Q: Can I submit a course report as a conference paper - or will it be plagiarism?

It’s great that you know about some aspects of publication and publication ethics, such as similarity and plagiarism. So, let’s talk about the aspects that are less familiar. :-) (Incidentally, there’s one aspect we seem to be unfamiliar with: ‘canvas.’ Not sure if you are referring to a business model canvas tool or something else.)

Coming to your query, what you are considering is uncommon. Most researchers present only preliminary findings at a conference. Based on the inputs and feedback they receive at the conference, they develop a full-fledged paper, which they then submit to a journal. For the same reason, conference submissions are usually in the form of an abstract.

You are planning to proceed in the exact opposite manner. You have completed your research, written the paper on it, and published it in your university’s repository – and are now planning to present this at a conference. This is why the similarity percent has turned out to be 100% (also meaning that your university’s repository is not restricted access).

If you still plan to proceed as determined, you will need to do a couple of things.

One, you will need to modify the contents and perhaps even the focus of your paper. Maybe you can concentrate on one specific part of your research that is unique or different. You can then build the conference presentation around this. Accordingly, you will need to revise the abstract or even write a whole new abstract.

In case the conference wishes to publish your presentation as part of the conference proceedings, the paper you submit to them might need to be significantly different in content from your university paper. This would be possible to some extent if you modify the focus of your paper. Additionally, you will need to change/modify/revise the title (to avoid a clash of titles with the university paper). A thumb rule for the amount of changes to make would be 30% (but note that this figure is more relevant for journal articles).

Basically, it all depends on whether you are able to find a new focus from the existing paper. If not, unfortunately, you may need to embark on an entirely new study altogether. This call you’ll need to take based on how critical the conference presentation is to you.

Additionally, it would help to check this matter both with the conference organizers and your university professor. The university may have very clear guidelines on publishing/presenting university research externally – and it may all come down to those guidelines.

Hope that helps. For more information around presenting research at conferences and to journals, you may refer to these related queries:

• What are the basic rules for submitting the same research to a conference and a journal?
• Can I present my paper that has been accepted by a journal at a conference?
• Is it acceptable to publish a conference abstract and an article based on it in two different journals?

All the best for your next steps!