To snooze, schmooze, peruse, booze, or learn new views: a rejected Christmas Issue research study
Authors: Wallach Joshua D. , Ross Joseph S. 
Published: December 2022

Objective

To evaluate the frequency of snoozing, schmoozing, perusing, and boozing among attendees at an international conference.

Design

Survey and field study

Setting

The 9thInternational Congress on Peer Review and Scientific Publication in Chicago, Illinois (the conference).

Participants

53 attendees (perhaps just enough to be scientific).

Main outcome measures

Self-reported conference behavior including frequency of falling asleep (snoozing), interacting with other attendees (schmoozing), and multi-tasking (perusing) during presentations, as well as drinking (boozing) at the conference.

Results

53 attendees completed the survey, which represents a 100% response rate among the attendees who decided to complete the survey. Most of the respondents reported that they preferred in-person conferences before (47/53, 89%) and since (43/53, 81%) the COVID-19 pandemic. 49 (49/53, 92%) reported that multi-day, in-person conferences are still a good use of time. Although 49 (49/53, 92%) reported learning something new (new views), nearly half (24/49, 49%) stated that they could have learned this information from a book or journal article, as opposed to traveling to a conference. Two respondents (2/51, 4%) admitted to snoozing and 43 (84%) to perusing (e.g., emailing, working, and using Twitter) during presentations on the first day of the conference (we suspect that all 5 respondents who claimed that their sleep schedule was “none of our business” also snoozed regularly). The rate of boozing (up to 3 alcoholic beverages) on the first night of the conference was alarming (39/52, 75%), with an additional 10% unable to recall the total number of drinks consumed.

Conclusions

Formal, presentation-based conferences may no longer be needed, as attendees appear to be overly preoccupied with snoozing, schmoozing, perusing, and boozing.

What is already known on this topic

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Scientific conferences have functioned as both professional and social events, allowing attendees to learn about the newest research findings while they schmooze, and sometimes booze, with their colleagues.

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Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the research community has grown increasingly accustomed to the benefits of attending conferences from behind their computers.

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Little is known about the behaviors and preferences of attendees following the COVID-19 conference hiatus.

What this study adds

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Almost all respondents reported that multi-day, in-person conferences were still a good use of time and that they had learned something new (even though over half admitted that they could have learned this information from a book or journal article, as opposed to traveling to a conference)

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Conference attendees rarely snoozed but frequently perused (email, work, and Twitter) during presentations; over three-quarters boozed on the first night of the conference.

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Formal, presentation-based conferences may no longer be needed, as attendees appear to be overly preoccupied with snoozing, schmoozing, perusing, and boozing.