The Royal Society of Chemistry has brought together 53 publishing organisations to set a new standard to ensure a more inclusive and diverse culture within scholarly publishing.

As a group with journal portfolios in excess of 15,000, we acknowledge that biases exist in scholarly publishing and we commit to scrutinising our own processes to minimise these. We will pool our resources, expertise and insight to accelerate research culture change.

Since the group was formed we have launched standardised questions for self-reported diversity data collection and minimum standards for inclusion and diversity for scholarly publishing.

>>>Read more about it here.

Do you need help making progress on your diversity and equity goals? Our How to Build an Antiracist Library Culture course is almost here, so join us and learn how to bring lasting and necessary change to your library! We have something for every level and type of librarian. Join us for dynamic expert guest speaker sessions as well as a 3-week asynchronous, project-based classroom.

Can’t make a live session? All sessions are available on-demand!

>>>Reade more here.

Accessibility 101 for Publishers

Press Release (09/12/2022)

C4DISC is releasing two documents aiming to be a resource to deepen the reflection and a tool to help people in the scholarly publishing world to better deal with DEI challenges: the Anti Racism Toolkit for Black, Indigenous and People of Color in Scholarly Publishing and the Guidelines on Inclusive Language and Images in Scholarly Communication.

Anti Racism Toolkit for Black, Indigenous and People of Color in Scholarly Publishing

“Helping Black, Indigenous, and People of Color THRIVE in Scholarly Publishing”

Following the success of the two previous toolkits, the Anti Racism Toolkit for Allies and the Anti Racism Toolkit for Organizations, C4DISC is now releasing the Anti Racism Toolkit for Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) in Scholarly Publishing. This new toolkit is the result of the work of a group of BIPOC-identifying publishing professionals of all levels from across the United States and Canada. The objective is to be a living document and the start of an ongoing conversation, as well as a resource for current and future generations of BIPOC workers in the academic publishing industry.

“Our goal with this toolkit is not to paint our perspectives broadly, but rather, to draw from personal experiences so that other BIPOC might be seen, to provide practical advice, and to share resources that we hope will help BIPOC staff not just survive but thrive in academic publishing.”

The toolkit is structured in three main parts, includes valuable references and a further guidance and support section. The first part is about the barriers BIPOC have to overcome when entering the publishing Industry, like the inaccessibility of training resources and the lack of or limited BIPOC representation and mentors. The second part is about the importance of creating community with and across groups of BIPOC and building an anti-racist culture. The third part is about the publishing industry, and aspects like networking, building mentorship and sponsorship relations. The document also contains a series of resources on networking and career development and gives practical advice on how to improve inclusivity in day-to-day work. Finally, the toolkit supports authenticity at work, helps us identify parameters of well-being, and gives valuable tips for managing the side effects of code switching.

“In the larger scope of an increasingly unequal world where racialized people suffer in many different ways, this particular toolkit, the Antiracism Toolkit for Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), is a small yet specific contribution, and one that we  hope will be meaningful and useful to BIPOC-identifying individuals navigating an  industry that can be wonderful, but also hostile.”

This toolkit is for BIPOC people and for non-BIPOC people living in a diverse world, all of us who are committed to making the scholarly publishing industry more just and welcoming.

List/Name the Volunteers

Martha Alvarado Anderson, University of Arkansas

Amber Avila, George Washington University

Mike Baccam, University of Washington Press

Thane Chambers, University of Alberta

Niccole Coggins, American Psychological Association

Christina Davies, GRAPHEK

Harrison W. Inefuku, Iowa State University

Ellen Kim, GRAPHEK

Walter Kim, GRAPHEK

Shaina Lange, American Chemical Society

Nancy Lu, GRAPHEK

Rebecca S. McLeod, Harvard University

Alejandra M. Mejía, Duke University Press

Swapna Padhye, Oxford University Press

Mark A. Puente, Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies

Nhora Lucía Serrano, PhD, Hamilton College

Damita Snow, CAE, American Society of Civil Engineers

Dawit Tegbaru, Knowledge Futures Group

Randy Townsend, George Washington University and Public Library of Science

Jasmine Wallace, American Society for Microbiology

Kerry E. Webb, University of Texas Press

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

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August 25, 2022   |   Porter Anderson

Roughly three-quarters of respondents to Wiley’s academic-society survey said they want societies to ‘take the lead’ on diversity.

From its Hoboken offices, Wiley on Wednesday (August 24) messaged the news media about results of a survey it has made relative to “learned societies” in the academic research community. This survey was conducted by Broadview Analytics and included 1,255 respondents from the research community.
“A combination of analytical techniques was used in the analysis,” we’re told, “including factor analysis, regression trees and comparison group testing. The testing was conducted with 99-percent confidence.”

Responses came from 118 countries and from people working in at least 40 disciplines, Wiley says.

