While a growing awareness of racial disparities has resulted in a groundswell of support for inclusivity in scholarly publishing, the resulting initiatives would be more effective if our professional associations were able to provide training materials to help transform our workplaces and organizational cultures. As evidence of the interest and need, the project leaders of this guide have been contacted by individuals across scholarly publishing asking for resources about how to replicate workplace equity groups, what to do in cases of discrimination or microaggressions, and how to begin conversations about race.
In support of necessary change, the Toolkits for Equity project leaders submitted a proposal to the 2019 Triangle Scholarly Communications Institute to create three toolkits to provide resources for our community, for allies, for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, and for organizations. Taking the model from the American Alliance of Museums’ guides for transgender inclusion, these toolkits provide a common framework for analysis, a shared vocabulary, and best practices to address racial disparities specific to the scholarly publishing community. C4DISC is proud to host the Toolkits for Equity Project. Two of the three toolkits can be downloaded below.
This effort is the work of many dedicated volunteers. If you’re interested in participating in the development of forthcoming toolkits, please complete the working group application and indicate which toolkit(s) you’d like to help with.
View A Focused Toolkit for Journal Editors and Publishers: Building Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in Editorial Roles and Peer Review
This new toolkit aims to support all those seeking to build a more inclusive editorial and reviewer community. The toolkit recommends practical and relevant actions for editors and publishers to take to create broad representation on editorial boards and to ensure fairness and minimization of bias in the peer review process.
Five major recommendations are explored:
1) Actions to develop an inclusive culture and mission
2) Steps on collecting and reporting demographic data to guide goal setting and actions to increase diversity
3) Recruiting broadly and intentionally to increase participation from marginalized communities
4) Creating opportunities for experience and growing skills in core scholarship areas
5) Actions based on resources such as bias-free language guidelines and more equitable peer review models to increase equity in the peer review process.
Translations of this toolkit in Spanish and Portuguese will be coming soon.
View the Guidelines on Inclusive Language and Images in Scholarly Communication>>>
The Guidelines on Inclusive Language and Images in Scholarly Communication are a global tool, educational resource, and living archive to help all authors, editors, and reviewers recognize the use of language and images that are inclusive and culturally sensitive. The Guidelines can be used at various steps of the scholarly publishing process, such as manuscript writing, peer review, and presentation of published output. They came together due to the growing need for more comprehensive and global guidelines for inclusive language and images. The Guidelines are meant to never be “finished” as we call on the entire scholarly publishing community to help grow and improve the Guidelines over time by suggesting new references, recommendations, and resources.
View the Antiracism Toolkit for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color>>>
Navigating academic publishing as a racialized person, be it Black, Indigenous, or from another racialized group, can be a very challenging experience. In 2018 the Scholarly Kitchen published a series of articles that showcased brave, personal testimonies from Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) across different organizations. The scholarly publishing industry has renewed its commitment to addressing the issues endemic to its structure since the publication of these Scholarly Kitchen articles. The Toolkits for Equity project emerged as one such mechanism to work toward a more equitable, affirming, and just industry. The contributors of the newest toolkit, the Antiracism Toolkit for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color felt the ways in which the opportunity to confide securely with other BIPOC staff in our careers helped validate our experiences, gain new perspectives, and brought comfort in knowing that we are not alone in our struggles and joys as we do our work and navigate our careers. In other words, the contributors of this toolkit, BIPOC-identifying publishing professionals of all levels from across the United States and Canada, envision it as a conversation between us, as well as a resource for future generations of BIPOC workers who will enter the academic publishing industry. It draws largely from personal experience as a legitimate and generative source of knowledge.
The two previous toolkits, the Antiracism Toolkit for Allies and the Antiracism Toolkit for Organizations, continue to serve as wonderful resources to understand the structural problems that exist within the industry, to gain a working analysis of antiracism, and to access resources for individuals and institutions looking to be more inclusive. While this toolkit is meant to be primarily for a BIPOC readership, we welcome everyone to read, learn from, and engage with each other to create better work cultures for everyone.
View the Antiracism Toolkit for Organizations>>>
Building equity and promoting antiracism at organizations are not the jobs of specific individuals but are collective responsibilities. This toolkit, written by a multiracial group of industry professionals, is intended to help individuals at all levels within scholarly publishing organizations implement inclusive policies, procedures, and norms.
Through this toolkit, we provide tools for organizations to understand institutionalized racism, to better support staff who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), and to better serve BIPOC authors, readers, and reviewers.
The Antiracism Toolkit for Organizations is available as a download.
