. He even got an unjustified absence report from school.

I never would have done if I knew that my paper was not to be published.

I am seeking legal advice since I was offended, my work disqualified and the University and myself had monetary losses. It looks very unprofessional to me. Organisers have their obligations and they cannot play with people life and money so easily, the conditions for which a a paper would be published or not have to be made objective and clear for all participants from the registration.

Any help on this please?