Category: News

Volunteers Needed!

C4DISC New DEIA Community of Practice

C4DISC is seeking volunteers to help manage a new Community of Practice, a virtual space for peer learning around DEIA in scholarly communications – for those with a dedicated DEIA role or with a DEIA remit as part of their role, whether in a paid or volunteer capacity. 

Working group members will be responsible for chairing virtual discussions every other month that will combine time for open discussion with topical breakout discussions based on suggestions from participants ahead of the meetings. Volunteer leaders will solicit topics from participants, plan and facilitate the virtual discussions, as well as help promote engagement on the Community’s Listserv. We estimate the time commitment as approximately 2 hours per month.

Interested?

If you would like to apply to participate in this working group, please complete and submit the application online by the deadline of Friday March 31. Please enter COP in the field asking which working group you are applying for. 

Volunteers for standing working groups serve a two-year term. Any person interested in furthering the work of C4DISC can join a working group. You do not have to be employed by a member or partner organization to get involved.

Please share widely with all who may be interested, both within your organisation and wider community. Send any questions you may have to c4disc.communications@gmail.com

Demographic Information in Peer Review Systems: Challenges and Solutions

22 March | 11:00AM (ET)

Insufficient representation among editorial leadership, editorial boards, authors, and reviewers remains a key barrier to promoting an inclusive and equitable scholarly publishing industry (Buchanan, et al., 2021; Hanson, et al., 2020; Roberts, et al., 2020; & Roh, et al., 2020). The systematic exclusion of groups including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), women, gender non-conforming people, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and members of the disability community from scholarly communications is harmful to both the integrity of the scientific review and publication process and to those individuals’ careers (Roh & Inefuku, 2016). Collecting, measuring, and using demographic data to improve these gaps in representation are important mechanisms for enabling an equitable and inclusive scholarly publishing environment. This session will offer perspectives from several scholarly publishing professionals about how their organizations are collecting and using author and reviewer demographic information to improve representation and inclusion in the peer review and publication process. Speakers will address questions around challenges and solutions for collecting demographic data; they will also offer actions for addressing, measuring, and mitigating bias in peer review to create a more socially just science. Demographics differ by country and region, and so this session will offer global perspectives on these issues. Sponsored by SSP’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.

 

Registration:

This webinar is free, but please here.

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.

Knowledge Futures Group    |    Nov 09, 2022

Abstract

The Knowledge Futures (KF) has positioned itself at the intersection of tech and academia; two fields that require serious improvement when it comes to diversity and inclusion. While racial and gender equality sit at the forefront of our mind, existing structures for academic success lead to additional marginalized voices in humanities departments, small research universities, and other non-R1, non-STEM institutions and groups. We’ve set the groundwork for several initial avenues for including these voices. One avenue where this took shape is through our pro bono work policy and collaborations with the Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Publishing (C4DISC). Our pro bono work initiative, which allocates up to 10% of staff time, began in 2021 in hopes of addressing inequalitis within the knowledge ecosystem.

 

>>>Read more here.

Sponsored by Elsevier

Summary:

Accessibility is a topic of increasing prominence within the scholarly communications industry. This is a result both of the increased focus on equity, diversity and inclusion within the information sector, and also of lawsuits arising from legislation – like the Americans with Disabilities Act and European Accessibility Act – to compel digital content providers to make their content accessible. Where previously accessibility was ‘nice to have’, providing accessible materials is now a core part of every provider’s mission across the scholarly supply chain in order to reach the maximum possible audience and to make sure that students and researchers have access to the information they need to perform to their full potential.

This roundtable will focus on the entire scholarly communications workflow, considering the tools a researcher with a disability might use, from publisher, library, university, supplier and end-user perspectives.

This webinar will explore the following topics:

• What can publishers do to ensure accessibility and equity from submission to production?
• What kinds of disabilities do publishers and libraries need to consider?
• How and in what way do individuals with accessibility needs access content? What should information providers do to ensure accessibility for end users?
• How can a library ensure their collection development policies take accessibility issues into account?
• What are the business incentives of conforming to accessibility standards in our published materials, and what are the legal implications of not doing so?
• What are the differing challenges faced by small publishers or information providers compared with their larger counterparts?

Attendees will take away insights on why accessibility is necessary, what efforts the publishing industry is making to ensure scholarly communications are more accessible across the workflow, and how they can start to think about accessibility in organizations of all sizes.

Scheduled for Thursday, December 01 at 11:00am

Posted in Future of Libraries and Education

>>Read more here.

Press Release (10/20/2022)

 

This month, C4DISC is releasing a resource to deepen reflection and help people in the scholarly publishing world improve the way in which they navigate through DEI challenges: the Guidelines on Inclusive Language and Images in Scholarly Communication.

