Socialize or Perish: Relating Social Behavior at a Scientific Conference to Publication Citations

Scientific progress depends on communication and exchange of ideas. Among others, scientific conferences are considered to be the primary venues for connecting with fellow scientists. Would those who are more active in the conference have more impact in terms of the citations today? In this paper we present an analysis of human behavioral data collected at a scientific conference by means of Spot Me devices distributed to the participants. These handheld devices allow conference participants to connect to others, receive alert once others are in the proximity, and to send messages. We complement the behavioral data gathered at the conference with measures of scientific productivity over nine years following the conference, and draw conclusion out of this joint data set. It is confirmed that social activity during the conference is significantly correlated with citation counts for full papers.