To snooze, schmooze, peruse, booze, or learn new views: a rejected Christmas Issue research study

Objective: To evaluate the frequency of snoozing, schmoozing, perusing, and boozing among attendees at an international conference. Design: Survey and field study Setting: The 9th International Congress on Peer Review and Scientific Publication in Chicago, Illinois (the conference). Participants: 53 attendees (perhaps just enough to be scientific). Main outcome measures: Self-reported conference behavior including frequency of falling asleep (snoozing), interacting with other attendees (schmoozing), and multi-tasking (perusing) during presentations, as well as drinking (boozing) at the conference. Results: 53 attendees completed the survey, which represents a 100% response rate among the attendees who decided to complete the survey. Most of the respondents reported that they preferred in-person conferences before (47/53, 89%) and since (43/53, 81%) the COVID-19 pandemic. 49 (49/53, 92%) reported that multi-day, in-person conferences are still a good use of time. Although 49 (49/53, 92%) reported learning something new (new views), nearly half (24/49, 49%) stated that they could have learned this information from a book or journal article, as opposed to traveling to a conference. Two respondents (2/51, 4%) admitted to snoozing and 43 (84%) to perusing (e.g., emailing, working, and using Twitter) during presentations on the first day of the conference (we suspect that all 5 respondents who claimed that their sleep schedule was 'none of our business' also snoozed regularly). The rate of boozing (up to 3 alcoholic beverages) on the first night of the conference was alarming (39/52, 75%), with an additional 10% unable to recall the total number of drinks consumed. Conclusions: Formal, presentation-based conferences may no longer be needed, as attendees appear to be overly preoccupied with snoozing, schmoozing, perusing, and boozing.