ArticleNature communications2021
Trend towards virtual and hybrid conferences may be an effective climate change mitigation strategy.
Article in Nature communications, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Sydney Phylogenetics Workshop: Lessons From the Past 15 Years.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Climate Change: A National Survey on Viewpoints of Italian Epilepsy-Care Professionals.European journal of neurology · 2026Article
- Staying Functional Through Connection and Adaptation: When Islets Inspire Islet Biologists.Diabetes · 2026Review
- Awareness of sustainability among gynecologists in Germany: results of a semirepresentative nationwide survey.Archives of gynecology and obstetrics · 2026Article
- Greening Gastroenterology: Strategies to Reduce the Carbon Footprint in Clinical Practice.Cureus · 2026Review
- Climate-smart radiography in Ghana: training needs of diagnostic radiographers mapped to the WHO operational framework and UNFCCC Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE).BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Floating at COP30: exclusivity and the carbon cost of travel and accommodation in Belém.UCL open. Environment · 2026Article
- Digital Footprints, Green Impact: User Engagement Analysis of a Conference Management Platform at the 41st Annual IFMSS Meeting.Fetal diagnosis and therapy · 2026Observational
- Engaging the Community: CASP Special Interest Groups.Proteins · 2026Article
- High-Level Environmental Sustainability Guidelines for Large Accelerator Facilities.EPJ research infrastructures · 2026Article
- Globally accessible platforms for the exchange of research findings and career development.Nature neuroscience · 2025Article
- Exploring the role of entertainment transition in mitigating consumption-side GHG emissions.iScience · 2025Article
- Nephrology Health Professionals' Perspectives on Their Preferred Modality for Scientific Meetings, Balancing Affordability, Sustainability and Opportunities to Interact With Peers: An International Society of Nephrology Survey.Kidney international reports · 2025Article
- A Challenge to In-Person Academic Conferences During the Climate Emergency.Academic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry · 2025Article
- Viewpoint: a white paper for a greener design, conduct and reporting of clinical trials in respiratory medicine.The European respiratory journal · 2025Article
- Climate-conscious conferences: redefining medical meetings for a sustainable tomorrow.Singapore medical journal · 2025Article
- MEEhubs2024: A hub-based conference on microbial ecology and evolution fostering sustainability.FEMS microbiology letters · 2025Article
- Face-to-face or face-to-screen: A quantitative comparison of conferences modalities.PNAS nexus · 2025Article
- A little more conversation, a little more action, please: the carbon footprint of travelling to conferences of the European Health Psychology Society.Health psychology and behavioral medicine · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has urged event holders to shift conferences online. Virtual and hybrid conferences are greener alternatives to in-person conferences, yet their environmental sustainability has not been fully assessed. Considering food, accommodation, preparation, execution, information and communication technology, and transportation, here we report comparative life cycle assessment results of in-person, virtual, and hybrid conferences and consider carbon footprint trade-offs between in-person participation and hybrid conferences. We find that transitioning from in-person to virtual conferencing can substantially reduce the carbon footprint by 94% and energy use by 90%. For the sake of maintaining more than 50% of in-person participation, carefully selected hubs for hybrid conferences have the potential to slash carbon footprint and energy use by two-thirds. Furthermore, switching the dietary type of future conferences to plant-based diets and improving energy efficiencies of the information and communication technology sector can further reduce the carbon footprint of virtual conferences.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.