Promoting Diverse, Equitable, & Inclusive Publishing Practices at the University of Florida

Perry Collins, Chelsea Johnston, Haradja Torrens, and Suzanne Stapleton

Promoting Diverse, Equitable, & Inclusive Publishing Practices at the University of Florida by LibraryPress@UF is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

This book was produced with Pressbooks.

Contents

- Introduction

- Why DEI?

- Define your stakeholders

- Improve transparency

- Collaborate globally

- Authorship and acknowledgment

- Citation

- Peer review and implicit bias

- Make content accessible

- Support your team

- Reach your audience

- Florida OJ Editorial Policy Guidelines

- Policies

- Archiving

- Crafting calls for papers

- Subscriptions and fees

- Accessibility checklist

- Accessible Online Environments Accessibility Checklist

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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:

“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 cjohnston@ufl.edu with questions or concerns about your publication.

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Why DEI?

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in publishing represents both a set of guidelines for ethical publishing practices as well as a growing body of research that demonstrates the potential for innovation and collaboration when drawing on a range of perspectives and lived experiences.

Why foreground diversity, equity, and inclusion onto the work of scholarly publishing? For journals that employ open calls for papers and consistent modes of anonymous peer review, it may be tempting to consider our processes fair and inclusive. When we note disparities—e.g., we receive manuscripts from mostly white authors—we may attribute these to broader inequities, “pipeline” problems, or lack of representation in our disciplines rather than our own publishing practice.

This guide asserts that journal editors, authors, and publishers play a major role in reinforcing or subverting these biases across academia. As the Antiracism Toolkit for Allies (released by the Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communications) suggests, “To ensure that scholarly publications reach their widest possible audience and provide scholars a transparent and equitable path to publication, unimpeded by bias, it is essential that our industry address the systemic role that racism plays” (2021). By accepting this as a responsibility all of us share, we can work together to undertake concrete, feasible actions. Rather than undertaking the work of DEI separately from other aspects of publishing, we seek to highlight how our policies, workflows, communications, and scholarship may contribute to a stronger, more just research ecosystem.

Defining our terms

Diversity, equity, and inclusion—along with other terms such as justice and antiracism—are often used interchangeably or grouped to represent a complex set of values and practices. This guide refers frequently to “DEI”; we define these as distinct terms that should build upon one another to lead to long-term change:

- Diversity: Representation of individuals or organizations with varied perspectives and lived experiences based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, (dis)ability, neurodiversity, socioeconomic status, nationality, language, or other factors. Diversity may speak to who is at the table (e.g., the makeup of an editorial board) but does not necessarily address the systems or dynamics that reinforce bias.

- Equity: Recognition of the explicit policies and implicit practices that may prevent individuals and groups from accessing or sharing knowledge or from receiving acknowledgment for their intellectual labor. Equitable publications also consider disparities in wealth and technology when developing plans for financial sustainability and access.

- Inclusion: Sustained action and long-term stewardship of policies and practices informed by a diverse set of perspectives. Inclusive journals consider diversity and equity consistently throughout the publishing process and make changes based on the needs and experiences of minoritized stakeholders.

What can journals committed to DEI achieve?

Research in neuroscience and psychology has delved into the potential to identify and undermine our individual and implicit biases over time, leveraging the brain’s “neuroplasticity” (Agarwal, 2020). But such biases remain unchallenged unless we intentionally seek out and value the perspectives of those with different professional and lived experiences rooted in a range of identities. Across disciplines, the evidence is overwhelming that while minoritized researchers and students are often underrepresented and under-acknowledged for their work, bringing together a diversity of perspectives is crucial to high-quality scholarship (Hofstra et al., 2020). Prioritizing DEI is key to accomplishing transparency, transnationality, and innovation. Most importantly, these principles are crucial to academia’s stated values of ethical research.

We believe that diverse teams—especially those that prioritize and amplify the perspectives of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC)—work to:

- Capitalize on innovative ideas and broader perspectives.

- Outperform homogenous teams.

- Improve recruitment and retention of authors, stakeholders, readers.

- Promote ethical practice and enhance cultural responsiveness.

- Promote more effective dissemination of knowledge.

