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[readandwept]

I'm (of course) procrastinating on the conference paper I should be writing by updating my CV. Question:

My coauthor and I attended a fairly prestigious conference where she presented our paper. Do I list this on my CV (with a note that I was not the presenter?) or leave it off?

[larryc]

Were you listed on the conference program? If so, yes. If not, no.

[imawakenow]

If you're a co-author, then you list the paper with proper author order in a section titled something like "Peer-reviewed papers and presentations." It's immaterial who got up in front of the room to present the paper.

[svenc]

I think it does matter who presented the paper, but agree that both can go on the CV.  I personally list my presentations on my CV separately from co-authored work presented by others.  It seems somewhat less than truthful to me to list presentations at conferences I didn't even attend, and may not have had any real input into the presentation materials, on equal footing with things I prepared and presented myself.  

On my own CV, I have a "Presentations" section with subheaders that include invited presentations that I gave, refereed presentations that I gave, presentations given by co-authors, poster presentations, and other conference participation (which captures discussant activity, etc.).

This also may be somewhat discipline specific.  For example, in disciplines where co-authorship is frequent and easily achieved, one could quickly rack up dozens of "ghost" presentation entries for conferences where one never was in the room.  In any case, you may wish to reveal your field and see if you get more useful answers.

[helpful]

If you were at the session, I would include it with the co-author as first author. Many conferences, for reasons of time constraints, only allow one author to present.

If this is discipline specific, it shouldn't be. If you worked on the paper together, then you should get credit.

[readandwept]

Hmm. My field is sociology. I did appear in the program, was present in the room, and helped to put together the presentation. I do feel, though, that this is different from being in the front of the room; I didn't answer the questions, and even though I helped assemble the materials, I probably didn't have to be as comfortable with them as if I were the one presenting them.

I think I like svenc's suggestion the best, except that I have so little on my CV, it seems a bit silly to have lots of different sections with only one or two things in each one. So I'm still uncertain what to do.

[offthemarket]

It's anambiguous.  You're an author.  It goes on the CV.

If you were the first author but did not present, then perhaps - maybe - it would require clarification.

[helpful]

Hmm. My field is sociology. I did appear in the program, was present in the room, and helped to put together the presentation. I do feel, though, that this is different from being in the front of the room; I didn't answer the questions, and even though I helped assemble the materials, I probably didn't have to be as comfortable with them as if I were the one presenting them.

I think I like svenc's suggestion the best, except that I have so little on my CV, it seems a bit silly to have lots of different sections with only one or two things in each one. So I'm still uncertain what to do.

There is something wrong with conference organizers not allowing all of you on the stage when you all participated in putting together the presentation. At least you would get recognition  in public for this, and could answer one or two of the questions.

[scampster]

Hmm. My field is sociology. I did appear in the program, was present in the room, and helped to put together the presentation. I do feel, though, that this is different from being in the front of the room; I didn't answer the questions, and even though I helped assemble the materials, I probably didn't have to be as comfortable with them as if I were the one presenting them.

I think I like svenc's suggestion the best, except that I have so little on my CV, it seems a bit silly to have lots of different sections with only one or two things in each one. So I'm still uncertain what to do.

There is something wrong with conference organizers not allowing all of you on the stage when you all participated in putting together the presentation. At least you would get recognition  in public for this, and could answer one or two of the questions.

Does this happen in your field? Or any field? I'm genuinely curious...

[galactic_hedgehog]

Hmm. My field is sociology. I did appear in the program, was present in the room, and helped to put together the presentation. I do feel, though, that this is different from being in the front of the room; I didn't answer the questions, and even though I helped assemble the materials, I probably didn't have to be as comfortable with them as if I were the one presenting them.

I think I like svenc's suggestion the best, except that I have so little on my CV, it seems a bit silly to have lots of different sections with only one or two things in each one. So I'm still uncertain what to do.

