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I would like to submit an abstract for a poster presentation, I'm just worried that if I tell my supervisor before submitting, she might say I shouldn't do it, because she rarely wants me to be away from the office. So I was thinking on submitting the abstract and once I'm accepted telling her I've been selected for presenting at that conference. What do you think about it? Would this be a good strategy for attending a conference when having a strict and closed minded supervisor?

P.S. Our research is not about any kind of product or patent we're developing for a company, so no privacy issues apply in there.

Yes you could.

I'd strongly suggest you not do it.

Your supervisor has a lot of power over you - they aren't someone you want to upset.

It is unfortunate that your supervisor is not supportive of you trying to seek out conferences to present at, but you should address that issue with them rather than try to go behind their back. I would suggest trying to find another supervisor before I would suggest trying to undermine the authority of your current supervisor: there just aren't enough positives for you on that path.

Note that if your supervisor deserves authorship on your work, either omitting their name as an author or submitting without the approval of someone listed as an author could be considered academic misconduct. In some fields, authorship by only a student without their supervisor is common, but if you aren't in one of those fields you should be especially careful.

I would recommend the opposite of the answer of Brian Krause unless you have explicitly been told in the past not to submit things. You aren't going behind her back, you are just being professional. It seems to me to be a mistake only to try to counter explicit instructions.

I'm assuming, of course, that the work is yours alone and that shared authorship is not an issue for this work.

However, there are two other issues. One is the payment of conference fees and travel expenses. You can't really expect her to cover these unless she has approved of them in advance. The other is how to deal with the time you will spend away. If others depend on your presence, say in a lab, it could be disruptive.

I would suggest that you submit, but expect that you might not be able to actually attend. Sometimes that can be worked out with the conference committee and sometimes the author has to withdraw, which can be a bit embarrassing.

But it seems a mistake to me to make a decision based on what she might do. Just be prepared for what she does and to accept final decisions if necessary.

I fail to see how logistically this can be done. If her name is on it, the submission will usually assume all authors agreed on the final version. She will get an e-mail and find out that you faked her approval.

If the work does not have her name on it, then she can be right not to give you paid leaves to present it. In that case, pay for yourself and spend your day offs to attend it. Think of it as a workation, learning tour, etc.

Another possibility is to apply for travel scholarship. These are usually a sign of approval from the organization on the work's quality and that may push her closer to saying yes.

More importantly, submitting an abstract behind her does not address the root cause that she does not want you to be absent. Perhaps start from there, during annual review or periodic meetings, list "going to a conference" as a goal and start the negotiation there. List possible "win-win" for you and her (the research team.) Express firm interests and ask for guidance. Be upfront about if you need her grant to support you or you'll pay, etc. Perhaps she was worried about funding. You may also suggest attending local conferences to cut costs, or remote meetings to make sure you're not missing important affairs at the base.