Our commitment to DEI

The LibraryPress@UF adheres to the Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communications Joint Statement of Principles. We are committed to:

1. Eliminating barriers to participation, extending equitable opportunities across all stakeholders, and ensuring that our practices and policies promote equitable treatment and do not allow, condone, or result in discrimination;

2. Creating and maintaining an environment that respects diverse traditions, heritages, and experiences;

3. Promoting diversity in all staff, volunteers, and audiences, including full participation in programs, policy formulation, and decision-making;

4. Raising awareness about career opportunities in our industries to groups who are currently underrepresented in the workforce;

5. Supporting our members in achieving diversity and inclusion within their organizations.

References and resources

Agarwal, P. (2020, April 12). What neuroimaging can tell us about our unconscious biases. Scientific American Blog Network. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/what-neuroimaging-can-tell-us-about-our-unconscious-biases/

Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communications. (n.d.). The antiracism toolkit for allies. Retrieved June 17, 2021 from https://c4disc.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/toolkits-for-equity_antiracism_allies.pdf

Hofstra, B., Kulkarni, V. V., Muñoz-Najar Galvez, S., He, B., Jurafsky, D., & McFarland, D. A. (2020). The diversity–innovation paradox in science. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , 117 (17), 9284-9291. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1915378117

Define your stakeholders

Understand who currently contributes to your publication, who you would like to contribute, and how you can better meet stakeholders’ needs.

Any well-designed project considers the needs and perspectives of its audience. For a scholarly journal, this may include not only readers, but also authors, editors, reviewers, designers, and other publication staff. It’s likely there are a variety of interests and needs within these groups depending on factors such as career status, institution type, and geographic location. By better defining your journals’ stakeholders, you should be able to make more strategic decisions when crafting journal policies, outreach plans, and accessible website design.

One common technique is to develop user personas, or fictionalized profiles of specific individuals who represent larger groups of stakeholders. But good user personas are not stereotypes. To use them effectively, you should do some research and involve real stakeholders however possible. For instance, if you are seeking to improve gender representation among your authors, you could collaborate with a subject librarian to identify publications that address this issue across your field. You could also invite a small group of women as well as non-binary, genderqueer, and other gender-minority scholars and graduate students to chat about the ways they identify journals in which to publish and what obstacles they anticipate or have faced. (If possible, try to compensate them with a meal, gift card, or honorarium.) Based on what you learn, you could then create one or more user personas that assign specific attributes, perceptions, and needs to a fictionalized author or reader.

Next steps to defining your audience

- Identify your stakeholders. If you have already launched your journal, who are you reaching? Who would you like to include?

- Research stakeholder needs. Literature reviews, surveys, and informal discussions are all useful tools, but try to reach beyond your existing network.

- Develop user personas. Based on your research, you may want to create profiles that represent the various stakeholders you hope to include.

References and resources

McDaniel, C., & Suffern, C. (2020, August 31). Conducting virtual focus groups: A short methodology case study for social scientists. Ithaka S+R. https://sr.ithaka.org/blog/conducting-virtual-focus-groups/

Penn State. Universal design with personas. Pennsylvania State University World Campus. https://sites.psu.edu/personas/

Improve transparency

Document and share your journal’s policies and behind-the-scenes workflows. Remember that for many authors and potential audiences, academic publishing is an opaque system.

Principles of Transparency in Scholarly Publishing (COPE, 2015)

Transparency is one indicator of a journal’s quality. It is crucial that policies and processes are well-documented to demonstrate that the journal is working toward equity and inclusion. While journal publishing best practices can vary depending on disciplinary and geographic norms, publicly documenting your policies and workflows benefits all publications. What do you do, and why do you do it? Being open about your policies and practices helps your authors determine if your journal is a good fit for their work, your editors (both current and potential) understand the work needed to produce the journal, and your audience establish their trust with your journal.

Editorial teams should also take care to assess policies and practices on an annual or biannual basis. You may also want to periodically reach out to your editorial board, readers, authors, or other stakeholders to ask them what questions they have that you could better document on the journal website. For UF-based editors working within Florida Online Journals, Open Journal Systems (OJS) offers prompts for author and reviewer guidelines, conflict of interest policies, copyright statements, and privacy policies. The LibraryPress@UF also maintains a template of suggested language for editorial policies, which we encourage our editors to use and adapt.

In 2015, the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and allied organizations released the Principles of Transparency in Scholarly Publishing. While this document is not comprehensive and does not explicitly mention DEI, it is a good starting point for any journal hoping to establish trust with its intended audience.

