Category: Voices

Five years after the landmark Workplace Equity Survey first benchmarked the state of diversity, inclusion, and equity (DEI) in the scholarly publishing industry, a second iteration was conducted early in the summer of 2023. We are now analyzing the data to uncover whether real change, as measured through workplace experiences and perceptions, resulted from the pandemic’s workplace disruptions and the public reckoning about racial and gender injustice. A future-facing instrument, the survey will pick up on emerging needs to help forge a more equitable path forward to the individuals and organizations in our industry. A full report on the results is scheduled for release early in 2024.

Passing the Torch

For the WE Survey to be sustainable, it needs to be a long-term industry commitment, measuring change over time and evolving with new voices and fresh perspectives. Vital to that is succession planning, and so we are proud to report a generational shift in survey leadership. Of the original founders – Simone Taylor, Susan Spilka, and Jeri Wachter – only Simone is continuing in her original role as project leader; the others have stepped back (though not bowed out) as their professional lives change. Chhavi Chauhan has leaned into the challenge to co-direct the project with Simone, and many others have taken on the responsibility for the project’s foundational roles.

This post introduces three more of the survey’s next generation: Anne Stone, who is leading marketing; communications for the 2023 survey, who spoke with Camille Lemieux (Springer Nature) and Paige Wooden (American Geophysical Union), the pair who are currently analyzing the 2023 data and comparing it to 2018’s baseline – which is a huge undertaking outside their day jobs, both of which make them uniquely prepared for the task at hand.

Anne: When the WE Survey founders Simone, Susan, and Jeri started working in publishing in the ’80s and ‘90s, the top jobs were filled with mostly white males, while the industry was, and remains, majority female. There were barely any people of color. A senior leader once told Susan, “she can take the fast track or the mommy track,” in response to a colleague’s request for a flexible work arrangement after maternity leave. I’ve seen walls and meeting rooms lined with portraits of the white men and thought, “those send the wrong message and need to come down!” We have made progress since then – just look at how so many publishers are now run by women. But we are definitely not there yet!

Paige: It’s hard for me to evaluate what we’re doing by looking back. Of course, I’ve read about the feminist movement, but I’m not emotionally connected to measuring our progress against past milestones. I grew up in a world where girls were equal. Title 9 had already happened. I never felt that because I was a girl I was less or couldn’t do something boys were doing. My impression was that girls were as smart and could compete for better grades than boys (we also matured earlier!) I wasn’t aware of any discrimination. I am looking to the future and what that will look like. There is a lot of work to do… for example, around career breaks – being able to continue to progress in your career if you take some leave.

Anne: The perspectives that you — Camille (early career) and Paige (mid-career) – bring will deliver us to a better future, with your unwavering commitment to improving inclusivity and creating respectful workplaces where people feel they belong.

About the Data Analysts

Camille is relatively new to scholarly publishing, having joined Springer Nature (SN) in 2022 as a Global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Manager after working in research and evaluation at global non-profit EDC. At Springer Nature, she sets and monitors key performance indicators (KPIs) for the company’s internal DEI programs and conducts evaluations to understand program efficacy. Her passion for social justice issues led her to the DEI position, where she has “the privilege of working in a community of more than 10,000+ people to improve their workplace experience.” She leads an annual internal inclusion and diversity survey to gather feedback from colleagues across the organization about their day-to-day experiences related to inclusion and equity. As with the WE Survey, the responses are analyzed by demographics, business area, and location to determine how the DEI team can better plan its initiatives throughout the year – an annual practice that underpins the DEI program’s success.

Camille says she is fortunate because every day she works closely with people who are invested in promoting an inclusive environment: “We provide formal DEI training and are committed to giving people the tools and information they need to foster inclusive environments.” She sees the impact of Springer Nature’s eight DEI employee networks. More than 1,400 colleagues in over 35 chapters at company locations have created a sense of community around the world. “I am really proud to see through our surveys that the network members tend to experience more inclusion than non-members. There’s so much potential here to tap into.”

Paige has been in publishing for 15 years; before that, as an undergraduate, she worked in a university library. She brings a unique and valuable skill set to the WE Survey analysis. For most of her career, she has managed peer review. She switched to doing data analytics four years ago, a role where “I take large uniquely structured data sets and shape them into databases — sets of relational tables — which facilitates my identification of significant insights and trends.” “Our community of scholarly publishers is mostly women, whereas the scientific community that my organization serves is mostly men. In the past, everything about hiring was the resumé, what the candidate had to offer – but that is changing. In recent years as we have become more culturally aware that someone’s unique personal experiences can provide additional value to what they offer, and AGU has prioritized recruiting/hiring more diverse teams. If we’re going to do things differently from the way that they’ve always been done, we need diverse perspectives. To dismantle the racism, sexism, etc. that is baked into our systems, we need to question the structures put into place long ago.