The largest number of responses came from Europe (22 percent) followed by Asia-Pacific (17 percent, up from 13 percent last year), the United States (16 percent), Central Asia (15 percent), and Africa (15 percent). Subject-wise, social science was the largest group at 10 percent, followed by engineering, business, finance, and accounting.

>>>Read more here.

July 27, 2022   |  Simone Ragavooloo

Removing offensive content seems an attractive way of righting wrongs and preventing harm. However, for a journal this is not as simple as it first appears. Scientific publishers have a responsibility to preserve the scientific record. Best practice in scholarly publishing is that even retracted content remains retrievable. Even when publications decide to correct or remove content, the original version will remain in print editions and in other locations online through third parties such as indexers and libraries.

>>>Read more here.

We are thrilled and honored to announce that the Toolkit for Disability Equity group will be participating in this year’s Triangle Scholarly Communication Institute in October!

This year’s cohort is international and working on a diverse range of topics. The Toolkit for Disability Equity is lead by the project lead (Katy Alexander, Digital Science; Simon Holt, Elsevier; Sylvia Izzo Hunter, Inera; Erin Osborne Martin, Wiley, and Stacy Scott, Taylor and Francis) and project managers (Kimberley Graham; Matthew Salter; and Karen Stoll Farrell).

To learn more about TCI, read their blogpost and to find out more about the Disability Working click here.

Kate Dwyer   |   May 7, 2022

A growing cohort of young enthusiasts is helping to shape the future of an antique trade.

Michael F. Suarez, the director of the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia, said that these days, his students are skewing younger and less male than a decade ago, with nearly one-third attending on full scholarships.

“The world of the archive is actually considered pretty hip,” he said.

Of course, most entry-level collectors can’t plunk down hundreds of thousands of dollars for a first edition. But by frequenting estate sales and used bookstores, scouring eBay for hidden gems and learning how to spot value in all kinds of items, enthusiasts in their 20s and 30s have amassed collections that reflect their own tastes and interests.

Their work has been elevated by prizes from organizations and sellers such as Honey & Wax in Brooklyn, which recognize efforts to create “the most ingenious, or thoughtful, or original collections,” as opposed to the most valuable, Professor Suarez said. As a result, they are helping to shape the next generation of a hobby, and a rarefied trade.

The Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America, a trade group with more than 450 members, hopes to see that change. The group started a diversity initiative in 2020 to “encourage and promote the participation of L.G.B.T.Q.+, BIPOC, and underrepresented groups in the world of book collecting and the trade,” Susan Benne, the organization’s executive director, wrote in an email. The group also introduced a paid internship program placing participants at member firms.

Read full article here.

Press Release (05/13/2022)

For Immediate Release     

The highest Meritorious Achievement Award of the Council of Science Editors (CSE) granted to the

Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC)

Scholarly communication is a multi-billion-dollar global enterprise, however recent surveys suggest that it remains characterized by gender inequality and lack of ethnic diversity. Remediating these deficiencies is not only a moral imperative but it also offers an opportunity to improve research outcomes since diverse teams have been found to outperform homogeneous groups.

The Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC) was founded in 2017 to address these challenges and opportunities. Since that time, the organization has worked relentlessly, mobilizing committed volunteers, enrolling 100 trade and professional associations to adopt its Joint Statement of Principles, and developing a series of groundbreaking training guides, or Toolkits for Equity to aid in transforming scholarly communication workplaces and organizational cultures.

In recognition of these achievements, C4DISC was recently awarded the Council of Science Editors’ (CSE’s) Meritorious Achievement Award. CSE grants this award to individuals or organizations that made significant contributions to advancing the broad goal of CSE: to improve scientific communication through the pursuit of high standards in all activities connected with editing.

The award was accepted on behalf of C4DISC by the convener and the co-founder “Melanie Dolechek”, during CSE Annual Meeting Awards Luncheon on May 3^rd, in Phoenix, AZ.

“As the convener and a founding member of C4DISC, I am proud of how far C4DISC has come in a few short years and the work that we’ve accomplished so far. The response and support from the scholarly communications community has been inspiring, to say the least. The passion that our community has for doing this work is reflected in the countless volunteer hours that have already been dedicated to developing community resources.

The Coalition was built for our community, by our community. It exists because we’ve collectively acknowledged that to ensure sustainability, equity, growth, and access, our industry must commit to long-term efforts to curb the deeply ingrained patterns of exclusion and inequity in our practices, policies, and frameworks.” – Melanie Dolechek, Executive Director, SSP.

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.

The 10 core members are: the Association of University Presses, the Council of Science Editors (CSE), the international Society of Managing & Technical Editors (ISMTE), the Canadian Association of Learned Journals (CALJ/ACRS), the Library Publishing Coalition, NASIG (formerly the North American Serials Interest Group, Inc.), the Open Access Publishing Association (OASPA), the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP), and the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP).

Media Contact:

Ana Vera Wynne, Community Manager

Rescognito

anavera@rescognito.com

Contact number +1 617 775-1337

https://rescognito.com

You can find the PDF version of this article here.

You can find CSE’s post here.