Same paper at separate conferences?

[paddington_bear]

I submitted the same abstract for two spring conferences, hoping that it would be accepted at one of them. Well, of course, it was accepted at both. I'm going to one because the location is better. :) Is it unethical to present the same paper at two separate conferences?  Each conference theme is relevant to my work, obviously, and both sponsoring organizations have the same "prestige," so there's no difference there either. My university isn't really funding a lot of faculty travel these days, so the second conference would definitely be out of my own pocket.  The second conference, in "less desirable" city would have sessions that would interest me, I'm sure, so I would enjoy that conference.

And if I do present at both conferences, is it bad to list them both on my CV? Should I change the title of one of the papers?

[Puget]

This may be field dependent, but in my field conferences are just a way to share your work with colleagues, they aren't equivalent to papers in any way (I know that's different in e.g., computer science). So, no problem presenting the same work at multiple conferences, especially when the audiences are different.

[Parasaurolophus]

It's 100% okay (both to present, and to list each presentation). (We do it all the time in my field, anyway.)

[artalot]

For us (humanities, LAC) you could definitely do both and wouldn't be considered unethical, but they couldn't both count towards tenure/review. Could you change the title and maybe the angle a little bit?

[AJ_Katz]

+1 to presenting at both


I encourage my students and postdocs to present multiple times with minor tweaks to the title.  Even preliminary results and a proposed research project could be presented for a new student.  It's a great way to publicize the research and is important metric for evaluation, reports, and credentials.

Congrats!

[paddington_bear]

For us (humanities, LAC) you could definitely do both and wouldn't be considered unethical, but they couldn't both count towards tenure/review. Could you change the title and maybe the angle a little bit?

Yes! I just checked to see if I titled the abstracts differently - I wanted to use one of the conference theme's words in the title - and I did. Thanks for the reminder! 

If I decide to present at both - which I'm leaning towards - I'd still probably put them both on my CV. Whoever ends up seeing them on my CV can count them however they want.

[poiuy]

Another voice saying you should present at both, especially if the audience won't overlap/duplicate. That way, you get to share your work with more people!

[dismalist]

Pre-publication, but even post working paper, this is done all the time.

It's common to see footnotes in published papers: Presented here, there, and everywhere. Thank you all for comments.

[darkstarrynight]

This is very timely for me since I am working on two conference proposals based on my sabbatical project research. Both are due in January and I have been struggling with how to differentiate them beyond the audiences (one is a practitioner conference, one is a research conference). Everyone's suggestions are very helpful to me too!

[kaysixteen]

I get that one could not actually submit such a paper to two separate journals oneself, but if you present the same paper at two different conferences, how do you prevent the conference runners in question from publishing the paper in their respective proceedings journal?

[Sun_Worshiper]

This is completely acceptable and even encouraged in my field. I've presented a single paper at two or three conferences and also given it as an invited talk or at a workshop. Nobody objects.

I get that one could not actually submit such a paper to two separate journals oneself, but if you present the same paper at two different conferences, how do you prevent the conference runners in question from publishing the paper in their respective proceedings journal?

The major conferences in my field just publish a list of abstracts, as opposed to full papers. Not sure about fields where proceedings are included as full papers in a journal.

[mleok]

I get that one could not actually submit such a paper to two separate journals oneself, but if you present the same paper at two different conferences, how do you prevent the conference runners in question from publishing the paper in their respective proceedings journal?

I would not suggest submitting the same work to two conferences that both publish full proceedings articles.

[dismalist]

I get that one could not actually submit such a paper to two separate journals oneself, but if you present the same paper at two different conferences, how do you prevent the conference runners in question from publishing the paper in their respective proceedings journal?

I would not suggest submitting the same work to two conferences that both publish full proceedings articles.

No, one mustn't do that.

[glowdart]

Generally, if the audiences will be different, then go ahead. I have seen people chided for literally giving the exact same paper at two conferences in our field that everyone goes to.

But save yourself questions at review time on your home campus and use different titles.

[MarathonRunner]

Some conferences in my field explicitly state that the material can't have been presented at another conference. Some welcome things that have been presented elsewhere, but only by students.

This seems to be a thing that varies by field.