Should I include conference abstracts in my CV?

[zhtmahtm]

Hi all,

 

So I was organizing my CV for grad school application this fall, and I wasn't sure if I should include conference abstracts in my CV.

I don't have any paper published, I just have two abstracts for different national conferences, but they aren't 'published' in journals etc., so I wasn't sure if it would be a good idea to include those in my CV or not.

 

Any suggestions?

[eeee1923]

No, not on your CV. You would usually just include the title of the work you presented at the conference. If the application has the option for additional documents then you could include the conference abstracts. Keep your CV at no more than 3 pages (at this point in your career that is sufficient).

[TakeruK]

Do you mean literally write out the entire abstract, or list the abstract as a bibliographical reference? I agree with eteshoe--you should not include the actual text of your abstract in your CV. But you should definitely reference it! In the astronomical fields, all of our major conferences index our talk and poster abstracts online, so if you properly reference/cite it in your "publications list" then an interested reader can look it up and read it.

 

I say "publications list" but usually people might title it something like "Publications and Presentations" or have separate subheadings for peer-reviewed work vs. conference abstracts etc. 

 

One tip though: If you presented the same work at many many conferences, then I would only include it once or twice (pick the most prestigious ones). I usually title my section "Selected Presentations" and for each work I presented, I only list the highest impact presentation I gave. One exception is that if you are an undergraduate, it is normal to only have 1 or 2 or 3 presentations total, and even if they are all the same work, I would list all of them (up to 3) to show that you have decent experience talking about your work. But once this list starts growing, you would want to start pruning it so the best items can shine

[Eigen]

Adding onto what TakeruK says, I have a section of my CV titled "Publications" and under that have sub-headings for peer reviewed publications, presentations, and posters.

 

At some point, if items are "solid" you never really prune them off of a CV- you just get longer and longer.

 

If what you're asking is should you list the abstract as a "publication" when you're already listing the presentation, I would say no, even when the abstract is published in proceedings (as is common in my field).

[zhtmahtm]

Takeruk - Yes, I meant listing the abstracts as "bibliographical references".

Eigen - Do you mean that I shouldn't list the abstracts both as "publication" and "presentation", but list as only one of them?

 

Thanks for the advice everyone

[TakeruK]

Eigen - Do you mean that I shouldn't list the abstracts both as "publication" and "presentation", but list as only one of them?

 

Thanks for the advice everyone

 

I'm not Eigen, but my field (planetary science) is close to yours so I thought I would answer anyways!

 

I agree with Eigen that you should not list it twice. The usual format for listing presentations include the date of the conference, and the published proceedings also include the date, so it's really redundant to list it twice. The way I do it is:

 

1. If it's a conference with published proceedings that are collected after the meeting, then I would list it as a (non peer reviewed) publication (or a conference proceedings if you have a section for that separate from journal articles) and not a presentation. For example, I've been to some meetings where all oral and poster presenters are then asked to provide a 2-4 page item to be published in the published proceedings. Usually in this case, the organizers collect hand written questions for the presenter from the audience after each talk and the presenter includes some of these questions and their answers in the published proceedings. These are still not peer reviewed though, only editorial review. **Sometimes these published proceedings books take about a year to come out after the meeting, so it usually appears as a presentation in my CV until the proceedings are published.

 

2. If it's a conference that simply publishes the abstracts online (abstracts you wrote when you submitted your presentation prior to the conference), then I would list it as a presentation. I don't have separate sections for oral vs. posters like Eigen does, but I just indicate the type of presentation in the bibliographic entry. 

[Eigen]

I started splitting mine out when I got more than about 7 of each type, mostly because it seemed to read easier. 

 

Else, while TakeruK is not me, I completely agree with their answer. 

[zhtmahtm]

Ahh ok. Thank you guys so much