At AGU now, DEI is being integrated into everything we do, from bringing in more diverse candidates, making sure that’s also true for our society honors and awards, to showcasing individuals from underrepresented demographic groups. AGU stepped up to deal with the sensitive topic of field-work dangers for women due to harassment by co-sponsoring a summit, Sexual Harassment in the Sciences: A Call to Respond. We also launched a program called Thriving Earth Exchange connecting our expert geoscientist members to local communities to provide expert guidance for dealing with pressing societal issues.”

About the Analysis

Camille: “It’s always interesting to see who’s responding to surveys. Though the analysis of the 2023 WE Survey is still underway, the demographics show greater participation of individuals from marginalized communities — there are significantly more people of color and people with disabilities responding, for example, than there were in 2018, bringing more voices and perspectives into the work we are all doing to communicate science and scholarship. There appears to be a wide range of feedback that will provide many interesting stories and perspectives in the industry. One surprise: I anticipated that people from marginalized communities might report less positive workplace experiences, but I’m seeing a lot of nuances. We are seeing things through an intersectional lens. I can relate to this — when I experience a microaggression, it’s hard to know which aspect of my identity (e.g., age, ethnicity, gender, physical conditions) are being challenged. I think we all benefit from some privileges and struggle with some barriers because of our many identities. The analysis we will perform on this data before the end of the year will give us more insight into this. I think we should look forward to some potentially surprising stories when we present the report!”

Paige: We’re creating demographic slices of the responses. Each piece of data is coded and linked by a unique anonymized user ID for each person who takes the survey. The ID is assigned by Survey Monkey, and there is no privacy risk. Anne wrapped up the interview with a question about what they foresaw happening as a result
of the 2023 survey.

Camille: I hope that the survey results motivate organizations to enact positive change, partner up, and conduct more research to advance DEI. Even though this is a broad landscape study, there are ways to realize the insights, which we can propose through recommendations in the report.

Paige: Maybe we need to create a Toolkit to provide organizations support in bringing the insights to life?

Their responses sound like calls to action! Who’s ready to sign up? Don’t miss Paige Wooden and Anne Stone’s presentation on the Workplace Equity Project, at
the GW Ethics in Publishing Conference today (October 12, 2023). You can see them in person or watch them remotely (no charge for the latter), by registering at:

https://calendar.gwu.edu/event/ethics_in_publishing?utm_campaign=widget&utm_medium=widget&utm_source=GW+Calendar

Anne Stone, SSP DEI Committee member| September 14, 2023

Study after study shows stark disparities across the research ecosystem, including scholarly publishing. Effecting change is a daunting challenge that demands sustained commitment.  In their recommendations, colleagues in the Society Publishers’ Coalition (SocPC) offer six routes to inclusive publishing with many program ideas and examples. Erin Landis, Managing Director, Origin Editorial, introduces this 2023 guidance document and shares her inspiration for action in this interview.

The Interview

1. What inspired you and your SocPC colleagues to provide guidance for journal publishers on equity, diversity, and inclusion?

In the summer of 2020, the global social and racial justice movement led SocPC to acknowledge that bias exists in publishing processes and policies, historically excluded individuals are underrepresented in all stages of publishing, and stark disparities can be seen through many lenses. At the time, I was Vice President of Publications at the American Gastroenterological Association and I felt moved to act yet overwhelmed by how to begin to make a difference.  I was looking for resources, and while there were many, it was overwhelming knowing how to navigate them or which to pursue.

SocPC is a member organization of over a hundred learned societies, community publishers, and charities. The collective experience and expertise of individual members is a great resource. Several of us met as a writing group based on our shared interest in DEI. The recommendations document is a result of our collaboration to serve journal publishers as a guide on their DEI journeys related to gender and race and ethnicity.  As the group was based in North America and Western Europe, what we included may not necessarily apply in all parts of the world. We couldn’t make the recommendations exhaustive – our goal was to create an approachable resource.

2. How can these recommendations be helpful to organizations that are starting to build their DEI programs or have them in place?

There are so many ways to approach matters of DEI, and so much work to be done. The writing team first identified six categories to explore: Policies & Statements, Training/Education/Awareness, Peer Review, Processes, People, and Open Scholarship. Within each topic, there are myriad ideas to pursue. Journal publishers asking, “What can we do that would have the most impact?”, “How do we know how big of a problem we have with our journals?”, or “How do we demonstrate progress?” will find ideas for initiatives which can be simple or more complex to implement. Our document offers resources, tools such as the C4DISC Toolkits for Equity, and examples to meet journals “where they are.” Wherever your journal is on the path toward greater diversity, equity, and inclusion, the recommendations guide will have something for you and your editors to consider.

3. Since 2020, has there been any research to show progress in DEI across the research and scholarly communications ecosystem?

