This short guide synthesizes a range of current research and best practices to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in scholarly publishing. Geared toward journal staff, faculty, and students at the University of Florida, the guide contextualizes publishing considerations such as authorship, peer review, and marketing while providing concrete strategies to include a range of perspectives and to address disparities in access to information. The guide may also be useful in other institutional and publishing contexts.
In addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion, the guide references distinct concepts that encourage us to consider not only who is represented—on editorial boards and among peer reviewers, authors, and audiences—but also what opportunities journal stakeholders have to share their perspectives and how publications’ policies, design, and outreach strategies represent these voices.
The Library Publishing Coalition’s “An Ethical Framework for Library Publishing” offers the statement below as a starting point for understanding the scope of these issues; while this statement is written in the context of publishing activities undertaken by libraries, it extends to other areas of scholarly publishing as well.
“Diversity can apply to library publishing in several ways: diversifying the library publishing workforce to be more reflective of societal demographics; ensuring library publishing systems and outputs are accessible to the widest range of users; and utilizing library publishing to increase the diversity of voices and formats represented in the scholarly record. Broadly considered, diversity can encompass a range of personal identities and lived experiences, including, but not limited to, race, ethnicity, nationality, gender identity, sexual orientation, ability, socioeconomic status, education, technological literacy, and family status.”
We recognize that every journal operates differently, with unique content, workflows, and goals. We welcome the opportunity to consider and discuss your situation. Please contact Chelsea Johnston, Scholarly Publishing and Repository Librarian, at DigPart-Staff@ufl.edu with questions or concerns about your publication.
This guide is published as part of the “By and From the LibraryPress@UF” series, which promulgates best practices and experimental work that pushes boundaries in support of community and capacity development.