Craft a diversity statement

Clearly stating a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is one step to signal to authors and readers that your journal values and seeks out a range of perspectives. Whether such a statement stands alone or is incorporated into your mission statement, journal staff should refer to this language when developing journal policies, writing author and peer reviewer guidance, and reaching out to your community. See a robust example from The Georgetown Law Journal and a local example from the New Florida Journal of Anthropology.

While a diversity statement in publishing instigates openness, inclusion, and participation, the first principle of diversity could be translated into transparency. Transparency requires publications to include information about the representation of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disparities in background, disability, language, and culture into publications.

This can be achieved by assuring that communications are open and clear. Examples include statements (such as a diversity statement), activities (such as a call for papers), the scope of the editorial board, policies on authors’ rights, policies on archiving frequently updated websites and/or social media channels, and clear information about subscriptions.

Transparency is a valued role in researching; its importance has risen dramatically since scientists and policymakers initiated this debate.

Collaborate globally

Navigating an international research ecosystem is challenging, but US-based journals can take steps to encourage international submissions and foster a global culture of scholarly generosity.

A widely recognized source of inequity in scholarly publishing is the lack of geographic diversity among editors, peer reviewers, and authors in US-based journals. The roots of this problem are vast and deep, reflecting histories of colonialism and the persistently insular nature of academic social networks.

Language and translation

One of the most obvious barriers for international authorship and readership is that most US journals require that manuscripts are submitted in English, but journals typically do not support translation. This presents a challenge for international scholars seeking a broader audience or responding to university and funding agency pressure to publish in highly cited journals. Consider if it is feasible for your journal to:

1. Translate your website, policies, and calls for papers into multiple languages. For UF-based editors publishing on Florida Online Journals, OJS (which powers the Florida OJ site) allows for easy toggling to a multi-language site. While added content of the site (like articles and editorial policies) will not be automatically translated, autogenerated content (like headers and navigation bars) will.

2. Publish articles in languages other than English.

3. Translate abstracts, summaries, and tables of contents into multiple languages.

4. Provide or refer authors to affordable, reputable editing services.

Cost to read or publish

The high cost of journal subscriptions and the fundamental principle that research—especially publicly funded research—should be freely available has given rise to the open access movement. However, as journals have lowered their paywalls to allow open readership, many have adopted a business model that requires authors and their institutions to pay fees (often called article processing charges) in order to publish. The LibraryPress@UF has established a policy to no longer accept journals that charge such fees, making this one step our journals have already taken to support inclusion.

Partnerships

In the long term, developing a reputation as a generous partner to international researchers may lead to richer collaboration. For instance, could you suggest a co-published special issue or offer to serve as a reviewer or translator? What about inviting international peers to participate on your journal’s editorial board? Seeking out authors and editorial staff from established or emerging publications led by international scholars is a good starting point. Consider the Directory of Open Access Journals as one access point for finding open access titles by discipline, language, and country of publication.

University of Florida Spotlight

- In 2017, an interdisciplinary team of UF researchers published “A persistent lack of international representation on editorial boards in environmental biology” in the open-access journal PLOS Biology . The article found that while the number of countries represented on 23 journals in the field increased from 1985-2014, only a small number of editors come from countries in the Global South.

- Distinguished Professor Emerita Carmen Deere has conducted extensive research on the publishing ecosystems of Latin America and the Caribbean in the context of international scholarly communication. In her 2018 essay “The Practice of Latin American Studies: The Dilemmas of Scholarly Communication,” Deere outlines major challenges both for Latin American scholars as well as journals in the U.S. seeking greater collaboration and inclusion.

References and resources

Curry, M.J., & Lillis, T. (2018, March 13). The dangers of English as lingua franca of journals. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2018/03/13/domination-english-language-journal-publishing-hurting-scholarship-many-countries

Gewin, V. (2018, August 14). Top tips for building and maintaining international collaborations. Nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05944-x

Yun Low, W., Ting Tong, W., & Gunasegaran, V. (2014). Constraints in journal publishing and international research collaboration in the Asia Pacific Region. International Journal of Information Science and Management (IJISM), Dec. 2014, 13-19. https://ijism.ricest.ac.ir/index.php/ijism/article/view/697

Authorship and acknowledgment

Don’t assume everyone shares a common understanding of authorship practices. Consider ways to encourage recognition of labor undertaken by researchers who often encounter inequities due to race, ethnicity, gender, geography, or other factors.