When we released the recommendations in June 2023, a landscape scan of published research on DEI in research and scholarly publishing illustrates that pervasive gender and ethnic disparities in research awards and employment persist. There is some evidence as to how these differences are reflected in researchers’ publishing outcomes. For example, a Royal Society of Chemistry analysis of 700,000 submissions, revealed bias against women at every stage of the publishing process. PNAS published research on 1 million papers from six publishers which found disparities for non-White scientists in editorial board representation, time spent under review, and citation rates, all of which potentially hinder research careers.

The research is not yet abundant, but society and commercial publishers are taking action. Over 50 publishers representing more than 15,000 journals are signatories to the Joint Commitment for Action on Inclusion and Diversity in Publishing. A steering committee was formed in July 2023 to guide a major undertaking to collect and analyze demographic data concerning authors, editors, and reviewers, as well as the authorship status and outcomes of peer review. This promising beginning will enable longitudinal research which can reveal the pace of meaningful change for research publication. For anyone building a bibliography of research on DEI in scholarly communications, I hope the references in the landscape scan will be helpful.

Within the scholarly publishing industry, C4DISC will publish a report in early 2024 with findings from the second Workplace Equity (WE) survey.  We anticipate interesting comparisons to the demographics and significant results of 2018 WE survey regarding workplace culture and inclusivity. With the support of C4DISC and people and organizations across the industry, we are excited to have 1,756 responses which are more globally representative than in 2018.

4. What drives you to volunteer on initiatives including the SocPC Recommendations and C4DISC’s Workplace Equity survey?

I think I have always had an acute desire for people to feel as though they belong, are treated fairly, and have access to the resources and opportunities they need to be successful in whatever path they choose. I am an innately inclusive person and so when the events of 2020 transpired, my desire to do something within our industry was a natural extension of who I am as a person. I wanted to help affect change and the way I saw being able to do that was to get involved. I cherish the opportunity to learn from others as they grapple with these issues and believe that the best way to move our industry forward to is pursue the recommendations set forth in the SocPC document, as well as the many other efforts underway. I know we’ll stumble as we move forward, but I feel confident that even our missteps will help scholarly publishing become more diverse, inclusive, and equitable.

---

To read more from Erin’s dive into the research and background for the recommendations, visit Stark Disparities in Scholarly Publishing Persist–What Can Your Journal Do to Influence Change?

Please download the Society Publishers’ Coalition Recommendations for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Initiatives for Society Publishers

Divya Nair (Cactus Communications) & Mia Ricci (Wiley), C4DISC Communications and Outreach Committee

June witnesses a month-long global celebration of Pride every year. Pride month is a time to recall the trials the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) community has endured and to rejoice in the triumphs of trailblazing individuals who have bravely fought — and continue to fight — for full equality.  Pride is both a jubilant communal celebration of visibility and a personal celebration of self-worth and dignity. 

Pride month is also an opportunity to reinforce the importance of inclusion and diversity both in and out of the workplace. In honor of the Pride month, C4DISC spoke to two members from the scholarly communications space, who champion and advocate for the LGBTQ+ community: Avram Anderson from Macalester College and Kristen Moledo from Wiley.

With thanks to: our interviewees Avram and Kristen, and C4DISC C&O Committee members Megan Seyler and Ana Maria Jimenez-Moreno.

The Interviews

Avram Anderson Electronic Resources Librarian at Macalester College, Member of NISO DEIA Committee

1. Can you talk about how and why you got involved in your advocacy efforts at Macalester and NISO, and the larger scholarly communications industry?

Over the past four years, I have been studying the factors that result in systematic discrimination against and censorship of LGBTQ information across a variety of online platforms such as Google, YouTube, and Facebook to contribute to the scholarly understanding of the intended and unintended consequences of algorithms and automated decision-making processes, and to inform policy in the development and regulation of these technologies to forestall harmful impacts to users. I’ve also been working closely with other information professionals to understand how systemic bias might be introduced into library information systems.

As a member and advocate of the LGBTQI+ community researching LGBTQ censorship, in print and online, some of my recent publications include “Queer Erasure” in the Spring 2020 issue of Index on Censorship, “Stonewalled: Establishment Media’s Silence on the Trump Administration’s Crusade against LGBTQ People,” featured in Censored 2020, “The Corporate Media Failed to Warn Us About the Trump Admin’s Attack on LGBTQ Workers”, at In These Times, and “Corporate Media Biases Threaten the Passage of Landmark LGBTQ Protections”, in Truthout.

Additionally, my colleagues and I at Macalester College were developing a plan to conduct a diversity, equity and inclusion audit of our collections at the DeWitt Wallace Library. We partnered with a faculty member teaching a course on data storytelling and their students analyzed a small subset of the library collection to provide insight about diversity issues. This sparked a conversation surrounding metadata and information standards and the possibility of disrupting the issue at the point of ingest into library systems.

I wanted to work with the NISO DEIA Committee to share the insights that I’ve gleaned from my research and offer my perspective on DEIA related issues as a member of the LGBTQ community.