View the Antiracism Toolkit for Allies>>
The Antiracism Toolkit for Allies provides analyses of white advantage and information about how to disrupt racism and create work communities where everyone thrives. We wrote a guide specifically for white people because white supremacy grants unearned advantages to whites. The work of recognizing these advantages and actively resisting racism is the most crucial work that white people can embrace in order to create meaningful change.
Order Printed Copies of TFA>>
Duke University Press is offering printed copies of the Antiracism Toolkits for Allies at cost if you’d prefer to have a printed version for yourself or your entire team.
Use of Toolkits
The content contained within each of the Toolkits for Equity in Scholarly Publishing is for informational and educational purposes only. It is NOT intended to be used as legal advice. Always research local, state, and national laws and consult with a lawyer before making any legal decisions regarding workplace antiracism.
This document is published under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. As a result, you are free to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and remix, transform, and build upon the material. However, we ask that if you are adapting or customizing the content that you not substantially dilute the language or materially alter the spirit in which the content was originally written. We welcome others’ efforts to customize these guides to reflect their own specific contexts (regional, professional, etc.).
You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. You may NOT use the material for commercial purposes. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
This license does NOT extend to third-party content, text or images, that has been cited. Please contact the original authors of any third-party content if you wish to reuse or adapt.
If you are using this toolkit, we’d love to hear about it so we can track its impact in our community. Please contact the publishers directly at [email protected] to let us know how the toolkits have helped you or your organization.
If you would like to provide feedback, you can do so directly on the PubPub page and you can also use this form to communicate with us.
A Focused Toolkit for Journal Editors and Publishers: Building Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in Editorial Roles and Peer Review
- Susan J. Harris, American Psychological Association
- Shaina Lange, American Society of Nephrology
- Allison Leung, American Chemical Society
- Chenyue Jiao, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Megan McCarty, J&J Editorial
- Lillian Wang Selonick, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Robin Baldwin, IEEE Computer Society
- Todd Baldwin, Sage
- Patty Baskin, American Academy of Neurology
- Chhavi Chauhan, American Society for Investigative Pathology
- Alice Meadows, MoreBrains Cooperative
- Amanda Rogers, BioOne
- Damita Snow, American Society of Civil Engineers
Design elements by:
- Jane Harris, illustrations (https://www.janeharrisoriginals.com/)
- Dawn Zumbahlen, design input & infographics (https://one2onecreative.co/)
Guidelines on Inclusive Language and Images in Scholarly Communication
- Sabrina Ashwell, American Chemical Society
- Amber Avila, George Washington University
- Patty Baskin, American Academy of Neurology
- Roshan Cader, Wits University Press
- Carolyn Davis Cockey, MLS, LCCE, Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN)
- Naomi Curston, Intellect Books
- Claire D’Andola, Wiley
- Sara DiBari, Journal of American Medical Association Psychiatry
- Kim Eggleston, IOP Publishing
- Catherine Forest, American Society of Clinical Oncology
- Brian E. Giblin, Oxford University Press
- Habeeb Ibrahim, King Saud University
- Francie Likis, Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health
- Wendy Lochner, Columbia University Press
- Lisa McAllister, Wolters Kluwer
- Stephan Meyer, University of Basel
- Saeide Mirzaei, University of Minnesota
- Brooke Morris-Chott, Core, a division of the American Library Association
- Jenny Peng, Oxford University Press
- Mia Ricci, American Geophysical Union
- Thomas Roche, University of Georgia Press
- Amy Rollason, Intellect Books
- Damita Snow, CAE, American Society of Civil Engineers
- C.A. Townsend, Freelancer
- Randy Townsend, PLOS
- Helena Pérez Valle, eLife
Toolkits for Equity Project Leaders
- Niccole Leilanionapae‘aina Coggins, American Psychological Association
- Gisela Fosado, Duke University Press
- Jocelyn Dawson, Duke University Press
- Melanie Dolechek, Society for Scholarly Publishing
- Alejandra Mejia, Duke University Press
- Damita Snow, American Society of Civil Engineers
- Kerry Webb, The University of Texas Press
Antiracism Toolkit for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color
- Martha Alvarado Anderson, University of Arkansas
- Amber Avila, George Washington University
