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Submitting to APA conferences?

In our August "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

A quick question: assuming one is a faculty at a top program, should they still spend time submitting (say) to APA, given that it is nontrivial to tailor a draft to the conference requirement and that maybe there isn't much benefit in presenting in such a conference? What do you think? Are there any unwritten rules? Thanks in advance! I am especially curious about the experience of such a person, but any thought is welcome.

I'm not sure there are any unwritten rules, but APAs seem to me to be good venues for exposing one's work to a broader audience than most other conferences, not to mention a good place to catch up with friends and colleagues, meet new people in the profession, etc. I also particularly like attending APAs to keep abreast of new work in the profession, particularly outside of my AOS. Most of the other conferences I go to are specialty conferences in my main areas of focus (ethics, political philosophy, etc.). I really like APAs because I can go to talks by people in a wide variety of other areas. However, I do have to confess that I have a hard time whittling down papers to 3,000-5,000 words to submit. While I understand why the APA has such short word-limits for submitted papers, it can be difficult to do!

But these are just my thoughts. What are yours?

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4 responses to “Submitting to APA conferences?”

  1. Daniel Weltman

    I don’t know about unwritten rules, and I’m not in America so I don’t go to the APA, but when I was in grad school my advisor, Dick Arneson, a pretty renowned guy at a pretty fancy program, still submitted stuff to the APA like anyone else (and got rejected sometimes). So that’s a bit of data to perhaps help sort things out. But my view is that unless you want to go you shouldn’t go, and even if I were in America I’m not sure I’d love going to the APA. I prefer smaller specialist conferences, especially pre-read conferences.

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  2. doctopus

    I’m hardly at a “top” program, but one of my grad school mentors taught me to use APA deadlines as a way to keep myself in the habit of drafting new papers. (The Central and Pacific are particularly good for this because their deadlines bookend the summer.) Whittling an existing paper down to 3,000 words can be challenging, but writing a new 3,000 word paper for the APA and then expanding that paper later has worked well for me.

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  3. historygrrrl

    This might be specific to my AOS as well as my own work habits, but I have honestly found it far more fruitful to submit to conferences in my specialty or sub-specialty that require only an abstract.
    If the abstract is accepted, then I have to write something before the conference – if it is not, I’ve lost very little time. In general, I also seem to get better feedback – and better develop my research network – at smaller conferences.
    This is not to discount the value of the APA. If you wanted to go anyway, I think it’s worthwhile. Similarly, if your university counts presentations as research activities (mine does not, and OP’s probably does not either) it can look good. I’ve just found that smaller conferences are a more economical use of time and money, if my primary goal is to write something for publication and expand my research program.

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  4. Michel

    Does your subfield have regular conferences? If so, those are more important. If not, then yes, the regularity of the APA conferences can help you build a network and expose your work. Remember that, for tenure, one of the criteria is (probably) your standing in the subfield.
    The key, though, is regular conference attendance. You want people in your subfield to recognize you immediately.

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