2. What are some of the aims or goals of the NISO DEIA Committee?

The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility committee will serve as a resource to the NISO community, including the NISO Board, the staff, Topic Committees, Working Groups, and other

committees, providing guidance on issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and will advocate for under- represented groups in our community.

The newly-formed DEI Committee will play a central role in improving DEIA, including running a virtual workshop, which will focus on identifying and prioritizing concrete actions that NISO can take to support and increase diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the information community.

3. Do you have suggestions on what organizations can do to better supports LGBTQ+ employees? 

Creating and fostering a culture of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility is vital to reduce barriers for members of the LGBTQ community. If the organization isn’t creating an inclusive and equitable space, there is the possibility that employees will leave or they will be quite unhappy. The Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index is a national benchmarking tool that measures policies, practices and benefits for LGBTQ employees and could be utilized as a place to start learning about how to adopt practices that ensure equality in the workplace.

Organizations should foster a culture of inclusion by taking steps such as:

• Creating a gender-neutral environment by using gender neutral language, including preferred pronouns in communication, create gender neutral bathrooms, and supporting gender transition in the workplace
• Don’t force people to select one gender or race on forms
• Establish LGBTQ employee affinity groups
• Adding sexual orientation and gender identity to non-discrimination policies – the Supreme Court ruled (Bostock v. Clayton County, June 2020) that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is the equivalent of sex discrimination and is therefore illegal under title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Support the local LGBTQ community and invest in local LGBTQ owned and operated businesses
• Offer LGBTQ-friendly benefits
• Implement organization-wide diversity training
• Provide specific training for managers and leaders
• Listen to and validate LGBTQ experiences and engage in courageous conversations

4. Can you recommend organizations to support to those who might be interested in getting involved in helping advocate for the LGBTQ+ community?

Fueled by the spate of anti-trans bills and the pandemic, 2021 is on pace to be the deadliest year for trans and gender non-conforming Americans particularity impacting Black and Latinx transgender women. Advocating for the community is critical at this juncture. There are many organizations that serve the LGBTQ community in different ways. It’s important to acknowledge the LGBTQ community from various angles to diversify your perspective and increase your awareness if you’re looking to contribute or get involved with advocacy work.

• The Trevor Project – provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ young people.
• The Trans Women of Color Collective – provides affirming spaces for trans and gender non-conforming people of color such as Safe Houses in D.C., Missouri, and Jamaica. The Safe House offer services like meals, counseling and mentoring. The TWOCC also cultivates economic opportunities through wellness initiatives and community funds that are in turn distributed to trans women of color around the world.
• GLSEN – Their mission is to ensure that every member of every school community is valued and respected regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.
• Human Rights Campaign – the largest LGBTQ advocacy group and LGBTQ political lobbying organization in the United States. The HRC seeks to fundamentally change the way LGBTQ people are treated in their everyday lives through shedding light on injustice, transforming institutions and communities and forming strategic partnerships to advance meaningful change.

Kristen Moledo Director of Content Marketing and Social Media at Wiley

Regional Chair for Pride @ Wiley

Member of C4DISC Communications & Outreach Committee

1. How did you get involved in the scholarly communications industry?

I started my career in the higher education space then moved to our Research division. Now I get to work across our businesses at Wiley. I love that everything we do is centered around learning. It’s the key to evolving as people, as a society – and I think that’s a very special and important mission.

2.  Can you talk about how and why you got involved with Pride @ Wiley and C4DISC?

When a few people came together to form Pride @ Wiley, it was an easy decision to get involved. I’ve always been out in my professional life and felt comfortable and supported at work but that’s not a given for everyone. I wanted to contribute to creating an environment where other LGBTQ+ people knew that they had a community here. We wanted to create a known safe place for people to be exactly who they are. An ERG cannot do that alone, but it can contribute to creating a certain workplace culture. The other element that was important to me was being at the table for decisions that impact people but where specific considerations of the LGBTQ+ community can be forgotten – healthcare and benefits, parental leave, pronoun usage, and more.

To ever so subtly plug C4DISC ☺️, I wanted to get involved in this group because I truly think our industry has a collective responsibility to do better. One organization alone could never accomplish what 25 member and partner organizations can do together. There comes a time when collaboration is much more important than competition.

3. What are some of the goals of Pride @ WIley? We’d love to hear about some of the initiatives or activities that have been taken by the group!

I probably answered some of this in the previous question, oops! But basically, our goal is to build a supportive community for our LGBTQ+ teammates, work across the company to ensure activities are done through an inclusive lens, and to have information for allies so they can treat allyship as a verb. This Pride month we are highlighting Black queer musicians in collaboration with our Black Employee Resource Group (BERG). We’ve put together an LGBTQ+ movie bracket tournament which was inspired by the best food tournament our Asian & Pacific Islander (API) ERG did for AAPI heritage month. We are also partnering with PFLAG’s Straight for Equality program, which everyone at Wiley was able to join. And our editorial team has curated LGBTQ+ specific research articles on our RISE site, which is all about social awareness through evidence-based research. So, it’s a bit of education mixed in with some lighter activities that just get people understanding more about the queer community. We believe that through education and personal storytelling, we can help create a more inclusive climate. Pre-covid we would through one heck of a Pride party, too!  