Norms of assigning authorship and giving credit to participants and contributors vary tremendously by field and discipline—or even by individual department or lab. There is often an assumption that potential authors implicitly understand and share these norms, creating an unnecessary barrier for early career or multidisciplinary researchers.

Who and how to list authors

It is crucial that author guidelines minimally clarify expectations regarding 1) who to list as a publication author; 2) the significance of the order of listed authors; and 3) any differences between those listed as authors versus those listed in the acknowledgments. Consider:

- Who is listed as an author: Contributors to a research article are typically listed as co-authors, and as research becomes increasingly collaborative the list of contributors—and the types of labor that merit co-authorship—might change. Consider getting specific about whether to list students, community partners, or collaborators supporting activities such as data management. The LibraryPress@UF can work with you to implement the CRediT Contributor Roles Taxonomy, which is used by publishers such as PLOS. While CRediT is not yet available as an plugin for Florida OJ, we can explore other avenues like adding acknowledgements to each article or adding CRediT to ORCID profiles.

- Author order: One 2018 study foundthat while women might increasingly be listed as first authors on multi-authored articles, they were less likely to be listed as corresponding or senior (often last) authors, factors that could undermine perceptions of expertise (Fox et al.).

Name changes and disambiguation

Consider establishing a name change policy that allows authors to modify names and/or pronouns associated with their published work. In 2020, LibraryPress@UF adopted such a policy and will work with any Florida OJ authors or editors to implement changes as needed.

You should also consider tools that will help support name changes across multiple platforms. ORCID is both a tool and platform that associates your scholarly record—your publications, grants, etc.—with a unique identifier that only you can use. One often overlooked benefit of ORCID is that it can promote equity by ensuring authors receive acknowledgment and credit for their work. As journal editors and publishers, we can encourage use of ORCID to support authors who wish to:

- Change their name or add alternative names. Even if a name is changed in an ORCID profile, the identifier remains the same and work continues to be associated with that individual.

- Disambiguate their name. Researchers may not be widely acknowledged for their work in cases where they share the same name as many other authors. This blog post by Nobuko Miyairi describes how ORCID has supported scholars in Asian Pacific countries such as China, India, and Korea.

University of Florida Spotlight

UF Chemistry Librarian Michelle Nolan advised on a change to American Chemical Society policy that will facilitate the society’s flagship journal in changing author names on previously published articles to support association of scholarship with the correct name due to reasons such as gender transition or religious conversion. Read about the change.

Author (copy)rights

Like many open access journal publishers, LibraryPress@UF advocates for authors to keep the rights to their publications, including the ability to share widely and even sell their work in other venues such as anthologies. Such policies are more equitable for authors, broaden the potential audience for published work, and can have a positive impact on citations; one study has found that “green” open access articles—those shared somewhere other than the journal of record—receive 33% more citations on average than traditional subscription-based articles.

References & resources

Committee on Publication Ethics. Authorship and contributorship. Retrieved June 12, 2021 from https://publicationethics.org/authorship

Piwowar, H., Priem, J., Larivière, V., Alperin, J.P., Matthias, L., Norlander, B., Farley, A., West, J., & Haustein S. ( 2018).   The state of OA: a large-scale analysis of the prevalence and impact of Open Access articles . PeerJ .   https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4375

Citation

Everyone should get credit for their work! Set policies and work with authors to extend citation networks and avoid minimizing the contributions of minoritized researchers.

Beyond providing information about authorship expectations, publications should intentionally encourage citation of POC, women and nonbinary individuals, and international colleagues. A growing body of literature demonstrates persistent bias in favor of white men when it comes to citation; one recent study in neuroscience found the disparity is continuing to increase rather than decrease (Bertolero et al., 2020).

Potential authors should be reminded of this in the guidelines. For instance, International Studies Quarterly includes a statement: “We strongly recommend that authors check their references to ensure inclusion of authors from disadvantaged groups. ISQ is committed to ensuring that scholars receive appropriate intellectual acknowledgement regardless of race, gender, class, professional standing, or other categorical attributes.”

This consideration should also be incorporated into peer reviewer criteria to keep authors accountable for their citation choices and the range of perspectives that inform their research.

Principles into Action: #CiteBlackWomen

Launched by Christen A. Smith in 2017, this campaign “acknowledges and honors Black women’s transnational intellectual production.” A look at the hashtag on social media reveals hundreds of thousands of posts dedicated to amplifying Black women’s voices and accomplishments, but also to critiquing persistent inequities in citation practice across disciplines.

