Call for Volunteers Workplace Equity Survey 2023

Call for Volunteers

Workplace Equity Survey 2023: Assessing Progress in the Scholarly Publishing Industry

 

How have the pandemic, racial reckoning, and worldwide economic and political instability affected workplace equity in the scholarly communications industry? Did the profusion of public statements after the murder of George Floyd actually result in measurable changes?

 

Our goal is to bring a diverse, talented team together to repeat the Workplace Equity Survey (WE Survey) and report on findings in 2023. This work is at the heart of C4DISC’s mission. 

 

Volunteers Needed!

The 2018 survey took a global village to conduct, with the volunteer efforts of many individuals and organizations building on a significant investment (time and money) of WE’s founders. In 2023, we hope to raise needed resources (individual, organizational, and financial support), extend the WE Survey’s reach to an even larger global audience, and pass the mantle of leadership to a new generation. 

 

Interested?

Please fill out the Working Group Application Form by November 23, 2022

 

(If you have any issues with the form, please contact the Community Administrator at c4disc@gmail.com.)

 

How you can help

Your level of commitment can match your own interest and availability. Your organization does not need to be a member of C4DISC for you to volunteer.

 

Based on the collaborative model that catapulted the Toolkits for Equity. To carry out this critical project,  Simone Taylor will work with a Co-Project Manager (individual yet to be identified) to lead a core team. They will plan, coordinate, and implement the survey, analysis, and reporting, supported by larger groups of volunteers. A C4DISC Steering Committee will provide resources, oversight, and guidance. 

Planning will begin in January 2023, laying out the scope, time frame, and resources needed for the survey. Group leaders will submit the plan to the C4DISC Steering Committee for final approval. Core group members will support the Project Managers in overseeing and coordinating the work of the larger group of volunteers throughout the project. 

 

We will need the help of volunteers with the following skills:

• • Community Expertise – Individuals with high-level knowledge and hands-on experience of the history/current state of diversity, inclusion, equity and accessibility initiatives in the scholarly publishing industry, as well as understanding of its varied cultural and policy landscape.
    • We’ll need this know-how at all levels to ensure the relevance and authenticity of our effort. 
  • Survey Questionnaire Development  – Market researcher(s) & Communications professional(s) with survey experience.
    • Content – We’ll need to update and rework the survey questions based on lessons learned in 2018.
    • Instrument – The 2018 survey was built on Survey Monkey – all of the data was saved/archived openly, but the account is no longer active. During the planning process, the core  team will review and recommend the most appropriate software to use, and then build out the 2023 questionnaire.
  • Marketing, Communications, and Design – Marketing, Communications, and Design professional(s) with Writing, Graphic Design, Video, Social Media, PR, Grant Writing, and Presentation Planning skills.
    • Plan/implement marketing and communications strategies and tactics.
    • Recruit and collaborate with organizational partners.
    • Write/design emails, press releases, social posts, web copy, executive summaries, scholarly papers. 
    • Build out WE Survey’s current pages on pages on c4disc.org. 
    • Create infographics, videos, and other promotional media assets.
    • Disseminate press releases, social media, etc.
    • Create proposals, secure opportunities, arrange panels, and present at conferences.
    • An array of software skills will be necessary to achieve needed output.

• Analyze & Report Findings – Market researcher(s) with strong analysis skills; Design professional(s) who can visualize key findings.

• Identify and articulate significant results highlighted in software.

• • Perform regression analysis and comparison with 2018 findings.
  • Summarize all significant findings in a coherent narrative and infographics for PPT presentation, Executive Summary, full report, and scholarly paper.
  • Handle peer review process.
  • Archive data.

 

Background: Workplace Equity (WE) Survey set the bar in 2018

Five years ago, in 2018, the WE Survey created a baseline of data documenting the state of DEIA in the scholarly publishing industry from a workforce perspective. Nearly 1,200 respondents from around the world weighed in on what they perceived about career satisfaction, professional development, mentoring, networking, work/life balance, career breaks, bias, and various attitudes and behaviors. Demographic data was gathered to create an industry profile on gender, ethnicity, sexual identification, age, disability, residence, language, religion, care-giving status, salary, employer size and type, and employment tenure. An analysis of this information showed how these different factors affected opportunities and experiences for individuals, documenting long-standing imbalances and biases. The survey also collected thousands of free-form comments in a neutral third-party survey environment. Anonymously and outside their employers’ field of vision, individuals felt safe to respond with candor about their lived experiences. These findings were reported in Evaluating Equity in Scholarly Publishing, Learned Publishing, 2020 and the data set was made openly available on the IPCSR data archive.

The survey questionnaire was optimized by a diverse team in order to deliver questions that were oriented to a global audience, covered relevant areas, and did not contain inherent bias. Thanks to the support of 16 organizations, participation reached around the world, a rigorous data analysis was performed,  a compelling report and peer-reviewed paper (OA for three-months) were published, and the data set was made openly available.