4. Do you have suggestions on what organizations can do to better supports LGBTQ+ employees? 

I really believe that a key first step is active listening and knowing that there is work to be done to get to a better place. Then it’s about having open conversations about solutions if there are existing problems. There should be expectations across the board on what values you have as a company, and the expectations of leadership and employees. One of our Wiley values is to be a “courageous teammate.” This can be expressed in numerous ways – calling out microaggressions, respectfully debating issues – and we are measured on these values. Just like for anyone, HR policies and benefits are extremely important, too. For as long as they’ve existed, policies and benefits have been created through a heteronormative lens. This is certainly changing but it’s nowhere near where it should be for the LGBTQ+ community. So, largely I think companies need to put investment behind the support they vocalize but that might often end there.

5. What are some specific LGBTQ+ friendly benefits or healthcare options that an organization can curate and provide to its employees?

Companies should look at healthcare and benefits such as: fertility coverage that doesn’t require proof of medically diagnosed “infertility”; healthcare rights for trans people like coverage related to medical transitions including many that are considered elective by other plans; helping with adoption costs; and making sure you have a good non-birthing parent parental leave policy. At least in the US, our government classifies maternity leave under “disability.” That basically translate to not having any parental leave unless you’ve given birth. Children are brought into a family in many ways and those parents and children deserve paid leave during that time. If you have employees located in countries that do not provide this level of support, be the company that does it for them.

6. Can you recommend organizations to support to those who might be interested in getting involved in helping advocate for the LGBTQ+ community?

There are so many great organizations out there that a quick search could bring up based on your location and issue you are most interested in helping to solve. But I think there is such power in advocating through conversations. Don’t be afraid to call out a homophobic comment at a family party. Talk to your kids about the beauty of people’s differences. Unlearn harmful language we’ve become desensitized to. Buy your products from an LGBTQ+ owned company. Advocacy and allyship can come in so many different forms and you should find the one that feels most natural for you.

Personally, some of my favorites are the ones focused on LGBTQ+ youth, who are at such a high risk for homelessness, depression and suicide:

• Happy Hippie Foundation (doesn’t hurt that this one was created by queer icon, Miley Cyrus!)
• The Trevor Project (a longstanding and incredibly effective organization)

Dr. Geraldine L. Cochran, Assistant Professor of Professional Practice in the School of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Rutgers University | May 25, 2021

In 2018, Dr. Cochran published an article in the Scholarly Kitchen:The Problem with Diversity, Inclusion, & Equity. Of course, a lot has changed since 2018; in this post, Dr. Cochran reflects on how the COVID-19 pandemic and racial justice revolution has influenced her and her thinking.

It is always interesting to revisit my own writing. Although my values have remained fairly constant over the last decade, with each year my mission becomes a little clearer. In like manner, my understanding of how to fulfill my mission deepens. Since writing The Problem with Diversity, Inclusion, & Equity in 2018, I realize there are two things that I will commit to doing in the future: more intentionally engaging in activism and sharing the personal experiences of marginalized and minoritized people, including my own.

Last year I found myself overwhelmed, depressed, and angered by the inequities and injustices that were highlighted and exacerbated by the multiple crises of 2020: the health crisis caused by the global pandemic, the associated economic crisis, and the civil uprisings due to racialized violence against Black people. During this time, it was quite difficult for me to work and I realized something that I have known for some time, but rarely discussed: Efforts to increase diversity, create inclusive environments, and address existing inequities should include activism. It should include activism in our communities and our workplaces. One way in which we engage in activism is by supporting and participating in the activities of social justice – oriented movements, such as the #Strike4BlackLives held on June 10, 2020 organized by Particles for Justice in collaboration with ShutDownSTEM and VanguardSTEM. As a university faculty member, I found it helpful to read (and reread) an article by Michelle Salazar Pérez and Eloise William on activism that is rooted in Black Feminist Theory. In this article, the authors provide suggestions and concrete examples of how to engage in activism to address specific domains of power identified by Patricia Hill Collins in Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Construction, and the Politics of Power and other sources.  Sometimes it is helpful to have a plan of action, especially when you are already committed to engaging in the work. The article by Salazar Peréz and William’s helped me to create that.

My students encouraged me to engage in a study on the student experience during spring of 2020. Though it was difficult to find funding – I refused to ask students to engage in any form of academic labor without compensation, especially during an economic crisis – we were able to secure some financial support from the American Physical Society’s Forum on Education. In that study, we identified four forms of injustice that impacted students’ experiences: racial injustice, economic injustice, access inequity, environmental inequity, and inadequate support for mental health. Creating an inclusive classroom space is not enough. Increasing the diversity of the student population is not enough. Engaging in activism to address the inequities that students face is necessary because it absolutely affects their experiences and performances in the classroom. The preliminary results of that work have been accepted for publication in the 2021 Conference Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education. Another key finding was the role of students in supporting their peers. These students were engaging in activism. In fact, I believe this study also played a role in my desire to more intentionally engage in activism and share the experiences of those marginalized and minoritized in education.

