How do scientists mix at conferences?

Gabriel Maurial
CPT

Date(s) : 22/01/2026 iCal
17h00 - 18h00

Abstract: Participating in conferences is one of the many activities that shape scientists’ professional lives. Such social gatherings provide valuable opportunities to gain visibility within the scientific community, whether by presenting one’s work, discussing future projects, or engaging in informal interactions with other attendees. Research in the science of science has provided substantial evidence that conferences can positively affect the impact, quality, and productivity of scientific output. However, these benefits are not distributed equally among participants. Understanding the nature of the interactions that take place during these events is therefore of paramount importance.

In this work, we analyse high–temporal-resolution face-to-face interaction networks collected at four Computational Social Science conferences using the SocioPatterns platform. We propose a quantitative framework to characterise how attendees mix during conferences. Our results reveal a heterogeneous distribution of interactions across sociodemographic and behavioural traits, which can be explained by multiple mechanisms already documented in the organisational science literature.

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Luminy - salle 500-504b

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