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

Scientific conferences provide a platform for researchers to share and discuss research findings, exchange ideas and insights, and network for career development. Organizing inclusive and useful scientific meetings is a service to the research community and requires passion, dedication, considerable time and thoughtful planning. While the size of the scientific workforce and the number of national and international conferences has increased dramatically globally in most scientific disciplines (1) (2) (3) (4) , opportunities to travel to present research at these meetings are still not available to many researchers (5) (6) (7) . After over 180 years, most conferences are held in person, are too cost-prohibitive to attend and not geographically accessible for many researchers, particularly early career researchers, researchers from young labs, low to middle income countries and junior principal investigators (PIs) (Figures 1, S1 ) (8) . Furthermore, despite the exhausting travel, the experience of presenting at meetings for early career researchers (ECRs) and minorities who attend has not improved appreciably (9) (10) (11) . Several large conferences have implemented communityoriented sessions supporting more diverse groups of attendees (8) . Owing to the increasing number and size of scientific meetings, conferences held in person also contribute to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels and thus to climate change, which has implications for the research community and beyond. Scientific conferences generate multi-billion dollar expenditures (12, 13) , feeding business ecosystems that prey on national and international research and development budgets. The events industry describes billion dollar activity, but beyond personal value to some participants, the external value of conferences in their current format for the scientific community is seldom measurable. There is a need to discuss whether the status quo of academic meetings and resource allocation is efficient, equitable and environmentally sustainable. When it comes to improving conferences, the question is not "is it possible?" but rather "are we as scientists willing to do it before we have run out of options?". Here we examine 270 academic conferences in various disciplines for their offered features, highlight key ongoing issues (8) (Figures 1-2 , Tables S2-S11) and discuss a set of key considerations and steps to improve these gatherings.