At some point during my graduate education, I decided that I would no longer give talks about my experiences in education that included my personal experience with racism, sexism, and classism.  I wanted to avoid what I perceived as an obligation to justify these experiences as valid and my decision to label them as racist, sexist, or classist. Moreover, I no longer wanted to revisit trauma in the name of educating others. However, as I grieve the loss of 8 loved ones, including 3 family members, that have passed in 2021, I continue to reflect on the words of one of my colleagues who I am both fond of and respect: “the pandemic hasn’t been that bad. It’s definitely been an inconvenience, working from home isn’t easy on any of us.” This person failed to recognize the impact that the pandemic was having on people outside of his household and family. I was angered and hurt by his comments, but I later took the time to share the impact that the pandemic has had on me and my family. I think that conversation raised his awareness of his privilege and according to him motivated him to action.    

To conclude, the post I wrote for the Scholarly Kitchen in 2018 differentiated between equity, inclusion, and diversity and offered some suggestions on how we might strive for these three things, but it failed to mention two important ways of doing so: engaging in activism and centering the experiences of minoritized and marginalized people.

Mia Ricci, Publisher at Wiley and Co-Chair of C4DISC Communications & Outreach Committee | May 25, 2021

In celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the US, I had the pleasure of representing C4DISC in four sit-down interviews with API colleagues who are working towards greater diversity, equity, and inclusion in our shared industry of scholarly communications.

The Heritage Month feels different this year (as it did last year). The API community (US and global) has seen a drastic increase in hate crimes targeting us and our loved ones since the start of the pandemic. Our friends, families, and colleagues in India are fighting a devastating battle against a new coronavirus surge. It’s more important than ever that we show up and support each other. Later in this article you can find excellent suggestions from our interview guests of organizations you can help support.

I see an important part of this “showing-up” as creating space to listen, learn, and converse as a community. AAPI Heritage Month is intended to be a period to pay tribute and recognize contributions and achievements of AAPIs. It is also a time of celebration. This intent is also shared by C4DISC, with its Vision to celebrate those who seek to contribute to scholarly communications and within its Values: to welcome diverse perspectives and to make space for marginalized voices.

About a week ago I read about a survey commissioned by Leading Asian Americans to Unite for Change (LAAUNCH). One of the survey’s key findings show that 42% surveyed in the US can’t name a single prominent Asian American. It was upsetting to read, and it also reminded me of the underrepresentation of APIs in scholarly communications. Sitting down writing this article, I’m overjoyed to be sharing the stories of these API colleagues who are making an impact in our industry.

The five scholarly communications leaders I interviewed share a few commonalities: they are members of the API community, they’re passionate, active, committed in their DE&I efforts, and I found them all to be immensely inspiring. That, is something to celebrate.

We at the Coalition thank our interviewees Caeul Lim, Gita Manaktala, Charlotte Roh, Toni Chow, and Jinnie Kim for taking part in this Spotlight Interview series.

We hope that you’ll enjoy these interviews. C4DISC will continue to celebrate API colleagues and colleagues from all underrepresented groups as part of our commitment for diversity and inclusion. Contact us if you like to be involved!

With thanks to:

Megan Seyler, C4DISC Comms & Outreach Committee member and video editor and Ana Maria Jimenez-Moreno, C4DISC Community Administrator.

The Interviews

Caeul Lim, PhD

Scientific Editor and Inclusion & Diversity Officer, Cell Press

https://youtu.be/CQixtOtmJ_4

 

Caeul Lim is originally from South Korea, although she spent most of her formative years in Mauritania. She earned her PhD from Harvard University in 2016 in the department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases. After her postdoctoral research at the National Institute of Health, she joined Cell Press in 2018 as a Scientific Editor at Cell Host & Microbe and the Trends Reviews portfolio. This year, she has taken the additional role of Cell Press’ Inclusion & Diversity officer, where she oversees initiatives to increase inclusion, equity and diversity in publishing and in the scientific community.

 

Resources:

• Diversity & inclusion at CellPress
• Minor Feelings, a book by Cathy Park Hong
• The Akshaya Patra Foundation: Known for its school lunch program across India, Akshaya Patra has started a COVID-19 relief service. As of today, it has distributed 1,06,55,875 cooked meals & 4,12,231 grocery kits to people from low-income groups.
• British Asian Trust: An international development organization delivering high-quality programs in South Asia, and with a specific Oxygen for India emergency appeal (organization recommended by our colleagues at TNQ)

 

Gita Manaktala

Editorial Director, MIT Press

 

Gita Manaktala is the Editorial Director of the MIT Press, a publisher of scholarship at the intersection of the arts, sciences, and technology. Known for intellectual daring and distinctive design, MIT Press books push the boundaries of knowledge in fields from contemporary art and architecture to the sciences, computing, design, economics, environmental studies, linguistics, media studies, and STS. Gita’s own acquisitions are in the areas of information science and communication. Until 2009, she served as the press’s marketing director with responsibility for worldwide promotion and sales. She has served on the board of directors of the Association of American University Presses and co-chaired its first diversity and inclusion task force, which led to a standing committee dedicated to Equity, Justice, and Inclusion. She is a regular speaker on topics in scholarly communication and publishing.

