Reassessing Conference Goals and Outcomes: A Defense of Presenting Similar Papers atMultiple ConferencesAuthor(s): Christopher A. CooperSource: PS: Political Science and Politics, Vol. 41, No. 2 (Apr., 2008), pp. 293-295Published by: American Political Science AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20452175 .

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Reassessing Conference Goals

and Outcomes: A Defense of

Presenting Similar Papers at

Multiple Conferences

A s Nelson Dometrius's opening essay sug gests, academic standards, like other occu

pational standards and practices, change over time. These changes may draw fire from both established and younger scholars trained in the classical tradition. Shifting norms in political science range from different publication stan dards over time (few would doubt that the num ber of publications required for tenure has increased in most schools), to changing ideas about journal quality,' to different conference practices. In this essay, I argue that the increas ingly common practice of presenting identical papers at multiple conferences is not a negative influence on the discipline and does not conflict with any of the commonly offered rationales for conference attendance and participation. In fact, I suggest that making changes to existing papers-presenting future versions of a paper may produce a more focused research agenda

and may battle some potentially negative

by trends in political sci

Christopher A. Cooper, ence. I also argue that VVestern Carolina University this practice is a rational

and predictable out growth of the shifting

academic incentive structure. There is little academic research on the pur

poses of conferences, but through conversa tions with colleagues, and a perusal of what literature exists, I offer five benefits-gaining feedback on work in progress, learning what's happening in the field, beefing up the CV, net working, and talking to publishers. I divide these roughly into two categories-the classic and the realistic.

The Classic The classic justification for attending confer

ences is getting feedback on your work. The conference format is intended to create incen tives for scholars to receive useful information on our papers. Our papers are organized by topical panels to ensure that we will have an audience that cares about the subject matter and is in a position to provide comments. In deed, the ideal panel presentation includes well-informed and prepared discussants, atten tive audiences, and coherent panels. Of course, the reality rarely resembles this ideal type. In stead, discussants are often ill-informed on the

topic, panel participants rarely provide feed back, and audiences are generally quite small. As others have argued (Gupta and Waismel Manor 2006; Zorn 2000), the likelihood of re ceiving relevant, useful comments from the traditional conference format is quite low. Zom goes so far as to argue that, "... unequivocally and without qualification, the most important thing that happens at professional meetings is not what goes on in the panels" (2000, 1). Par ticularly in an age where scholars can email papers to colleagues in their subfields, confer ences are no longer the only (or even the best) way to receive critical feedback.

If conferences were the only means to gain feedback, then perhaps the "present once" rule would still be advisable. Given the ease of ex changing papers over email and through the web, however, there is no longer a need to fol low the traditional path of presenting a paper at a conference and then sending it out for publication.

Another reason often offered up for attend ing conferences it to receive research credit. Some tenure documents, particularly in smaller schools, used to include a statement that a can didate can receive a small amount of research credit for presenting a paper at a conference. Some have suggested that graduate students may also receive some credit for presenting papers at conferences (Ryan and Breuning 1994). This is, perhaps, the best rationale for the present once rule. For the most part, how ever, these days are over. Few universities give research credit for presenting at academic con ferences. Even graduate students are increas ingly expected to have publications, rather than a litany of unpublished conference papers, on their CVs (Van Cott 2005). The publication not the conference-is the standard for re search productivity. Because of this shift in research standards, most professors do not rely on presenting at conferences to receive re search credit. Graduate students should cer tainly attend and present at conferences, but the reward for conference presentation diminishes as the number of conferences rises. Conference presentations for graduate students are now a sign that the graduate student has been prop erly socialized, rather than a sign of research productivity.

Many scholars may attend conferences not to present their own research, but rather to

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learn what others in their fields/subfields are doing. To this end, we might hope that conference goers attend multiple panels and read interesting papers posted online. Clearly presenting the same paper at multiple conferences does not influence the abil ity of an individual scholar to attend multiple panels. In fact, if one of the goals of conferences is to be exposed to multiple emerging research agendas, then presenting the same paper at multiple conferences may actually help, rather than impede this goal, as it will encourage scholars to attend more conferences and be exposed to different audiences. This rationale may be particularly compelling for graduate students and younger schol ars who are still seeking to establish their academic identities. In addition, if there is some duplication in papers from confer ence to conference, it may also encourage some scholars to at tend panels outside of their own subfields. This may be quite valuable for senior scholars who frequently attend similar pan els, but who could benefit from exposure to broader ideas.

The Realistic Despite our high-minded protests to the contrary, most politi

cal scientists attend conferences primarily to network and meet people who share similar interests. As Gupta and Waismel Manor suggest, meeting colleagues in similar fields can lead to future co-authorship opportunities, increasingly thick profes sional networks, and even to presentation and publication invita tions. Chris Zom (2000) seconds this notion by noting that the best conference he ever attended was one where he did not present a single paper. Presenting identical or similar papers at multiple conferences does not affect this goal. Of course the rational response to this argument is for people to attend confer ences without presenting a paper. Unfortunately, this is not a financially viable option for most scholars today who rely on tight university budgets and must be on the program to receive conference money.

Conferences can provide an opportunity to talk to potential book publishers, particularly at the APSA and the MPSA meet ings. Indeed, there is no other place where a scholar can meet

with Cambridge University Press at 1:00 and the University of Michigan Press at 2:00. Again-this is not affected by the simi larity of the papers the scholar presents. For graduate students and assistant professors who may not be able to receive travel money without presenting-the notion of presenting similar pa pers at multiple conferences may, from this perspective, increase their long-term research productivity.

