Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Scientists want virtual meetings to stay after the COVID pandemic

A Nature poll shows that a year of online research conferences has brought big benefits, but blending them with in-person meetings in future will be a challenge.
  1. Ariana Remmel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Although researchers are getting ‘Zoom fatigue’ just like everyone else, they’ve learnt to appreciate virtual science conferences during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a poll of more than 900 Nature readers. After navigating a year of online research presentations, the majority of survey respondents — 74% — think that scientific meetings should continue to be virtual, or have a virtual component, after the pandemic ends. Readers cite the ease of attending from anywhere in the world as a major perk, although they admit that virtual events haven’t been able to simulate the networking with colleagues they enjoyed in person.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 591, 185-186 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00513-1

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 02 March 2021: This story was updated to more accurately reflect Hawley Helmbrecht’s thoughts about virtual meetings. Helmbrecht says that early-career scientists and introverts might find it less intimidating to ask questions during online sessions, not that they definitely do.

Supplementary Information

  1. Methodology for Nature’s 2020 virtual-meeting survey
  2. Cleaned data from virtual-meetings survey

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links