Recently the hashtag has featured the work of Dr. Della V. Mosley, co-founder of Academics for Black Survival and Wellness and Assistant Professor of Psychology at UF.

References and resources

Bertolero, M. A., Dworkin, J. D., David, S. U., Lloreda, C. L., Srivastava, P., Stiso, J., Zhou, D., Dzirasa, K., Fair, D.A., Kaczkurkin, A. N., Marlin, B. J., Shohamy, D., Uddin, L. Q., Zurn, P., & Bassett, D. S. (2020). Racial and ethnic imbalance in neuroscience reference lists and intersections with gender.  bioRxiv.  https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.12.336230

Ray, Victor. (2018, April 27). The racial politics of citation. Inside Higher Ed .  https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2018/04/27/racial-exclusions-scholarly-citations-opinion

Peer review and implicit bias

Peer review can support constructive and generous feedback, or exclude and reinforce scholarly bias. Think about the review model that is best for making your journal more inclusive, and who should participate in the review process.

Review models & DEI

There is no perfect model for peer review that will magically resolve inequities in scholarly publishing. Journals should consider their options with a goal of minimizing biases and promoting constructive feedback.

- Open review: This form of review, where authors and reviewers are aware of the others’ identity, may encourage reviewers to write more empathetic and thoughtful reviews (which may or may not be shared publicly). Some forms of open review aim for inclusion by inviting a wide community to comment and critique an article before or after publication.

- Single-anonymous review: Often used where hiding the identity of the author is very difficult, this model may be prone to conscious or unconscious biases when it comes to factors like race or gender, or institutional prestige. Journals using this method should take special care in recruiting diverse reviewers and keeping a lookout for possible bias.

- Double-anonymous review: Maintaining the anonymity of both author and reviewer is one way to potentially reduce bias, though some reviewers may still make assumptions based on the content or style of the manuscript. One recent study found higher “desk rejection” rates from editors under this model versus a single-anonymous process, which may indicate some level of editorial bias.

- Triple-anonymous review: Editors have many of the same biases as peer reviewers, so this model hides authors’ identities even from journal leadership, with a journal staff member anonymizing submissions even before they hit the editor’s inbox. (OJS users should note the current platform does not easily accommodate triple-anonymous review.)

- Editorial review: Some journal sections—or in some cases entire journals—may not benefit from formal peer review and can rely on editors working in collaboration with authors. Consider where the peer review process is simply gatekeeping and potentially excluding new perspectives, and where it is necessary to improve submissions.

Principles into Action: Blind vs. Anonymous Review

The term “blind review” is ubiquitous throughout scholarly publishing, but how might it reinforce negative perspectives on disability? In a post for the American Philosophical Association blog, Rachel Ades offers a compelling argument for why we should stop equating “blind” with “unknowing” and move toward new terms like “anonymous” or “identity-hidden” to describe our peer review processes.

Recruiting reviewers

Journal staff have a responsibility to seek out a broad pool of reviewers who reflect and promote increased diversity among published authors. In turn, the diversity of editorial board members, who frequently recommend reviewers from their own networks, will have an impact on who reviews for the journal. Researchers have found that reviewer and editor “gatekeepers” tend to demonstrate some bias toward authors with similar characteristics such as gender or geography, which has privileged men and authors from North America and Europe. Some possible ways to help broaden the pool include:

- Take a look at the journal’s list of reviewers over time, considering any known factors such as gender, race or ethnicity. How do these demographics align with editorial board or authorship makeup?

- Just as some conferences have explicitly warned against “manels,” or all-male panels, ask editorial staff to avoid sending submissions only to white, male reviewers from North America and Europe.

- Requiring authors (including co-authors) to contribute at least one future peer review per article published.

- Explicitly allowing for “co-review,” where an invited peer reviewer works with a (typically less experienced) researcher to write the review. IOP Publishing launched a co-reviewer policy in 2020. This process can offer experience and credit for early career scholars.

References and resources

Gaston, T. (2019, January 10). Gender diversity in peer review. Wiley. https://www.wiley.com/network/archive/gender-diversity-in-peer-review

Meadows, A. (2018, September 13). Eight ways to tackle diversity and inclusion in peer review. The Scholarly Kitchen, Society for Scholarly Publishing. https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2018/09/13/eight-ways-to-tackle-diversity-and-inclusion-in-peer-review/

Murray, D., Siler, K., Larivière, V., Chan, W. M., Collings, A. M., Raymond, J., Sugimoto, C. R. (2019). Author-reviewer homophily in peer review. bioRxiv.  https://doi.org/10.1101/400515

Make content accessible

Aim to make accessibility an integrated part of your workflow, and not an afterthought.

