11/05/2026
🐟 Fisheries conferences have come a long way on diversity, but new research shows there's still work to do.
📚 A new study in the Journal of Fish Biology, co-authored by Dr Joshka Kaufmann, Marine Institute's Newport Research Facility, analysed five decades of data from Fisheries Society of the British Isles conferences.
🔍 The findings concluded that gender representation has improved significantly, and international participation has grown, though contributions remain dominated by researchers from higher-income countries.
⏰ The study also flags a subtler pattern: Senior researchers are consistently more likely to overrun their allocated speaking time than early-career presenters. This seemingly small behaviour can have knock-on effects for visibility, discussion and who gets heard in the room.
📊 The authors recommend that organisations systematically monitor and report speaker and membership demographics, as well as timekeeping data, to support representation, transparency and fairness. Individuals should also actively nominate and support colleagues from historically underrepresented backgrounds.
💡 Practical interventions, such as visible countdown timers, automatic microphone cut-off, strict moderation and gender-balanced session chairs, have been shown to promote more equitable participation. Including women, early-career researchers and other underrepresented groups on planning committees can also dramatically reduce biases in representation.
🔗 Read the full study in open access: https://wiley.pulse.ly/ck49dxohq2
