Ten simple rules for pushing boundaries of inclusion at academic events
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Journal Article
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Author
Hall, Siobhan Mackenzie;
Kochin, Daniel;
Carne, Carmel;
Herterich, Patricia;
Lewers, Kristen Lenay;
Abdelhack, Mohamed;
Ramasubramanian, Arun;
Michael Alphonse, Juno Felecia;
Ung, Visotheary;
El-Gebali, Sara;
Currin, ChristopherISTA
;
Plomp, Esther
All

All
Department
Abstract
Inclusion at academic events is facing increased scrutiny as the communities these events serve raise their expectations for who can practically attend. Active efforts in recent years to bring more diversity to academic events have brought progress and created momentum. However, we must reflect on these efforts and determine which underrepresented groups are being disadvantaged. Inclusion at academic events is important to ensure diversity of discourse and opinion, to help build networks, and to avoid academic siloing. All of these contribute to the development of a robust and resilient academic field. We have developed these Ten Simple Rules both to amplify the voices that have been speaking out and to celebrate the progress of many Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity practices that continue to drive the organisation of academic events. The Rules aim to raise awareness as well as provide actionable suggestions and tools to support these initiatives further. This aims to support academic organisations such as the Deep Learning Indaba, Neuromatch Academy, the IBRO-Simons Computational Neuroscience Imbizo, Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG), Arabs in Neuroscience, FAIRPoints, and OLS (formerly Open Life Science). This article is a call to action for organisers to reevaluate the impact and reach of their inclusive practices.
Publishing Year
Date Published
2024-03-01
Journal Title
PLOS Computational Biology
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Acknowledgement
We would like to recognise the feedback and ideas shared with us by all attendees during the
focus groups that contributed to the development of this paper. Acknowledgements are given
to Elisee Jafsia, Umar Farouk Ahmad, Zohra Slim, Mizanur Rahman, Rev. Katie Tupling,
Christopher Emmanuel, Abdalrhman Mostafa, Pradeep Eranti, Toby Hodges, Avishkar
Bhoopchand, and Carolyn Dickson. We would like to thank our community members and
acknowledge their bravery for sharing their stories that shaped the narrative of these Ten Simple
Rules. The stories shared with us formed the case studies, and while they are anonymous
for privacy and protection reasons, it is these stories that were on our mind during the entire
process and kept us going. We acknowledge the efforts of the organisers that contribute to the
highly successful events that are the inspiration for the ideas presented here: the Deep
Learning Indaba, Neuromatch Academy, the IBRO Simons Computational Neuroscience
Imbizo, and OLS. OLS also supported this project through their mentorship programme,
Open Seeds.
Volume
20
Issue
3
Article Number
e1011797
ISSN
IST-REx-ID
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