For editors working on Florida OJ in OJS, PKP has created an in-depth guide on creating accessible online content. This includes general principles for creating accessible content (such as strategies for accessible hyperlinks, color contrast, and other formatting guidelines), as well as suggestions for creating accessible galley files for download from your journal. To review the PKP guide, visit Creating Accessible Content: A Guide for Journal Editors and Authors.

For more resources on making accessible content, check out the Accessibility Checklist adapted from resources from the UFIT Center for Instructional Technology and Training (CITT). CITT also provides a self-paced accessibility training called Accessibility Fundamentals that includes the checklist as well as further accessibility resources at UF and beyond. We highly recommend reviewing these excellent resources.

Support your team

Just as we aim to make our publishing policies and workflows more equitable and inclusive, we must turn inward to assess our teams’ relationships and the intersection of principles and practice.

Representation of traditionally marginalized groups is one common way to measure diversity on a team, but true equity and inclusion requires more. How do the individuals involved with your journal—including managing editors, associate editors, editorial board members, and other staff—support one another and hold each other accountable? Supporting your team helps retain and grow expertise in the long term.

Document internal expectations

Even publications with well-documented author guidelines and review policies may lack structures to facilitate strong internal communication. One starting point is to develop a short code of conduct for all journal meetings and email exchanges. Everyone working with the journal should have access to this document and should know it will be enforced. Any code should encourage mutual respect; endeavor to prevent discrimination, harassment, and unethical procedures; and provide information on how violations will be handled.

Champion graduate students and contingent faculty/staff

Journal leadership should seek out opportunities to highlight contributions from groups who are under-acknowledged to promote their advancement. As you consider your journal stakeholders, be sure to consider what roles students and non-tenure track team members may play. A few possibilities:

- Seek out ways to compensate individuals for their time, through assistantships or consulting honoraria. Even if you can’t pay every person on your journal team, make available professional development subsidies or consider reserving one or two paid spots for contingent researchers who might not be able to participate otherwise.

- During and after onboarding, ask about each person’s professional goals. How can journal roles be tailored to help meet those goals or provide specific experience?

- Provide opportunities for mentorship and growth, at all levels. This might include peer mentorship between more and less experienced members of the team.

Maintaining an editorial board

At the very least, editorial teams should be fully acknowledged to credit their work with the journal. Your editorial board (or editorial team) includes editors, subject editors, editorial assistants, copyeditors, production editors, interns, advisory board members, and other roles as applicable. Create a page with the names and affiliations of your editorial board. Consider introducing them more meaningfully by providing short bios or contact information. If it’s applicable to your publication, consider sharing personal goals, hobbies, and research interests. This humanizes your board members, helping authors see the people behind the positions and perhaps taking some of the intimidation factor out of publishing.

The New Florida Journal of Anthropology does a wonderful job of crediting and introducing their full editorial team on their website.

Editorial team meetings

While most editorial work can be done independently, taking time to meet as a team can help ensure that everyone is on the same page and work is running smoothly. Gathering to openly discuss submissions in progress, goals for future issues, and potential roadblocks in the editorial process can be very useful. Establish a schedule that works for your team. Perhaps you have a small team that collaborates frequently, and would benefit from monthly meetings. Maybe your journal has a larger editorial board and holds twice-yearly meetings to discuss major goals. Whatever the schedule, regular and productive meetings can help foster greater team support. At the beginning of each meeting, refer to your code of conduct. Especially for large teams, assign rotating roles; no one should be expected to take notes for every meeting, and there should always be a facilitator with responsibility for discouraging any one person from dominating the conversation.

Consider making some of your editorial team meetings open to the public or to selected stakeholders, depending on the needs and goals of your publication. These meetings could be used as a tool to engage your audience and enlighten your editorial board. This can be particularly effective with new publications, creating opportunities to invite veteran editors to share their experiences and lessons learned.

Suggestions for Inclusive Virtual Meetings

In 2020, we became even more familiar with the need for effective and enjoyable virtual meetings. There are a few strategies you can consider to make your virtual meetings successful, inclusive, and productive.

