I just came back from the International Society for Stem Cell Research annual meeting. It was in Toronto this year and I had a great time (more to come on that later). One thing that came up, as it has at other meetings in recent years, was the incredible use of cell phones and digital cameras by meeting attendees in order to take photos of posters. The conference organizers threatend to take away people’s name tags (effectively barring them from the conference) if they were caught taking photos, but I didn’t see much of a decline after the announcement.
Now, I must say that I find taking photos of posters to be poor form indeed. Though “public”, the data on posters is largely unpublished. To me, there seems to be a line between writing down one’s own impressions of a poster, and actually capturing figures and data via photography. What do you think? It is ok to take photos of posters at meeting? If not, why?
I think it is ok, but if you use it or work on it, you have to cite it. If you are not going to cite it, then no, it is not ok.
That seems fair. It all boils down to honesty, doesn’t it?
Exactly, being honest and giving credit where credit is due. Honesty in collecting and presenting data and honesty in citing the ideas of others (particularly new ideas that are not otherwise searchable as most posters are not) is the most important characteristic of a scientist. If I can’t trust someone’s work as being honest it is essentially of zero value.