Strategic publishing

Which conference?

Conferences allow for sharing of information and recent research alongside great networking opportunities. Presenting at a conference will increase the exposure of your research and provide an opportunity for feedback. With so many conferences now online you can attend for a fraction of the cost of a face to face conference.

Conference papers are very often collated into published proceedings, providing a quick and simple way of publishing your research. However, in many disciplines conference publications are not considered as highly as other forms of dissemination. Discipline practices and the quality of the conference and conference publications should be a consideration when attending a conference.

Upcoming conferences or calls for papers may be found online on websites such as:

• Conference alerts
• IEEE conferences and events
• HNet: Humanities and Social Sciences Online

Most academic conferences are legitimate and respectable events but there are some that are misleading, exaggerated or even fake. Use Think. Check.Attend to help you decide if a conference is right for you.

Evaluating conference quality

Some factors to consider when evaluating conference quality include :

• The impact of previous conference papers (through citation counts or alternative metric mentions)
• The history or longevity of the conference – the credentials of the conference organisers
• Submission and acceptance rates
• Are the conference papers peer reviewed?
• Are the conference papers indexed by major databases such as Scopus or Web of Science?

Not sure? Try the Think.Check.Attend conference checker.

Learn about predatory conferences and how to identify them on our Predatory Publishing pages.

Make your conference paper visible

Papers from a conference are often collated into the conference proceedings and may be published as a book, special issue of a journal, or a serial. Once published as proceedings you may no longer own the copyright on your paper so choose your conference carefully and ask about your author rights before signing up.

Consider the following:

• Make your paper open access - does the conference allow you to deposit your paper into an institutional repository such as Curtin espace?
• If proceedings are not published by the conference organiser, rework the paper and publish it as a journal article.
• Some journals may also accept previously published conference papers, with revision.
• Also ensure that copyright has not been assigned to the conference organisers. It may be necessary to obtain written permission from the copyright holder to re-publish in a journal title.
• Promote your paper via social media – use the conference hashtag on Twitter or Instagram