Cusick, J.A. orcid.org/0000-0002-4183-0700, George, E.A. orcid.org/0000-0002-5533-5428, Greenway, E.V.G. orcid.org/0000-0003-0297-0927 et al. (3 more authors) (2024) Is it time to get over the X? Assessing the global impact and future of social media conferences in animal behaviour. Animal Behaviour, 213. pp. 33-50. ISSN 0003-3472
Abstract
Conferences are an integral part of academia, providing researchers with the opportunity to collaborate and disseminate their research. Traditionally these conferences have been in-person, but COVID-19 restrictions and growing recognition of systematic barriers have led many academic societies to reimagine the conference format. Social media platforms are often used to promote and broadcast in-person academic conferences, so with the development of online conferences they have naturally become hosting platforms. For example, during the peak of COVID-19 restrictions, when in-person meetings were not possible, Twitter conferences, like the first Global Animal Behaviour Conference (#AnimBehav2021), provided a much needed platform to collaborate and share science. Recently, conferences have returned to an in-person format. In addition, a change in ownership of Twitter led to widespread restructuring of the Twitter workforce and misinformation management policies that resulted in a massive exodus of academics from the platform. During these changes, we organized and held the second Global Animal Behaviour Twitter Conference (#AnimBehav2023) in January 2023. In this paper, we report (1) how engagement in the Twitter conference changed as a result of return to in-person conferences and changes in Twitter ownership, (2) how the community views online conferences in general and Twitter conferences in particular and (3) reflect on how online conferences can be organized moving forward. Given the widespread benefits of and need for online conferences, we urge academic societies and researchers to continue systematically exploring these alternative conference formats to ensure inclusivity and accessibility in academic spaces.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | #AnimBehav2023; academic conference; accessibility; COVID-19; online conference; scientific communication; STEM inclusivity; Twitter; virtual conference |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Biological Sciences (Leeds) > School of Biology (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 20 May 2024 09:04 |
Last Modified: | 21 Jun 2024 13:37 |
Published Version: | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/... |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.04.001 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:212601 |