 

 

 

Resources:

• Mellon University Press Diversity Fellowship Program
• Homeland Elegies and American Dervish, books by Ayad Akhtar
• American India Foundation

 

 

Charlotte Roh

Scholarly Communications Librarian and Faculty, University of San Francisco

Charlotte Roh is the Scholarly Communications Librarian at the University of San Francisco and identifies as a straight cis-gender Korean American woman who works on Raymatush Ohlone land. Her most recent publication is the “Letter to Asian Diasporic Library Workers” in up//root, written in response to a racist incident in library publishing. 

Resources:

• Library Publishing Coalition’s Ethical Framework
• ACRL scholarly communications research agenda
• Pachinko, book by Min Jin Lee
• Asian Americans by PBS
• “Did You Eat?”: Unspoken Ways Love Shows Up in Asian Communities by the James Beard Foundation
• Asian Americans Advancing Justice
• Asian Prisoner Support Committee (APSC)
• Asian Mental Health Collective

 

 

Toni Chow and Jinnie Kim

Toni Chow is the Global Employee Experience Lead and Co-Chair of Asian & Pacific Islander Employee Resource Group, Wiley

and

 

Jinnie Kim is a Publisher and Co-Chair of Asian & Pacific Islander Employee Resource Group, Wiley

Toni Chow is the Global Employee Experience Lead at Wiley, a new role created that is dedicated to culture and colleague engagement.  Prior to that she spent over twenty years supporting C Suite executives including the last 5 CEOs.  Her passion is giving voice to those who don’t usually get the platform and ensuring inclusion and belonging.  Her commitment to DE&I issues include raising awareness systematic inequities in hopes that it can be addressed so that the next generation will not go through the same challenges.  Based in New Jersey, she has raised two children in a diverse community and to never doubt their right to be their full authentic selves.

Jinnie Kim is currently a Publisher at Wiley with responsibility for a large society journals portfolio in the larger cell and molecular program within its Research division. Jinnie has held a variety of roles within scientific publishing for over 20 years and particularly enjoys working with and supporting the mission of large scholarly organizations across the life sciences. She is passionate about DE&I issues and is a proud AAPI who spends many weekends marching for justice between arranging playdates for her 7-year-old. She is based in Chicago.

 

Resources:

• RISE Special Collection: Celebrating API Heritage Month
• Wedding Banquet, a film by Ang Lee
• The Hundred-Foot Journey, a film by Lasse Hallström
• Parasite, a film by Bong Joon Ho
• Burning, a film by Chang-Dong Lee
• The Farewell, a film by Lulu Wang

Susan Spilka, Strategic Communications, PR, Internal Comms, Marketing, and Business Development Consultant/Advisor | November 27, 2019

There isn’t a magic formula for transforming scholarly publishing workplaces to make them more diverse, inclusive, and equitable. But it’s a no brainer for companies to address obvious disparities.

The Scholarly Publishing Status Quo – With global collaboration the norm, one gap that stands out like a sore thumb is how the industry treats new parents in the U.S. Most scholarly publishing companies and organizations offer U.S.-based employees a greatly abbreviated benefit compared to what they offer staff in other countries.

This is largely because there is no federal mandate for paid leave, and state requirements (while changing) are inconsistent — and none come anywhere close to what was required in 2016 by Germany (58 weeks), Japan (58 weeks), Canada (52 weeks), France (42 weeks), and the UK (39 weeks), all countries where our industry is active. The Workplace Equity Survey data highlighted these geographic disparities. For example, 30% fewer North Americans were able to take at least 12-week long parental leaves than Northern Europeans (54% of whom took 6-12 months off, compared to only 8% in North America). The picture these data paint is more positive than the U.S. reality because the WE Survey’s North American segment includes Canada, where new parents are entitled to a year’s leave.

What Does the Research Show? – The benefits of paid parental leave are well established anecdotally and in research literature. Time off, especially if it shared or divided between the two parents, results in better health (fewer hospitalizations and antibiotics) for the baby and birthing parent, lowered anxiety, and improved bonding. It’s not just the families who gain – companies that offer paid family and medical leave enjoy higher productivity, lower turnover and absenteeism, better morale, and a stronger bottom line. One example: when Google increased maternity leave from 12 weeks to 18 weeks, quit rates among new mothers decreased 50%. The evidence is clear: paid parental leave delivers a myriad of benefits to workers, businesses, and national economies.

