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Together Alone: Going Online during COVID-19 Is Changing Scientific Conferences

Author

Listed:
  • Heather J. Bray

    (School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth 6009, Australia
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Jennifer Stone

    (School of Population and Global Health, University of Western Australia, Perth 6009, Australia
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Lillith Litchfield

    (School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth 6009, Australia)

  • Kara L. Britt

    (Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne 3000, Australia)

  • John L. Hopper

    (Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne 3051, Australia)

  • Wendy V. Ingman

    (Discipline of Surgery, Adelaide Medical School and Robinson Research Institute, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woodville 5011, Australia)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic caused many scientific conferences to move online, posing a great challenge for scientific communication. This change offers potential advantages and disadvantages for inclusion, diversity, and scientific advancement. Here, we analyse participants’ experiences of the Why Study Mammographic Density? Conference to explore some of these issues and identify key points of contention between different stakeholders. We found that while increasing participant diversity is facilitated by online conferencing, if the participants cannot interact informally with each other, there is value which is lost. In returning to in-person conferences, it will be important not to “shut the door” on those whose participation was enabled by the online format.

Suggested Citation

  • Heather J. Bray & Jennifer Stone & Lillith Litchfield & Kara L. Britt & John L. Hopper & Wendy V. Ingman, 2022. "Together Alone: Going Online during COVID-19 Is Changing Scientific Conferences," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-13, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jchals:v:13:y:2022:i:1:p:7-:d:753496
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    2. Carol Nash, 2021. "Online Meeting Challenges in a Research Group Resulting from COVID-19 Limitations," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-27, November.
    3. Wei Wang & Xiaomei Bai & Feng Xia & Teshome Megersa Bekele & Xiaoyan Su & Amr Tolba, 2017. "From triadic closure to conference closure: the role of academic conferences in promoting scientific collaborations," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 113(1), pages 177-193, October.
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