- Set an agenda. Provide all participants with an opportunity to add items for discussion or consideration. Share the final agenda with everyone before the meeting.

- Consider adding your pronouns to your display name. See this PDF handout from the LGBTQ+ Presidential Advisory Committee on the importance of including and using your pronouns.

- Set expectations for video use. Is video optional? Do you expect to see your attendees?

- Consider sharing information about virtual backgrounds (like this how-to guide from Zoom).

- If screen-share is a necessary part of the meeting but is unavailable to some participants, think about how you can include them (perhaps by sending the slides to be discussed along with the meeting agenda, so attendees can review on their own time).

References and resources

Gilbert, J. (n.d.). Guidelines for diversity and inclusion in crisis. Retrieved June 12, 2021 from https://www.cise.ufl.edu/~juan/CrisisGuidelines.pdf

Rock, D., Grant, H., & Grey, J. (2016, September 22). Diverse teams feel less comfortable — and that’s why they perform better. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2016/09/diverse-teams-feel-less-comfortable-and-thats-why-they-perform-better

Starvis, K., & Leacher, J. (2020, April 17). Tips for creating an inclusive virtual space. https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/tips-for-creating-an-inclusive-virtual-space/

Reach your audience

Leverage multiple platforms to connect readers—and potential authors and reviewers—with your journal.

Enhance your website

An informative website is key to attracting readers and authors, and LibraryPress@UF journals have access to Open Journal Systems (OJS) as a platform built by and for the academic publishing community. Even a very simple OJS website has space to share policies, updates, and other content. The importance of transparency in making your journal more inclusive cannot be overstated.

Revisit our section on improving transparency.

Consider (and question) indexing

Journal indexes or databases play an especially complex role in both amplifying awareness of researchers’ work and potentially reinforcing systemic inequities.

Most LibraryPress@UF journal content will be indexed in Google Scholar without editors taking any steps beyond hosting on OJS. As journals become more established and build a publication record, they may apply to a range of different databases such as the Emerging Sources Citation Index, Scopus, etc. These make journals easier to find and, depending on the discipline and audience, may heighten the perception that they are legitimate or high-quality.

Of course, such databases and the metrics they generate are inherently exclusive. For instance, Roh and Gabler (2020) offer one troubling example of a journal denied inclusion in Scopus based on bias and misinformation in the review process. Whether or not your journal pursues indexing in commercial databases, consider widely used and free resources accessible globally, such as the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). The LibraryPress@UF is committed to working with UF-based journals on Florida OJ to apply to DOAJ; contact Chelsea Johnston (cjohnston@ufl.edu) with questions or for more information.

Share in public

Simply publishing with LibraryPress@UF means your journal will be openly and freely available, a huge step toward promoting more equitable access to knowledge. But even if technically accessible online, how might you enhance the research represented in your journal by communicating it to broader audiences across disciplines or outside the academy? Whether framed as science communication, public humanities, public health, or journalism, consider how simple illustrations, interviews, blog posts, or other formats might extend the reach of your work.

University of Florida Spotlight

UF alumnus Michelle Barboza-Ramirez turned her interest in science communication into a podcast, “Femmes of STEM,” that “combats the false narrative that women and minorities are newcomers to the world of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).” After graduating with a master’s degree in vertebrate paleontology, Michelle now works at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Learn more about Michelle’s podcast in a video created by UF Communications’ Kristen Grace and Alyson Larson:

A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: https://ufl.pb.unizin.org/deipublishing/?p=48

References and resources

Canfield K.N., Menezes, S., Matsuda, S.B., Moore, A., Mosley Austin, A.N., Dewsbury, B.M., Feliú-Mójer, M.I., McDuffie,  K.W.B., Moore, K., Reich, C.A., Smith, H.M., & Taylor, C. (2020). Science Communication Demands a Critical Approach That Centers Inclusion, Equity, and Intersectionality. Frontiers in Communication 5. http://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2020.00002

Roh, C., & Gabler, V. (2020). Systemic barriers and allyship in library publishing: A case study reminder that no one is safe from racism. College & Research Libraries News, 81(3), 141. https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.81.3.141

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Florida OJ Editorial Policy Guidelines

Policies

Journal policies and submission requirements must be publicly stated and clear. Consider crafting both internal and external policies, requirements, and guidelines. The LibraryPress@UFoffers recommendations for journal policies to reflect better practices in scholarly publishing—contact Chelsea Johnstonfor more information. We’re also happy to consult with your editorial team if you’d like to write your own policies. Consider focusing on the following areas:

- Authorship. Generally, these are external-facing policies. An example would be a statement on what the journal will consider for publication, including authorship criteria, publishing ownership, and authors’ rights information.

