Can I post slides (but not a paper) on my website for a work in progress?

Question

I've done a significant amount of work on a research project and have results that I'm ready to present.  I do not, however, have a paper written yet, and I don't think I will be able to have one written by the time employers start looking at my application materials.  Is it reasonable for me to post on my website a completed presentation that I would feel comfortable giving as a seminar?

Answer 1

Yes—but do put "preliminary and incomplete" in small type at the bottom of every slide...

Answer 2

This is not a good situation to be in. If you have not already done so, have a frank conversation with your advisor as to whether you should be on the market this year. If the answer is yes, be sure you have a sense from your advisor as to what's a reasonable target range.

Comments

Sorry, I should have been more explicit - This isn't my job market paper.  My job market paper is ready to be submitted, and I have one other paper that's been conditionally accepted at a journal.  This is a third project.

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Totally different then.

I would probably recommend just posting an abstract. You want to call attention to your strengths (the completed work) without dilution.

PS: Congrats on getting yourself into an enviable position for the market!

Answer 3

Frankly this is further along than most work in progress studies which are often just an idea.   

You can leave it as an abstract or maybe put up the slides.   The slides to me seem weird just because I haven't seen anybody else do it.   

Do you have a preliminary draft??

Answer 4

Speaking as someone on the demand side: If someone claims that they have some substantial amount of work done (such as a paper close to completion) I like to see proof of that. Having completed and polished slides up is better evidence than just posting an abstract. I have seen multiple people incl. from top universities putting slides up, and it does not seem to have hurt them.

Answer 5

The advice we give in Stanford to JMCs is for papers (that are not your JMP) as follows: first best is to post a paper, second best if you don't have a paper post slides, and third best if you don't have slides at least post an abstract. Posting just titles with nothing else is not advised as it's cheap talk. Also ideally for a 6th year student you should obviously have a JMP plus ideally 2 to 5 other projects. At least two to show some activity and at most 5 work in progress as otherwise you look like you cannot finish paper - published papers would not count in this.

For you JMP you need to post a draft by the time the market starts, which is late October (schools start looking at candidates then).

Comments

WEEconomist is giving good advice.  You don't want to post a very early draft paper, but you need to show that you've really got a paper in progress. Slides are a good way to do that, with a note on an early slide that the draft is not ready yet. Also, it's a good discipline to make slides even for a work in progress, even if you don't ever use them for a presentation, because it orgnizes your thoughts and makes you look at it like an outsider would.

Answer 6

I feel most of the answers are directed at the job market, but I would like to offer my opinion to it in general. For scholastic work, sharing work in progress is essential to improve the quality of the work and also to disseminate it in the community (peer-reviewed work is just one venue to disseminating your work). As with any work, if the results are preliminary or haven't been rigorously vetted, I would include that as a disclosure. While there might be career concerns and cheap talk issues, hopefully the main goal is to contribute to the community and that takes priority. The main consideration should be: "can people learn and profit from this work through through the slides?"