Overall Leave  – In the U.S., the only national benefit is the Family Medical Leave Act, which was passed in 1993 (revised in 2015) to guarantee that employees retain their jobs during 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for themselves and/or family members, under certain circumstances. Despite the FMLA, alarming data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics report that a quarter of new moms take less than a month off. Only half of them take five+ weeks, and a quarter take nine+ weeks. The average maternity leave in the U.S. lasts 10 weeks, a far cry below the FMLA’s 12-week entitlement, the 14 weeks recommended by the World Health Organization, and the 16 weeks recommended by the New America Foundation.

More disturbing is that much of it is unpaid. The U.S. is one of five countries worldwide (and the only industrialized nation) that does not require companies to provide paid parental leave. Out of 173 countries studied, 168 countries have mandated leave with income to women in connection with childbirth; 98 of these countries offer 14 or more weeks paid leave. Sixty-six countries ensure that fathers have a right to paid parental leave and 31 of them offer them at least 14 weeks. No surprise, but the U.S. does not guarantee fathers any paid parental benefit and the result is that few new fathers take leave.

Because the U.S. does not mandate any wage replacement during parental leave, the majority of new parents are left to self-fund some or all of their time off. Most can count on limited short-term disability pay, which provides the birthing parent with 6 weeks partial wage replacement to cover their physical recovery (2 weeks more for a C-section). The other common source of income during parental leave is accrued PTO. This benefit is limited since the availability and rules are up to individual companies.  According to a national survey of employers conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), only 16% of private-industry employees had access to paid family leave (separate from other leave categories) through their employer in March 2018.

There are a host of other related issues that must also be addressed, but I’ll park them for today other than flagging a few of them: how leave time taken affects future compensation and contributes to the gender pay gap, insurance/benefits coverage after the FMLA period ends, and workplace flexibility after leave to balance demands.

Paid Leave – To document the situation in the U.S. scholarly publishing industry, earlier this year I put out an informal call for information on leave policies via SSP’s C3 online community. Colleagues from eight organizations responded, including four nonprofit publishers, one large commercial publisher, one university press, and two publishing services companies. More than half of them did not offer more than what was statutorily required (combined FMLA and STD), while a few offered supplements of full or partial wages for anywhere from 4-13 weeks. I was pleased to see that two had recently enhanced their offering. As this was an informal query, I cannot vouch that it is broadly representative, but it appears to reflect overall trends.

With no U.S. government mandate, the question is, “why should any company do more than they have to?” To gain some perspective, I propose we look to Silicon Valley, where they are paying attention to the rest of the world AND the research that we publish. Netflix is offering new parents 52 weeks, Microsoft and Airbnb, 22 weeks, Twitter and Amazon, 20 weeks, to name a few. Don’t forget: those are the folks who disrupted and transformed publishing. We better pay attention if we want to remain competitive.

Making it Personal – My own experience bears testimony to what the research demonstrates. Twenty-seven years ago, when my daughter was born, I was working as a marketing manager for a government agency and was able to use 100 days of unused sick leave, accrued over nine years, to cover my maternity leave. Because of my 20-week paid leave, I was able to help my child recover from a birth accident (and pay the hefty co-insurance for six days in a neonatal ICU), bond with her without distraction and financial stress, regain my energy, and arrange for care for when I went back to work. Later, when I accepted a position at a scholarly publisher, my new boss (also a mother) permitted me work remotely one day a week — as long as I wasn’t primary caregiver during working hours. I understood her rationale, happily complied, and worked much harder and more efficiently than I ever had before.

Managing through parental leave is very challenging for companies and teams. I know from experience — it wasn’t easy when I managed a group of young professionals through our own baby boom. The new moms were back at work before their babies were sleeping through the night, but it still put a lot on the rest of us to carry their loads while they were at home and then when they were transitioning back to work. There was a silver lining, however; our team grew stronger and more collaborative as a result of having each others’ backs. On the other hand, I’ll never forget being told to turn down one direct report’s request for flex-time during her transition back from parental leave (otherwise sanctioned by the company with managerial approval), suggesting I ask her whether she was on “a career track or a mommy track.” No one should have to have conversations like that one.

Call to Action – Over the past decade there has been a massive generational shift in our industry, along with its digital transformation. Most of the workforce is in “the rush hour of life,” the period when professional and family demands too often collide. Raising the bar on paid parental leave in the U.S. — to begin to catch up with the rest of the world — makes good business sense, and it’s the right thing to do. Let’s call upon our companies and organizations to step up to this challenge.

Karen Phillips, SVP Global Learning Resources and UK Editorial, SAGE Publishing | July 4, 2019

---

Originally published by the Workplace Equity Project.

Amanda Myrkalo | March 4, 2018

Frauke G. Ralf | Feb 24, 2018

---

Originally published by the Workplace Equity Project.