- Submissions. These may be external or internal policies. Externally, consider statements that clarify the submission process. What is considered a duplicate submission, a redundant publication, a translation, and/or a summary? What are the journal’s stances on publication of academic material, such as theses, dissertations, or group research?

- Copyright and licensing. The policy for copyright and licensing should be clear and available for all published material. If the journal uses a Creative Commons license, that information should be clearly displayed on the journal’s About page as well as on the individual articles.

- Research misconduct. Consider preemptive policies and process that deal with allegations of research misconduct including plagiarism, citation manipulation, IRB, and data falsification/fabrication. Editors should plan reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred.

- Marketing and outreach. Advertising policies should be considered, and responsibilities allocated. Think about appointing a member of the editorial board to handle outreach and direct marketing activities.

Archiving

The LibraryPress@UF provides archival services for issues of UF-based journals on Florida OJ. While Florida OJ editorial teams don’t have to worry about the actual act of preserving the journal archives, they should consider sharing information about these services with their readers and authors. This can be done with a basic preservation policy.

Beyond archiving public journal content, editorial teams should think about ways to archive their internal documents, such as author agreements or workflow documents. This can be done easily through Florida OJ’s Publisher Library.

Crafting calls for papers

Consider an open and broad call for papers. Even if the call is restrained to a department or particular event, it is important to state which voices were translated into articles. Consider engaging current and former members of the department or institution, integrating voices that best represent the group.

Subscriptions and fees

While the majority of publications on Florida OJ are open access—and open access is the primary recommendation of the LibraryPress—it is important to be clear on journal fees, even if there are none. Any author fees for editing, translation, or reviewing should be stated, as well as any fees that are required for manuscript processing, publishing, or translating. Again, even if there are no fees, this information should be clearly stated. This information should be available to authors prior to submitting their manuscripts.

It is also important to state any revenue sources or business models on the journal’s About page for transparency.

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Accessibility checklist

The following checklist is adapted from UFIT Center for Instructional Technology and Training.

Accessible Online Environments Accessibility Checklist

This checklist includes common accessibility considerations but is not an exhaustive list. If you have additional questions, please contact UFIT’s Center for Instructional Technology and Training to request a consultation.

General Checklist

- Apply headings to chunk information

- Apply styles to ordered or unordered lists

- Provide concise and meaningful alternative text for images or visual elements

- Ensure that color contrast (between text and background or within diagrams and graphs) meets WCAG AA standards

- Check that color alone is not used to convey meaning

- Compose meaningful text for links that makes it clear what they link to

- Organize content into logical chunks of information

Specific Accessibility Considerations

eLearning

- Ensure that navigation is streamlined and does not contain unnecessary links

- Check that navigation, organization, and requirements maintain internal consistency

- Tables have a designated header row

Word

- The title is a Heading 1 from Styles

- The heading for each main topic is a Heading 2 from Styles

- Each sub-topic is a Heading 3 from Styles

- Color contrast meets WCAG standards

- All images, tables, graphs, shapes, and graphics contain appropriate alternative text

- Lists are created using the ordered or numbered styles

- Hyperlinks contain relevant information about the destination of the URL

- Tables have a designated header row

PowerPoint

- Check the reading order and ensure that a screen reader would present elements in the correct sequence

- Ensure each slide has a unique title

- Empty elements are deleted so as not to be read by screen readers

- Separate objects that are meant to be part of the same figure are grouped together

PDF

- Text is selectable

- PDF is tagged, and tags are reviewed for accuracy (e.g., heading levels, paragraphs, lists, images, tables are defined)

- Correct reading order is confirmed (especially important for a document with columns or textboxes)

- Alt Text is confirmed

- Language is defined

- Document title is meaningful and reflects the content of the document.

- PDF security permissions do not restrict access for someone using assistive technology.

- PDF has been reviewed with Read Out Loud tool to confirm that fonts are readable and reading order is accurate

Video

- Apply captioning to videos or lectures using UF Captioning Request, YouTube, or another service.

- Describe images verbally in the lecture and include those descriptions in your transcript.

- Link to copies of slides and transcripts next to each video in your course.