Benefits of Presenting Similar Papers at Multiple Conferences

As the previous section makes clear, there are few (if any) instances where presenting the same paper at multiple confer ences conflicts with any of the primary goals of conference at tendance and participation. While presenting the same paper at

multiple conferences may not provide any negative conse quences (and may provide some positive consequences) for the individual, it probably has few concretely positive consequences for the discipline. A reasonable compromise, therefore, might be for scholars who wish to engage in this practice to present similar-but not identical-papers at multiple conferences. This can lead to two positive outcomes-both for the author and for the discipline.

First, presenting several iterations of the same paper at multi ple conferences can help provide a more focused research agenda. If scholar X will benefit from attending multiple confer ences (for the reasons outlined above), then s/he has two choices. First, s/he could write fresh papers for each confer

ence. This inevitably leads to sloppier, less theoretically grounded, and less methodologically careful work-the type of conference papers that many of us complain about behind closed doors. These half-finished papers will likely either lan guish on the author's desk for years, or will be submitted to a journal before they are ready-further clogging up the already overloaded journal review process. The second option is for scholar X to present multiple iterations of the same paper. This will provide for a tighter product, which will be better for the discussant, better for the author, better for the audience, and, ultimately, better for the accumulation of published knowledge. These papers do not need to be wholly original contributions, but should include some noticeable changes from the previous version.

Presenting the same (or similar) papers at multiple confer ences also enables the author to reach multiple audiences. The number of subfield conferences has undoubtedly grown in re cent years. For instance, in my own subfield the set of scholars who attend the APSA Annual Meeting is different than those who attend the Conference on State Politics and Policy. Both conferences are valuable for people in my subfield, but for very different reasons. Presenting a paper in March at the State Poli tics conference, receiving feedback, then presenting a more pol ished version at the APSA allows someone in my subfield to reach multiple audiences and to produce better work. My sub field is not alone-political methodologists who present a simi lar paper at the Political Methodology summer meetings and the

Midwest will reach different audiences, and will be able to focus on a single paper or project more easily than one who only presents at one conference, or who creates new papers for each conference.

Conclusion I have argued that the increasingly popular practice of pre

senting the same paper at multiple conferences is not a bad thing. In fact, it does not conflict with any of the major goals of conferences. Given the growing number of specialty confer ences, and the lengthy period between proposal deadline and conference presentation, I believe this practice will only in crease over the next few years. While my view of presenting identical papers is not negative, I am even more positive about the practice of presenting future versions of existing work at

multiple conferences. This practice may even produce more fo cused, polished scholarship than working on a fresh paper for each conference.

As this forum has demonstrated, however, not everyone in the discipline is supportive of this trend. Consequently, the onus should be on the individual scholar to make clear on his/her CV whether each conference presentation is a new paper, a re vised version of an old paper, or a completely recycled paper. Adding more descriptive language to each scholar's CV will allow hiring committees, tenure committees, and outside review teams to more adequately assess scholarly activity and produc tivity. For the few political scientists who work in departments that grant research credit for conference presentations, this is particularly important.

One solution and a recommended best practice for those who present identical or similar papers is for scholars to organize their CVs by the paper (rather than by the conference). If some one presents the same paper at two conferences, s/he would therefore have one entry for the paper, followed by an indication of each presentation. Second, if people are going to make the argument that presenting similar papers at multiple conferences helps their careers, they are on firmer ground if they present at one specialty conference and one general conference-the Mid west and the Empirical Legal Studies Conference, for instance,

294 PS April 2008

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instead of presenting at the Midwest and the APSA (where the person will have a similar conference experience). Finally, it is imperative that scholars who engage in this practice do not

merely change the names of papers to hide what they are doing. In closing, we should continue to reassess the purpose of

conferences, and to consider what we can do to change them to meet these purposes. The Organization of American Historians recently began a movement to reduce the number of papers that

are "read" at their conferences (Dichtl 2004). APSA's working groups and short courses are also recognitions of changing con ference needs and goals. Given the changes in the scholarly re ward structure and advances in technology, perhaps we need to reassess conference organization and delivery. This conversation should begin with a frank discussion of why we attend confer ences and how they can help meet the needs of today's scholar.

Notes * Thanks to Nelson Dometrius, Todd Collins, Gibbs Knotts, and Niall

Michelsen for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. 1. For instance, International Studies Quarterly received a 5.7 quality

ranking in 1973 (Giles and Wright 1975) and a 7.0 in 2002 (Garand and Giles 2003)

References Dichtl, John. 2004. "A Conference Revolution in the Making." Organization

of American Historians Newsletter. www.oah.org/pubs/nl/2004feb/ dichtl.html (November 30, 2007).

Garand, James C., and Micheal W. Giles. 2003. "Journals in the Discipline: A Report on a New Survey of American Political Scientists." PS: Politi cal Science and Politics 36 (April): 293-308.

Giles, Micheal W., and Gerald C. Wright. 1975. "Political Scientists' Evalu ations of Sixty-three Journals." PS: Political Science and Politics 8 (3): 254-6.

Gupta, Devashree, and Israel Waismel-Manor. 2006. "Network in Progress: A Conference Primer for Graduate Students." PS: Political Science and Politics 34 (July): 485-90.

Ryan, Jeffrey J., and Marijke Breuning. 1994. "Twisting Arms and Holding Hands: MA Students and Conference Participation." PS: Political Sci ence and Politics 27 (June): 256-9.

Van Cott, Donna Lee. 2005. "A Graduate Student's Guide to Publishing Scholarly Journal Articles." PS: Political Science and Politics 38 (October): 741-3.

Zorn, Christopher. 2000. "A Typology of Political Science Professional Meetings." Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C.

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