One way of viewing research is as stories telling and Sharing on the work in the field that seeks to contribute significantly to the field and its body of knowledge.
Members of research community and disciplines tell each other stories (accounts) of their work, what they do, in the field and how to/they improve it and its body of knowledge.
The stories are published in their shared resources. They discuss the stories, learn from them, ask about them, enquire about them, accept them as valuable, dismiss them as invaluable and/or bunch of inaccuracies. Usually, each story, that the story-telling researcher worked hard to construct - is in the middle and needs teasing and polishing. Of course the resources - journals, books and conferences, have limited space, and they have to accept what the gate keeper -(the editors) deem the best stories.
The contributions, namely the stories and the stories telling and sharing, need to be rigorous and as part of the process they are looking at and are noting/telling/sharing what is rigorous and are scrutinizing it.
Conferences are just telling interesting stories next to the bonfire. The stories are then published in proceedings.
It is important to work out the most interesting stories, with the most interesting facts and evidence, that can contribute significantly to the understanding and knowledge of the field and disciplines.