There is something wrong with conference organizers not allowing all of you on the stage when you all participated in putting together the presentation. At least you would get recognition  in public for this, and could answer one or two of the questions.

Does this happen in your field? Or any field? I'm genuinely curious...

In my science-like field, all authors are listed and acknowledged when the presentation is introduced (if oral) and on the presentation itself.  It doesn't matter if the co-authors are present or not.  If they are, they sometimes answers questions during an oral session if, 1) the speaker can't answer themselves (usually in the case of a grad student) and 2) if there's time for questions.  If the presentation is a poster, if the co-authors are present, it's usually expected that they put some time in in front of the poster.

[scampster]

Hmm. My field is sociology. I did appear in the program, was present in the room, and helped to put together the presentation. I do feel, though, that this is different from being in the front of the room; I didn't answer the questions, and even though I helped assemble the materials, I probably didn't have to be as comfortable with them as if I were the one presenting them.

I think I like svenc's suggestion the best, except that I have so little on my CV, it seems a bit silly to have lots of different sections with only one or two things in each one. So I'm still uncertain what to do.

There is something wrong with conference organizers not allowing all of you on the stage when you all participated in putting together the presentation. At least you would get recognition  in public for this, and could answer one or two of the questions.

Does this happen in your field? Or any field? I'm genuinely curious...

In my science-like field, all authors are listed and acknowledged when the presentation is introduced (if oral) and on the presentation itself.  It doesn't matter if the co-authors are present or not.  If they are, they sometimes answers questions during an oral session if, 1) the speaker can't answer themselves (usually in the case of a grad student) and 2) if there's time for questions.  If the presentation is a poster, if the co-authors are present, it's usually expected that they put some time in in front of the poster.

But have you ever seen co-authors up on stage with the presenter to answer questions? Not surprisingly, what you describe is my expectation for co-author participation. But then again, we're all science-y and sh!t and having five co-authors on a presentation isn't rare.

[galactic_hedgehog]

Hmm. My field is sociology. I did appear in the program, was present in the room, and helped to put together the presentation. I do feel, though, that this is different from being in the front of the room; I didn't answer the questions, and even though I helped assemble the materials, I probably didn't have to be as comfortable with them as if I were the one presenting them.

I think I like svenc's suggestion the best, except that I have so little on my CV, it seems a bit silly to have lots of different sections with only one or two things in each one. So I'm still uncertain what to do.

There is something wrong with conference organizers not allowing all of you on the stage when you all participated in putting together the presentation. At least you would get recognition  in public for this, and could answer one or two of the questions.

Does this happen in your field? Or any field? I'm genuinely curious...

In my science-like field, all authors are listed and acknowledged when the presentation is introduced (if oral) and on the presentation itself.  It doesn't matter if the co-authors are present or not.  If they are, they sometimes answers questions during an oral session if, 1) the speaker can't answer themselves (usually in the case of a grad student) and 2) if there's time for questions.  If the presentation is a poster, if the co-authors are present, it's usually expected that they put some time in in front of the poster.

But have you ever seen co-authors up on stage with the presenter to answer questions? Not surprisingly, what you describe is my expectation for co-author participation. But then again, we're all science-y and sh!t and having five co-authors on a presentation isn't rare.

Not "on-stage," 'cause the only people up at the front of the room are the presenter and the session chairs (we don't have panels), but, like I said, I have seen, on occasion, a co-author stand-up in the audience to answer something. 

[msparticularity]

In my field(s), conference submissions are peer-reviewed, so co-authorship of a work that is accepted for a conference is a worthy scholarly contribution--as long as the presentation actually does happen. The presentation itself is, in some ways, less significant since it's typically just a 10-15 minute tour of the highlights of the paper.

Also in my field, the conference-paper-to-journal-article transformation is not necessarily just a matter of clarification and editing; they are often quite different pieces--again reinforcing the equal contributions of all authors, not just the one(s) who happen(s) to do the verbal presentation at the conference.