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I have submitted a conference paper to an IEEE conference, which will be published in IEEE Xplore, once I have appropriately finished presenting this paper in either a lecture or poster setting (of which I was selected to do the latter). Most questions regarding self-plagiarism on the net are in the context of selecting snippets of text or figures from previous papers.

However, my question is, is it self-plagiarism to utilize key figures/phrases from the paper that I am presenting in my poster? As in, I am presenting research by poster that will later be published in a conference paper (which we needed to submit to get accepted to present at the conference). I have made figures and statements in this paper, which would be nice to use in the poster.

Must I start from scratch? Thanks.

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No, you don't need to start from scratch, and even that might still be self-plagiarism. The proper way is to cite the paper even if it is "to appear". For a slide presentation, a slide at the end pointing out that the figures come from ... would be enough. It needn't be intrusive. For a literal poster, a footnote at the bottom.

The way to avoid all kinds of plagiarism is to cite. "Paraphrasing" doesn't do the job since plagiarism is about ideas, not their literal expression. If the source is clear and a reader/viewer has a way to obtain the original then you are safe.

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  • I believe in my IEEE conference, the paper is made available in Xplore after the presentation is given -- does this satisfy your criteria of "reader/viewer has a way to obtain the original"? This is my first time presenting a technical paper, I'm not sure if the paper is distributed during or before the presentation. Otherwise, what you said makes total sense. Thank you for your feedback.
    – arealguru
    Mar 26, 2021 at 22:55
  • Yes, that is fine. It is even fine if there might be some time delay in getting the "original" as in works that are "to appear". I've assumed that it is certain that the paper will, in fact, be published.
    – Buffy
    Mar 26, 2021 at 22:59
  • All the IEEE conferences I’ve been involved with have made the papers available to attendees some time before the conference, or at least on arrival.
    – RLH
    Mar 27, 2021 at 1:51
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    Part of "self-plagiarism" isn't plagiarism at all, but the issue of getting double credit for the same work. The conference paper and the actual presentation at that conference doesn't give two pieces of credit, so that's not an issue here. Mar 27, 2021 at 3:46

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