Abstract:
Scientific conferences are of immense importance to scientists, but the resulting benefits are only available to those scientists
who can actually attend scientific meetings. So far, research at scientific conferences is mostly presented and discussed by
researchers from the Global North, while researchers from the Global South are largely excluded due to various reasons.
Over the past 70 years, the International Union for the Study of Social Insects (IUSSI), which is organized in 11 sections
based on geography, has organized 19 international congresses. We reveal a non-equitable distribution of members with
researchers from Asia and Africa being under-represented among IUSSI members. During the period from 1952 to 2022
conference contributions at IUSSI conferences came from 79 countries across the globe with members from the African
and the South American continent being under-represented. Furthermore, we reveal that it does matter where a conference
takes place, as contributions from authors with an afliation to a particular continent always increase when the conference
takes place on that continent. The fndings suggest a notable lack of representations from certain regions in key scientifc
gatherings, highlighting the need for greater inclusivity in the academic community.
