Graphic: Bodara

of all citations from the papers presented at 25 conferences between 2013 and 2020 were made by researchers in the audience who hadn’t even planned attending the paper in question – they hadn’t ticked the presentation as one of their ‘desired events’. This effect, called ‘serendipitous diffusion’, has been documented by the US computer scientist Misha Teplitskiy. So it’s worth your while presenting a paper at a conference – it means you can even reach people who aren’t actually interested in your field. This study has not yet been peer reviewed. 

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