Conference papers vs journal publications: Which is the better publication route?

by Sushree Shailani Suman

In course of their research, academicians often need to interact and exchange views with their colleagues to provide a firmer ground for their inferences. Such meetings help them debate their research topic with other like-minded participants and then assimilate the information that is presented through audio-visual media to produce a more conclusive finding. Therefore, seminars and colloquia are an essential part in the growth of any research. Often the proceedings of such meetings are recorded in the form of a collection of papers that were presented during the event.On the other hand, a journal publishes research work, either on the web or as printed copies, after a rigorous process of review and a long approval cycle. However, once published in a reputed journal, your paper has an audience that you would otherwise have never had access to.

Why opt for conferences?

Conference proceedings have several advantages for a researcher. This is because conferences:

– Give a platform for interaction among research scholars who share a common interest.

– Have a faster review process and generate a faster feedback.

– Are often characterized by short presentations, so they manage to present the aim of the research clearly without consuming too much time.

– Include discussions sessions, which encourages exchange of views and ideas on the presentations.

– Allow interaction of scholars from all over the world who are engaged in the same or allied research fields.

– Have a predictable and time-bound review time.

– Help the presentations to be properly archived for reference in similar events held elsewhere on related research topics.

– Involve sponsors, who allure researchers with publishing credits and personal and professional benefits for attending the conference.

– Have high visibility and often leave a greater impact on the academic fraternity.

– Mainly focus on recent researches or up-to-date academic endeavors, unlike a journal that often takes a long time to finally publish a research.

Demerits of a conference publication

On the flip side, conferences have the following drawbacks:

– The review process is often superficial or cursory, i.e., there is no second round of reviewing.

– They have a low acceptance rate.

– The feedback from the research fraternity may be lukewarm compared to a publication in a journal.

– Economies of scale work against good quality publications because the publication is one of many expense heads for the organizers. Therefore, the production quality often leaves much to be desired.

Why opt for a journal publication?

A publication in a reputed journal presents the following advantages for the researcher:

– Research papers that are published in journals are thoroughly peer reviewed, including multiple review phases.

– The quality of research published in a journal is of a high standard.

– Journal publications carry deep analysis of a research work.

– Useful feedback is received from the reviewers, which help bring about substantive changes in the paper to improve the research analysis.

– Word and page limits are longer in the case of journals. This gives more scope to the researcher to express his or her thoughts and interpretations.

– A journal gives a chance to authors to revise their work based on the feedback and then re-submit it for further review and publication.

– Conference papers are never considered the ultimate in publishing a research. Often, conference papers can be converted to journal papers and published in reputed journals with a high impact factor.

Demerits of journal publications

There are also few demerits of journal publications. These include:

– The publication process is time-consuming.

– Due to such delays, the research topic might get outdated.

– Selection of journals is a difficult task. Sometimes, a good research is published in a sub-standard journal.

Both these routes to publication have their pros and cons. It must also be noted that conference proceedings and journal publications are not mutually exclusive; a situation may arise where one form of a research work might be published in the conference proceedings and another, perhaps more developed, form might be published in a journal. Therefore, for a more diverse and in-depth research output, both conference proceedings and journal publications need to play a significant part.