Do you need a certificate to validate your publication?

Question

Background: I got an acceptance at a conference and now need to register for it. They said that only the person who registers, gets the certificate and not all authors (we have 5 but only 2 primary authors).

Question: Is the publication in the proceedings (LNCS) alone sufficient to prove that you published the paper? Or does one need the certificate as well?

If required as to whom I am asking for, you can assume it to be a PhD (CS) admit panel in the US.

I am aware of this question: How to show proof of publication?. But my conference has no admit card associated with it.

Answer 1

Published conference proceedings suffice for proof of publication.

Answer 2

The language is very strange (not in the least because it ends in ", ok?") and I echo the concerns about whether this conference is reputable.

However, conference "attendance certificates" are sometimes required for visas or for reimbursement from your university. My impression is it's more common outside of the US. I'm not sure why a conference would want to limit certificates to just one person per submission, other than to reduce bureaucratic overhead.

If you don't know of any reason why you would need a certificate, you probably don't need one.

It's also possible this is language from when the conference was in-person, and wasn't removed or updated for COVID.

Answer 3

No, if a paper is published then all authors have "published" that paper. Certificates are, I think, a fairly rare thing and may have only an internal meaning for the conference or its organization. Perhaps it means free or reduced cost admission to the conference. They may be more common in some fields or with some conference series.

And since publication is public by its very nature, the "proof" of publication is in the published record itself. No external verification is needed.

And, it isn't outside the realm of possibility that the "certificate" is just something cute you can hang on the wall or show your mom.

In general, attending a conference, but not presenting, has no added benefit for your CV (beyond bragging rights, perhaps). But you can say on your CV that you had a paper published at the conference and/or that you presented a paper at the conference and/or that your paper was published in the proceedings and/or a subsequent journal associated with the conference. Others will judge the relative merits.

Answer 4

Anecdotal:

I work a bit on translational research and have attended conferences from mathematics to very applied measurement engineering. I found out that the more applied the conference is, i.e. the more industry oriented, with more non-academic attendees, the more likely they are to give certificates for stuff. Certificate of attendance, certificate of publication, certificate of speaker, etc. They tend to give you a nice paper, diploma style.

I was a big confused on about why, but I think it comes from industry dynamics. In non-academic culture, having these certificates may be helpful to argue about a promotion or add to your CV, as conferences are not standard work events.

So I think this is an artifact of zero importance in academia.

Answer 5

Since they say

... the paper will be published in the proceedings if someone presents it. The certificate will be given ...

it sounds to me like the certificate is proof of presentation, (which is required for publication). So it makes sense only to give it to the person who actually registered and presented.

Once the paper is published anyone will be able to see that it has been published.

Answer 6

I don't know the details for this particular conference, but this is pretty common for a lot of conferences that I attend.

The organizers want to make sure that somebody who wrote the paper actually attends to present it. If authors do not attend, it can cause a couple of problems for the conference organizers, 1) it messes up the schedule when nobody is there to present the paper, 2) if the hotel room counts are too low, it can be a big financial hit on the organizing committee. There was a period of time where we were getting a lot of papers from certain international countries, then nobody would show up to present the papers.

Once the conference is over, the certificate has no meaning. As long as the paper is in the proceedings, it is considered published.

Answer 7

Just to be clear about some versions of this issue: in the U.S., in mathematics, no conference I've ever seen "gives certificates". If one presents a paper or poster, everyone will simply believe you if/when you say so. Conceivably departmental travel-funding rules have become more fussy, but in my experience not quite needing a "certificate". Maybe some proof that you actually took the flight... which is not so hard to certify.

Apart from "certifying" things for funding, the issue of proving that one really did give a presentation at a conference... is something that is completely "on the honor system" in the U.S. these days. I've never asked for "proof". And, really, if a person were discovered to have lied about any such thing, they'd be ostracized... I can't even imagine anyone thinking to lie about such a thing...

But, yes, sure, other situations have other game-rules (as opposed to reflections of reality).

Answer 8

Different countries have different customs and so do different fields. This applies to the value of conference certificates. They are often just something that you can hang on your wall if you want to brag. Maybe if you get reimbursed for conference costs, someone would like a paper confirmation.

Independent of certificates, all authors have published (independent of certificates). In the US, graduate student admission committees trust claims about papers to be published because inventing a publication would be (in general) sanctioned with throwing a deceiving student out of the program. Besides, presumably a co-author would write one of the letter of reference.

Once the proceedings are in the printing stage and the electronic version available, any claim about publication is already verifiable. Google Scholar picks it up almost immediately. If LNCS refers to the Springer series, then, based on recent experience, Springer is very quick at processing the final versions of papers. Finally, most conferences have websites with lists of accepted papers that often appear within days of sending out acceptance letter. Once the program is finished, it usually gets published very quickly.

In conclusion, there are many simple ways to verify claims of published papers. There is a small window between the 'authors have received a letter of acceptance' and 'claims of authorship can be verified' that a certificate would not cover in any case. Thus, for admission purposes, certificates are useless.

Good luck with finding a good graduate program and do not worry about certificates.