Size-related problems may include a disproportionate skewing of a society's focus away from small but important subdisciplines, and meetings whose overloaded formats make it hard for attendees to focus on science, researchers say. Some argue that size-related problems can become so troubling that in themselves they form a spur for scientists to break away to form new, more focused societies.
A case in point may be the San Antonio, Texas-based International Behavioral Neuroscience Society (IBNS), established last May largely because of its members' dissatisfaction with the rapidly growing Society for Neuroscience as a forum for sharing their work.
"People were not happy with the large size of the [annual] Society for Neuroscience meeting and all the simultaneous presentations," says Matthew Wayner, Blumberg Professor of Life Sciences at the University of Texas, San Antonio, and first president of IBNS.
Wayner and others say they hope the fledgling society will help focus ...
