1

I am working on some stuff for a paper. I have recently seen an advert for a conference calling for papers and I feel like I currently have enough stuff that I could submit it to this conference and get it published.

However, it looks as if the paper would be published in the 'conference proceedings' as part of a series by Springer. Does this mean that the publication would only be classed as a 'conference paper' and do conference papers really carry the same weight as journal publications? (It's worth mentioning that the paper would be peer-reviwed if I sent it for the proceedings of this conference). If not, my idea would be to wait until I have added more to what I am working on and then send it to a journal.

Edit: I am aware that there are other questions asking if a conference paper should be compared to a journal article. I am asking if in this case the publication can be listed as a journal article as it will be peer-reviewed by experts and published in Communications in Computer and Information Science, so I am wondering if this allows a work-around for me to class it as one of my journal articles. The link below provides more information: I would like to know if I can list it as a peer-reviewed journal paper or if I will have to call it a conference paper, as these are not the same to me.

https://www.springer.com/series/7899

Second edit: To make it clear the paper would be a physics paper on the subject of quantum mechanics and would only be published in CCIS as it represents a surprising application of a particular piece of computer software. My issue is that I don't want to see the paper as a novelty item when I have been thinking about and working on the physics going into it for years. The use of software in it is really just a matter of convenience as there is a bit where it it easier to use software to generate a numerical example illustrating the general theory I have been talking about in a concrete case.

Third edit: Turns out the publication could only be classed as a conference paper so I will add to what I have got and send it to a journal, as I don't regard a conference paper as being equivalent to a journal publication (or at least, not in physics).

Improve this question
5
  • 3
    Possible duplicate of Should a conference paper in a journal be considered a journal article? In addition, there have been several other questions here about conferences vs. journals. If this question doesn't answer yours I suspect another one will.
    – Bryan Krause ♦
    Jun 10, 2019 at 17:28
  • This would probably depend on who will be reading the CV. In CS there wouldn't be an issue, but if it is for Physics employment or similar it will be decided by physicists who may have different ideas. And, of course, you might think about two papers. One for the CS novelty issue and the other for the physics. Different stress based on the same basic ideas.
    – Buffy
    Jun 10, 2019 at 17:59
  • @Buffy My gut is telling me now to just leave this and develop the physics to send it to a physics journal, if I send it to this CS novelty thing I am going to have to emphasise the software I have used for the purpose of the conference and talk about when I have used it, maybe even include the code snippets I have used: as I view it as physics paper and not at all as a computer science paper I really don't want to do this as the software is of no importance to my physical arguments so I think I am going to hold fire for now.
    – Tom
    Jun 10, 2019 at 18:05
  • 1
    Sounds like a plan.
    – Buffy
    Jun 10, 2019 at 18:09
  • @Buffy I've checked and it's not classed as a journal so I would only be able to list it as a conference paper. Waste of time, I think what I have is better than that.
    – Tom
    Jun 10, 2019 at 20:43

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
5

The weight given to conference and journal publications is completely determined by field. In a few fields, such as CS, they have essentially equal weight and the vetting process is similar. This is partly due to the fact that the field itself is less mature and fast changing and many breakthroughs in subfields are first introduced at conferences.

In other fields this is quite different and journal publications may have much more weight than conferences - even if the conference paper is published in a proceedings.

So, it depends on your audience. You may need advice on this from someone in the field who represents that audience. For doctoral students the advisor is usually a good guide for such things.

And, of course, there are low-quality conferences just as there are low-quality journals. Beware.

Improve this answer
2
  • It might be worth mentioning that the place it would be mentioned 'Communications in Computer and Information Science' has a H-index of 40 in the category of Mathematics and Computer Science, although I am aware this might not really mean anything, but it does seem to be the case that 'Communications in Computer and Information Science' is a journal, but maybe not the best one or not the best or most relevant that I could be publishing in.
    – Tom
    Jun 10, 2019 at 18:29
  • 3
    I would not say that journals and conferences are equal in computer science. Conference are generally far more prestigious.
    – Thomas
    Jun 11, 2019 at 3:10

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .