Rocío Joo#,*, Andrea Sánchez-Tapia#, Sara Mortara, Yanina Bellini Saibene, Heather Turner, Dorothea Hug Peter, Natalia Soledad Morandeira, Matthias Bannert, Batool Almazrouq, Elizabeth Hare, Laura Ación, Juan Pablo Narváez-Gómez, Marcela Alfaro Córdoba, Federico Marini, Rita Giordano, Silvia Canelón, Anicet Ebou, Adithi Upadhya, Joselyn Chávez, Janani Ravi*
#Co-primary authors with equal contribution.
*Co-corresponding authors: rocio.joo@globalfishingwatch.org, janani@msu.edu
Conferences are spaces to meet and network within and across academic and technical fields, learn about new advances, and share our work. They can help define career paths and create long-lasting collaborations and opportunities. However, these opportunities are not equal for all. This article introduces ten simple rules to host an inclusive conference based on the authors' recent experience organizing the 2021 edition of the useR! statistical computing conference, which attracted a broad range of participants from academia, industry, government, and the non-profit sector. Coming from different backgrounds, career stages, and even continents, we embraced the challenge of organizing a high-quality virtual conference in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and making it a kind, inclusive, and accessible experience for as many people as possible. The rules result from our lessons learned before, during, and after the organization of the conference. They have been written mainly for potential organizers and selection committees of conferences and contain multiple practical tips to help a variety of events become more accessible and inclusive. We see this as a starting point for conversations and efforts towards building more inclusive conferences across the world.
Translated versions of the English abstract and the list of rules are available in ten languages in S1 Text: Arabic, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Tamil, and Thai.