Evaluating features of scientific conferences: A call for improvements

Sarvenaz Sarabipour; Benjamin Schwessinger; Fiona N. Mumoki; Aneth D. Mwakilili; Aziz Khan; Humberto J. Debat; Pablo J. Sáez; Samantha Seah; Tomislav Mestrovic

Science is a global endeavour and we as scientists have the responsibility to make conferences more affordable, environmentally sustainable, and accessible to researchers constrained by geographical location, economics, personal circumstances or visa restrictions. In an increasingly interconnected world facilitated by technological advancements in . CC-BY 4.0 International license author/funder. It is made available under a The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.02.022079 doi: bioRxiv preprint communication, alternatives have been explored to replace the in-person experience that is unattainable for many researchers, in particular early career researchers, and environmentally unsustainable for our planet. Technological advances provide the unique and timely opportunity to reform scientific conferences. Video-and virtual-conferencing of talks and poster presentations can dramatically enhance conference accessibility and improve the experience for all. Widespread digitization of conferences will increase global accessibility to knowledge during and after conferences, by increasing the diversity of speakers who are restricted in travel due to personal or political reasons and will also enable greater democratisation of science -equalising for differences between researchers of lower funding and prominence. Digital conferences will further substantially reduce the environmental impact of these meetings as they achieve carbon neutrality. By reducing our conference related carbon footprint, our scientific communities can contribute meaningfully to the global goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The prevalence and continuity of the issues associated with scientific meetings in their current form calls for all researchers, their institutions, the scientific societies, and funders to take initiative to recognize the problems, demand change, and actively participate in reorganizing national and international scientific conferences. One can imagine the new reality where streamed and recorded conference talks will become a new integral component of the global knowledge economy. Broader access to the latest scientific developments will further accelerate knowledge gain and sharing of ideas and innovation everywhere, leading to better use of researchers' time and funds. This future will be more beneficial for science and the broader public. It will be necessary to radically reassess the exact purpose of scientific meetings and to recraft the conference format for widespread digital access so that diverse researchers can attend and build the relationships that are essential for success in science. Science aspires to contribute to the solutions of humanity's greatest challenges and hence we should responsibly lead by example to create more open, inclusive and kinder research environments as we advance knowledge.