 

Following the success of the previous toolkits, the Anti Racism Toolkit for Allies, the Anti Racism Toolkit for Organizations, and the Antiracism Toolkit for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, C4DISC is now releasing The Guidelines on Inclusive Language and Images in Scholarly Communication. This new toolkit is meant to be a global tool, educational resource, and living archive to help all authors, editors, and reviewers recognize the use of language and images that are inclusive and culturally sensitive. The Guidelines can be used at various steps of the scholarly publishing process, such as manuscript writing, peer review, and presentation of published output. The working group, reflecting a diverse body of international volunteers, came together in response to the growing need for more comprehensive and global guidelines for inclusive language and images. The Guidelines are designed to continually evolve, relying on the entire scholarly publishing community to help grow and improve them over time by suggesting new references, recommendations, and resources.

 

The authors of the Guide state that its aim is to help people in the scholarly ecosystem to think about the foundations of their own thinking: “Researchers and authors can examine their own biases and determine how these might affect their work. So too can other stakeholders involved in the publishing process, whether they are colleagues, editors, or peer reviewers (Schwabish). By taking the time to examine the potential biases existing in their own work as well as the work of others, researchers and authors can help to make the world of scholarly communication more inclusive.”

 

In order to have many points of entry, the primary section of the toolkit is organized into lists. To avoid falling into the trappings of default or biased thinking, the information might be ordered randomly or in alphabetical order. Once a term is named, the guides define the term, suggest ways of avoiding discriminatory language, offers ways to reframe the term, points to some concrete examples in research, and provides references. While the entries are not exhaustive, they do provide a useful way for participants in the knowledge creation and dissemination ecosystem to learn, change, use, and help the communities they serve.

 

 

“Scholarly communication is often defined as ‘the system through which research and other scholarly writings are created, evaluated for quality, disseminated to the scholarly community, and preserved for future use’ (ACRL Scholarly Communications Committee, 2018). It is meant to serve the public and advance the pursuit of knowledge. It is important that this is done in a way that includes the whole—not just of scholarly communication itself, but of society.”

 

Volunteers

Sabrina Ashwell, American Chemical Society

Amber Avila, George Washington University

Patty Baskin, American Academy of Neurology

Roshan Cader, Wits University Press

Carolyn Davis Cockey, MLS, LCCE, Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN)

Naomi Curston, Intellect Books

Claire D’Andola, Wiley

Sara DiBari, Journal of American Medical Association Psychiatry

Kim Eggleston, IOP Publishing

Catherine Forest, American Society of Clinical Oncology

Brian E. Giblin, Oxford University Press

Habeeb Ibrahim, King Saud University

Francie Likis, Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health

Wendy Lochner, Columbia University Press

Lisa McAllister, Wolters Kluwer

Stephan Meyer, University of Basel

Saeide Mirzaei, University of Minnesota

Brooke Morris-Chott, Core, a division of the American Library Association

Jenny Peng, Oxford University Press

Mia Ricci, American Geophysical Union

Thomas Roche, University of Georgia Press

Amy Rollason, Intellect Books

Damita Snow, CAE, American Society of Civil Engineers

C.A. Townsend, Freelancer

Randy Townsend, PLOS

Helena Pérez Valle, eLife

 

 

About C4DISC:

C4DISC was founded by representatives from 10 trade and professional associations during the 2017 SSP annual meeting in Boston. Its vision is a socially just community that welcomes, values, and celebrates all who seek to contribute to scholarly communications and its mission is to work with organizations and individuals to build equity, inclusion, diversity, and accessibility within the community. C4DISC members meet monthly to address its areas of focus, including: developing a joint statement of principles; conducting market research; providing training resources, best practices, toolkits, and documentation for our collective memberships; and establishing outreach programs, curricula, events, and publications.

 

Media Contact: c4disc@gmail.com

 

 

Editors play a crucial role in the publication process and are keystones to promoting an inclusive and respectful environment for their contributors. Recognizing that editors are the key to improving equity, diversity, and inclusivity in their journals and books, several publishers have developed formal diversity trainings or written resources for their editors. In this webinar, we will hear from publishers and subject matter experts as they recount their experiences and lessons learned in developing diversity and anti-bias training specifically for editors. 

 

Moderator

Ana Heredia

Independent Consultant

 

Ana is a former researcher turned into STEM editorial and publishing, and open research infrastructure. Ana is a biologist by training, with a MSc in Neurosciences (France), a PhD in Sciences (Belgium), and two postdoctoral experiences in Brazil. In almost 10 years at Elsevier, Ana acted as a Research Advisor and a Research Intelligence Consultant, both in Latin America, and as an Acquisition and Publishing Editor, managing the Brazilian journal’s operation. She then joined ORCID as Regional Membership Director, and currently works as an independent consultant helping research organizations, governments and publishers in their strategic challenges with information management and analysis, strategic planning, open science, and research metrics. She is an active member of SSP, contributes to the NISO Plus Advisory Committee, and to C4DISC, and is particularly committed to open science (a PIDs enthusiast), inclusion and diversity in scholarly communication, and the responsible use of metrics in research evaluation.

