Will I be regarded as academic dishonest if I submit one paper to a conference as well as a journal?

Question

I finished and submitted one paper (journal version) several months ago. My mentor suggested to me to submit a shortened version of the original paper to a conference. The conference version is almost the same as the journal version, except that some detailed mathematical proofs are omitted. But we cross-cited these two papers and told the reviewers of the conference paper that the journal version was under review.

Now both the journal and the conference have accepted my paper. I wonder whether there will be any problem if I choose to publish these two papers in a journal and a conference at the same time.

Furthermore, now I am applying for a PhD degree. If I list these two papers on my resume, will I be regarded as academic dishonest and be rejected?

Answer 1

Publishing a shorter conference version and a longer journal version of the same article is common practice in at least one discipline I am familiar with (computer science) and maybe in others. So that by itself is not an offense. Keep in mind that conference and journal publications are philosophically different and serve somewhat different purposes:

• Publishing in a conference proceedings is a quick way to get your research published. And of course you also get to attend the conference and speak about your work to people working in your area. Hence in rapidly moving fields this is the standard venue for publishing exciting new research. However, proceedings papers have strict length limitations so one cannot include as many details as in a journal article. And most importantly, the review process for conference publications is faster and usually not as strict as for journal articles. Many people consider conference publications not to be proper peer-reviewed publications, and when citing a result from such a publication one must be aware of a very real possibility that the result has not undergone the fullest scrutiny as to its correctness and may be wrong. (Of course this possibility also exists in journal publications, but to a lesser extent.)
• Publishing in a journal takes a lot longer for the review and publication process, but there are fewer or no space limitations, and the review is a proper peer review that (ideally, though not always in practice) provides strict assurance that the results of your paper have been checked and are correct (or use proper scientific methodology and are likely to be replicable, in experimental sciences).

Because of these differences, in a field like CS one common practice is to submit a short and quick version of your paper to a conference to get the ideas out in front of their intended audience as quickly as possible, and then to follow up later with a longer, more detailed, version of the results, and to submit that to a journal for strict peer-review certification and the accompanying credibility and prestige.

With regards to your question, I think there are two potential pitfalls you need to beware of in your specific situation:

1. It sounds like the journal editors are unaware that you concurrently submitted a short version of the paper to a conference. Since you made the conference submission after the journal submission (which is the opposite of the usual order of doing things, as someone else pointed out), there is a possibility that you are violating the journal's submission policy. I suggest making very sure that that is not the case, and if in doubt contacting the journal editors to inform them of what you did and ask if it's okay. There is nothing shameful or dishonorable about making such an inquiry - you are trying to do the right so it makes perfect sense to ask such questions.

2. Even if you verify that with both submissions you did everything by the book and did not break any rules, NEVER claim or make a representation in your CV or publication list that the two versions are different publications. That in my opinion would expose you to serious criticism of dishonesty and resume-padding. Benoit Kloeckner's answer gives a good explanation of the proper way to cite the two versions by including both in the same entry in your publication list.

The bottom line is that in some areas it is acceptable to publish two versions of the same article, one in a journal and one in a conference proceedings. I should add that in my opinion doing so is also of questionable value, unless you are in a discipline where this is the standard practice for publishing for the reasons I listed above. You will not get, and should not try to get, double credit for publishing the same material twice.

Answer 2

The issue of duplicate publication concerning conference and journal versions of similar papers is a difficult one. What is acceptable to do and what not depends highly on the field and maybe even individual venues. Of course it also depends on the degree of overlap between the two papers.

Whenever you plan to reuse some content in another publication, be sure to make the duplicate publication transparent by stating the other paper in the cover letter, and citing it from within the paper. In general, it will be required that the later paper goes beyond the results of the first paper, and it is important to point out how it does that both in the cover letter and the paper itself.

In your case, from the conference's side it's probably fine since you informed the reviewers about the duplicate publication and they obviously had no objections. However, since the journal paper was not yet accepted, you should have at least checked their guidelines on duplicate publication, or better verify with your handling editor that it is fine to submit a shortened conference version. Maybe you can still do that now, and offer the journal editor to withdraw your conference paper if the duplicate publication in that case is against their guidelines.

Answer 3

Concerning the resume question, I'd suggest presenting the papers as one item, e.g.

1. Fancy Journal Paper, Journal A (2015) (a conference version has been published in Conf B (2014))

2. Truly different paper, Journal B (2016)

or giving the conference version its own item, numbered 1', or anything similar which makes it clear you are not trying to sell twice the same work as CV lines.

As all other advices, this may be more or less compatible with the habits in your field, you should get more specific advice IRL.