This is a question I get asked a lot. Whether it is for hiring, tenure, or a research grant, researchers seem unsure of the value of conference papers.
On the one hand, conference presentations feel like they have more impact than other forms of dissemination. There are real people in the room listening. They ask questions. They might come up and talk to you in more depth later. They take a copy of the paper.
And yet, in most formal assessments of your research achievements, conference papers don’t seem to count for anything. They are considered “low impact”.
This is largely because the audience for a conference presentation is small. The presentation is likely to be short. And the material is usually work in progress, nowhere near as polished as a full journal article or scholarly monograph.
While conference papers can circulate widely through informal networks, usually the impact on the advancement of knowledge is small.
Furthermore, there is rarely any peer review for quality. Selection processes often use merely an abstract and the criteria for inclusion may or may not be about quality, focusing additionally on the general shape of the conference, breadth of coverage of particular topics, balance between graduate students, new scholars, and senior scholars, etc.
So why bother with conference presentations?
A conference paper isn’t an end in itself. It is part of a larger process of knowledge creation and communication.
With that in mind, you can relax about the paper itself. The goal is not a “finished” piece (whatever that is) but a coherent presentation of some of your findings, insights, theoretical or methodological musings, or whatever.
A conference presentation
- provides a deadline for writing.
- enables you to get feedback on your work in progress.
- enables you to connect with other researchers, with whom you might collaborate in various ways over your career.
- is a great first draft of a journal article or book chapter.
Your objective is to meet the people who will want to have longer discussions about your research and to get useful feedback that will allow you to improve your work and turn the paper into a solid publication.
Need Help?
Having trouble with the idea of presenting unfinished work at a conference? My previous post Good Enough? Finished? deals with the issues in more depth.
And a future post will deal with the practicalities of turning your conference paper into a journal article.
If you are interested in learning more about how others will judge your work, why that doesn’t matter, and how to develop a writing and publishing plan that will help you achieve your research goals, sign up for my newsletter and get the free e-book, Publish or Perish? You can read an excerpt here.
And when you get to Congress, look me up. I can be found in booth 50 of the Book Fair (centre aisle, behind the Concordia booth).
And I’ll be giving a presentation in the Career Corner series:
Managing Your Research Career
University Centre, Room 279
Monday, May 25, 15:00 – 16:30
Friday, May 29, 10:00 – 11:30
More about that next week.
