Should I mention (double-blind) submitted conference paper in CV?

Question

I am from computer science field specifically from Computer Vision field. I need suggestion if I should list my paper which I submitted but not yet got any acceptance/rejection. I am more confused due to the fact that the conference's review process is double blind. I would not include that in my CV, but true to say my CV is not so rich yet with publications.

Answer 1

The biggest factor here is the stage of your career. If you're a grad student, for whom a single submitted paper might be a very large fraction of your research output. it's OK to mention it in a CV, provided you're upfront about its submitted status. However, beyond that it's counterproductive, and should be avoided.

Answer 2

My experience is that "yes, it can be helpful", especially if you have good reasons to think that the papers could be accepted.

When applying to both of my postdoc positions I mentioned submitted papers in my CV. It just happened that these yet-unpublished papers were more relevant to what the positions were looking for, compared with the rest of my publications. The admission committees were apparently interested in these submitted-only papers, and had questions about them either during the interview or at some point during the admission process. In one case I proactively emailed the responsible faculty member to notify him that the paper was accepted (we had had an email exchange before, so it felt natural to update him). Overall, I think that having these papers visible in my CV helped me to get the positions.

A couple of obvious caveats:

1. Make sure the submitted-only papers are very cleary distinguishable from the rest; put them in a different section at best.
2. If the papers end up being rejected before you have the admission interview, having them may reflect on you negatively.

Answer 3

No, submitted conference papers do not go on a CV (irrespective of the review process). To the extent that getting a paper accepted at a competitive conference is valuable, that value comes from being accepted. Anyone can, after all, submit a paper to any conference or journal.

You can list your paper under an In Progress section. This is particularly valuable when you have a version of the paper available that you can link to. Without a link to a paper, it's difficult to guess what stage the project is in, but it can still be a good way to show what you are working on if you don't yet have related publications.

Answer 4

Applying for jobs is the one time that listing submitted papers (or grants) may make sense. You may more effectively communicate who you are, and also who you see yourself becoming, including who you are working with. That could be useful to the committee.

If you choose this strategy very clearly flag it. I would preface the item by unpublished (bold face) and follow it by "under review by [journal/conference name]," "to be submitted to [name]", or even, just "in prep". I would also clearly state in the cover letter that I'd taken the unusual step of including unpublished papers and why (e.g. to show that I was working on moving into the areas of interest to the committee, or that would qualify me for the recommended criteria for the position.) I'd also say when I expected to learn about whether the papers were accepted, so that they could ask about that in the interview or what not.

It's good that you worry about the double-blind review process, but a job is IMO more important than a single publication, so it's worth risking having to resubmit it somewhere. It's probably fairly unlikely your CV will be seen by one of your reviewers (unless you're applying into the lab of someone who might review it).

What you might worry about more is whether the committee will believe you (there's no way to verify claimed in-progress publications), or whether they do not think it's right to include unpublished papers. Most committees like as much information as possible, but some view anything deviant as suspicious. As with any job application question you should always ask the person named in the advertisement for "informal queries" about this sort of thing. That's exactly what they are listed for.

Also, contacting the assigned contact point with a sincere question improves the chances they will notice your CV. If nothing else, they know you can follow instructions and are communicative, both important skills in academia.

Answer 5

Yes, you can. But you have to be more careful.

In my CV, I have a separate sub-section under Publication, called "Pre-prints/Working Papers". In which I have added all my submitted papers.

For each submitted paper, I add the author name(s), title of the paper, and instead of the conference name, I just mention "Submitted to major CS/ML/CV conference, under review.