 

Speakers

 

   

Stephanie Pollack, 

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Lead

American Psychological Association

 

Stephanie (Steph) Pollock, MPS (she/her) is the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Lead, Journals, for APA Publishing. In this role she directs and implements EDI initiatives for the APA Journals program, working with APA governance and other groups outside of APA to improve equity and representation in science and scholarly publishing. With more than 11 years of experience in scholarly publishing and a master’s degree in publishing from The George Washington University, Steph is committed to improving equity in both the field of psychology and in the publishing industry. She is a co-author on the C4DISC Antiracism Toolkit for Organizations, a member of SSP’s DEIA Committee since 2018, and she led the creation of APA Publishing’s EDI Toolkit for Journal Editors.

 

Annie Hill

Editorial Director

American Psychological Association

 

Annie Hill (she/her) has more than 20 years of experience in scholarly publishing. As Editorial Director, Journals at the American Psychological Association, she oversees the strategic direction, editorial policy, and business operations for a portfolio of 89 journals. She is committed to equitable open science strategies and equity, diversity, and inclusion in publications.

 

Shaina Lange

Manager, Publication Ethics 

American Chemical Society

 

Shaina Lange (she/her) is Manager of the Publishing Integrity Office at ACS Publications. She oversees the strategy, policies, and activities to support research integrity across the ACS journals portfolio, with a focus on embedding ACS’ core value of diversity, equity, inclusion, and respect (DEIR) in the peer review and publishing processes. She is actively involved in the organization’s DEIR efforts as a member of the ACS Council for DEIR and Asian & Allies Affinity Group. She is passionate about making the scholarly communications industry a more inclusive and equitable space and currently serves as Co-Chair of the Society for Scholarly Publishing’s (SSP) DEIA Committee. Shaina holds a Master’s of Professional Studies in Publishing from the George Washington University and a Diversity & Inclusion Certificate from Cornell University. Prior to the ACS, Shaina worked in non-profit book publishing following several years in the special events industry.

 

Dr. Joseph Willaims

Associate Professor

University of Virginia

Affirm Consulting LLC, CEO

 

Joseph Williams is an Associate Professor of Education at the University of Virginia and associate editor of the Journal of Counseling and Development, the flagship journal for the counseling profession. His research interest focuses on anti-racist and social justice training practices for K-12 counselors, educators, administrators, and other helping professionals. Besides publishing scholarly articles and book chapters in these areas, he consults with school districts, universities, community organizations, state education agencies, and associations. In 2019, he started Affirm Consulting, LLC to improve equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts and engage people in productive dialogue and action.

 

Registration:

This webinar is free, but please register.

October 10, 2022   |   Scholarly communications and publishing

 

October 10, 2022 – Scholarly communications and publishing organizations across the industry are invited to join the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP), The Scholarly Kitchen (TSK), and the Masters in Publishing program at George Washington University (GWU) in highlighting issues of publishing ethics during the first-ever unofficial “Publishing Ethics Week,” happening this week, October 10-14, 2022.

Launching today with a special collection of resources, #PublishingEthicsWeek22 brings together events, toolkits, best practices, and original research from a host of scholarly publishing organizations:

• American Chemical Society
• AUPresses
• Coalition for Diversity in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC)
• European Association of Science Editors (EASE)
• George Washington University, MPS in Publishing
• Journal of Ethics in Publishing
• Learned Publishing
• Paths in Publishing
• The Scholarly Kitchen
• Society for Scholarly Publishing

Building on this collection, SSP will highlight multiple resources from Publishing Ethics Week contributors throughout the week with a special focus on Wednesday’s “Three Ethical Challenges in Scholarly Communication” webinar, and Friday’s 12th Ethics in Publishing Conference: Ethics in Action. Additionally, SSP is sharing July’s Ask the Experts, “Ethics in Publishing” free OnDemand for this week only!

Join the conversation using #PublishingEthicsWeek22 on social media! Interested in collaborating in Publishing Ethics Week? Submit your resource or email Jacklyn Lord, SSP’s Marketing and Operations Manager, for more information.

 

>>>Read the original post here

From Recognition to Action: Strategies for Developing Diversity Training for Editors

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Oct 26, 2022 11:00 AM

Editors play a crucial role in the publication process and are keystones to promoting an inclusive and respectful environment for their contributors. Recognizing that editors are the key to improving equity, diversity, and inclusivity in their journals and books, several publishers have developed formal diversity trainings or written resources for their editors. In this webinar, we will hear from publishers and subject matter experts as they recount their experiences and lessons learned in developing diversity and anti-bias training specifically for editors.

Registration:

This webinar is free, but please register.