What is it about?

When the 2020 pandemic forced academic conferences online, it was celebrated as a huge win for inclusivity. Suddenly, people who couldn't attend before due to cost, travel, or family commitments could participate. However, our large, international group of around 100 authors argued that just being online isn't enough. True inclusivity must be intentionally designed into every aspect of an event. We identified many hidden barriers in the new online format: schedules that favored one continent, tools that were inaccessible to people with disabilities or blocked in certain countries, and a format that often gave even less visibility to early-career researchers. This paper is a practical guidebook for conference organizers, providing concrete recommendations on everything from using a "3-hub" global schedule to designing better online poster sessions and creating clear pathways for diverse leadership.

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Why is it important?

As many academic societies adopt permanent hybrid or online models, this paper provides an essential, actionable toolkit for organizers to make their events more equitable and effective. It moves the discussion beyond the simple "online is more accessible" talking point to a more nuanced conversation about how to achieve meaningful inclusion. The paper itself is also an example of the principles it advocates for. Written by a massive, diverse, and collaborative group, it demonstrates the power of co-creation and open science in tackling community-wide problems, providing a blueprint for how to build a better, more accessible future for scientific exchange.

Perspectives

This paper was a massive, collaborative effort that really speaks to my passion for open science, and I was proud to be one of the many authors who contributed. When conferences first went online, there was a great wave of optimism, but many of us in the open science community immediately saw the new set of hidden barriers that were popping up. We felt it was crucial to capture these lessons and create a practical guide before flawed formats became the default. The core idea for me is that inclusivity isn't an accident; it's a design choice. You have to actively think about who might be excluded by your schedule, your choice of software, or your event format, and then you have to actively build solutions. Being part of a huge, community-driven paper like this was a fantastic experience. It was about taking the principles of open science and applying them to fix a problem that affects all of us as researchers.

Rohit Goswami
University of Iceland

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Centering inclusivity in the design of online conferences—An OHBM–Open Science perspective, GigaScience, August 2021, Oxford University Press (OUP),
DOI: 10.1093/gigascience/giab051.
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