- Mike Baccam, University of Washington Press
- Thane Chambers, University of Alberta
- Niccole Coggins, American Psychological Association
- Christina Davies, GRAPHEK
- Harrison W. Inefuku, Iowa State University
- Ellen Kim, GRAPHEK
- Walter Kim, GRAPHEK
- Shaina Lange, American Chemical Society
- Nancy Lu, GRAPHEK
- Rebecca S. McLeod, Harvard University
- Alejandra M. Mejía, Duke University Press
- Swapna Padhye, Oxford University Press
- Mark A. Puente, Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies
- Nhora Lucía Serrano, PhD, Hamilton College
- Damita Snow, CAE, American Society of Civil Engineers
- Dawit Tegbaru, Knowledge Futures Group
- Randy Townsend, George Washington University and Public Library of Science
- Jasmine Wallace, American Society for Microbiology
- Kerry E. Webb, University of Texas Press
Antiracism Toolkit for Organizations Contributors and Participants
- Axelle Ahanhanzo, Elsevier
- Elizabeth Ault, Duke University Press
- Avtar Banse, Elsevier
- Linda Bathgate, Washington State University Press
- Elizabeth Beltramini, Association of College Unions International
- Gabrielle Bethancourt-Hughes, George Washington University
- Gwendolyn Blue, American Society of Civil Engineers
- Phillip Bogdan, Research Square Company
- Ellen C. Bush, University of North Carolina Press
- Khalfani Cargill, Knowledge Futures Group
- Amanda Clark, George Washington University
- David Congdon, University Press of Kansas
- Jocelyn Dawson, Duke University Press
- Matisen Douglas, George Washington University
- Beth Fuget, University of Washington Press
- Christine Gendy, George Washington University
- Sarah Godlin, George Washington University
- Corrine Gosling, George Washington University
- Jade Grogan, Bloomsbury Academic
- Stephanie Lovegrove Hansen, Silverchair
- Gabe Harp
- Christie Henry, Princeton University Press
- Maxine Herman-Oakley, Elsevier
- Erin Landis, American Gastroenterological Association
- Kiarah Lee, George Washington University
- Arielle Lewis, George Washington University
- Babe Liberman, Digital Promise
- Wendy Lochner, Columbia University Press
- Sunni Losito, MSMI, American Gastroenterological Association
- Cason Lynley, Duke University Press
- Sadie Markley, George Washington University
- Brenna McLaughlin, Association of University Presses
- Olivia Mills, George Washington University
- Vanessa Morris, Elsevier
- Laura Niven, Annual Reviews
- Abby Norton, George Washington University
- Elliott Parris, Elsevier
- Penny Penic, Jones Lang LaSalle
- Karen Phillips, SAGE Publishing
- Eva Podgoršek, Elsevier
- Stephanie L. Pollock, American Psychological Association
- Mark A. Puente, Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies
- Sarah Ritchie, Wiley
- Lily Rodriguez, Wiley
- Bill Rowan, National Asphalt Pavement Association
- Diana Samuel, The Lancet
- Kim Shankle, American Society for Microbiology
- Graham Smith, Springer Nature
- Damita Snow, CAE, American Society of Civil Engineers
- Madelene Sutton, AIP Publishing
- Dawit Tegbaru, Knowledge Futures Group
- Jamaal Thompson, Panorama Education
- Randy Townsend, MPS, American Geophysical Union and George Washington University
- Ambriah Underwood, George Washington University
- Erin Valentine, J&J Editorial
- Elizabeth Von Mann, George Washington University
- Jeri Wachter, Independent Producer/Consultant
- John W. Warren, George Washington University
- Sarah Williamson, MA, American Gastroenterological Association
- Emily Zoss, National Gallery of Art
Antiracism Toolkit for Allies Contributors and Participants
- Elizabeth Ault, Duke University Press
- Mike Baccam, University of Washington Press
- Brielle Bennett, American Geophysical Union
- Peter Berkery, Association of University Presses
- Amy Ruth Buchanan, Duke University Press
- Ellen C. Bush, University of North Carolina Press
- Niccole Leilanionapaeʻaina Coggins, University of Virginia Press
- Jocelyn Dawson, Duke University Press
- Melanie Dolechek, Society for Scholarly Publishing
- Gisela Fosado, Duke University Press
- Catherine Harding-Wiltshire, The BMJ
- Christie Henry, Princeton University Press
- Wesley Hogan, Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University
- Sylvia Izzo Hunter, Inera, an Atypon company
- Sandra Korn, Duke University Press
- Dennis Lloyd, University of Wisconsin Press
- Joel T. Luber, Duke University Press
- Brenna McLaughlin, Association of University Presses
- Alejandra Mejía, Duke University Press
- Melanie S. Morrison, Allies for Change
- Hanni Nabahe, University of Virginia
- Jill Petty, W. K. Kellogg Foundation
- Karen Phillips, SAGE Publishing
- Mark A. Puente, Association of Research Libraries
- Cathy Rimer-Surles, Duke University Press
- Damita Snow, American Society of Civil Engineers
- Cecilia Sorochin, University of Virginia Press
- Susan Spilka, TBI Communications
- Simone Taylor, AIP Publishing
- Camille Wright, Duke University Press