C4DISC | Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communications

Reminder of the next DEIA Community of Practice bimonthly call on Thursday this week (June 13). These calls are informal non-recorded conversations about different areas of DEIA (suggested by community members) intended to help answer questions, surface challenges and build 1-2-1 connections of use. June's theme: Accessibility The goal is to provide a holistic understanding of how to integrate accessibility into every facet of organizational operations, ensuring an inclusive environment for all individuals, including those with disabilities. We hope attendees will cover many aspects of accessibility within an organization, from developing and implementing policies and guidelines to inclusive practices and how companies enable employees with disabilities to perform their roles effectively. Given the extensive information on accessibility and its critical importance for organizations, we will take a top-level general approach and see what comes up and we anticipate holding additional calls on focused areas within the realm of accessibility in future calls.   Potential Discussion Points: Policies & Guidelines, Inclusive Practices, Workplace Accommodations 🔸 Policies & Guidelines- Developing clear and comprehensive accessibility policies and guidelines is the first step towards ensuring an inclusive workplace. These policies should outline the organization’s commitment to accessibility and provide a framework for action.   🔸 Inclusive Practices- Inclusive practices go beyond policies, embedding accessibility into the daily operations and culture of the organization.   🔸 Workplace Accommodations- Providing workplace accommodations is essential to enable employees with disabilities to perform their roles effectively. These accommodations can be diverse and should be tailored to individual needs. •  What internal policies and guidelines does your company have in place to ensure accessibility? •  What are the biggest accessibility challenges from your organization's perspective? •  What steps do you take to foster an inclusive culture for employees with disabilities? •  How do you gather and act on feedback from employees regarding accessibility issues? •  How do you ensure the workplace environment (physical and digital) is accessible? Join the community here if you haven't already to be invited to the call so you can share your experience and learn from others - https://lnkd.in/g27_sn3f

Perks are nice. I like fruit and snacks. Nice coffee and a selection of cool beverages in the office. But what people really want (and need) from an employer is a genuine commitment to a healthy work environment that stems from a values-driven culture and is born out in the actions and words of leaders throughout an organization.

Forthcoming Webinar - Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (EDIB) in the Institutional Publishing Ecosystem You are invited to a webinar happening on June 4 exploring Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (EDIB) in the Institutional Publishing Ecosystem. This joint DIAMAS Project and C4DISC | Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communications webinar will concern gender and accessibility and include an update from C4DISC on the work we are doing and have planned in this area. Full information and registration link can be found here: https://lnkd.in/e_pw93rA The DIAMAS Project which is focused on publishing initiatives that do not charge fees to authors or readers. Please share with all those who may be interested. We look forward to seeing you there.

Please share widely for those who may find the new Toolkit useful.

Announcement: Launch of A Focused Toolkit for Journal Editors and Publishers: Building Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in Editorial Roles and Peer Review C4DISC is delighted to announce the launch of this valuable new resource in the growing C4DISC Toolkit for Equity Series. 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. The original idea for this toolkit came from the Outreach Subcommittee of the Society for Scholarly Publishing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Committee. Thanks are due to the subcommittee members, to all the volunteers who worked so hard to realize this valuable resource, and especially to Susan Harris and Shaina Lange, who led the creation of the toolkit. Please share this resource with others in your organization and/or network who may find it useful. https://lnkd.in/eXfWB4_V

I want to express my gratitude to several individuals who have challenged and inspired me to think more deeply about diversity and inclusion over the last couple of days: - Hannah Kibirige (she/her of Social Justice Collective for helping my fellow UKSG board members and I think through what it means for us to be a diverse and inclusive organisation. - Dr Cathy Brown of EVOLVE CONSULTING SERVICES LTD for working with our team at Research Consulting Limited to help us better understand our own and others' communication preferences. - Jakob Feldtfos Christensen of DIVERSIuniTY for sharing on this platform how he felt as a gay man to hear that the next INORMS conference (a global conference for research managers) might be held in Dubai. - Holden Thorp, Editor-in-Chief of Science Magazine, for disclosing in an editorial this week that he is autistic and calling for more appreciation and recognition of neurodiversity in the world of science. Each of you has helped me grow and expand my understanding of diversity and inclusion this week, whether by sharing your own experiences or encouraging and enabling others to share theirs. Thank you for your contributions and for making a difference in our world.

C4DISC Releases Workplace Equity in Scholarly Communications 2023 Executive Summary Five years after the Workplace Equity Survey (WE Survey) first benchmarked the state of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the global scholarly publishing industry, C4DISC conducted the survey for a second time in 2023. Today, C4DISC releases the 2023 Executive Summary, the initial analysis of the 2023 data and free-form comments collected across six continents from 1,755 respondents, 48% more than in 2018. Learn more and download the Summary and Appendix at https://lnkd.in/gZUEu2Xb

C4DISC is delighted to welcome STM as a C4DISC member. We look forward to working with STM to help fulfill our mission to work with organizations and individuals to build equity, inclusion, diversity, and accessibility in scholarly communications. https://lnkd.in/eRutC4NX

In case you missed it.... Please enjoy and share the recent C4DISC and Society for Scholarly Publishing #neurodiversity webinar. Spotlight on Neurodiversity: Embracing Neurodiversity in Scholarly Communications With Dianndra [Dee-ann-druh] R., Amanda Gresens Rogers, Katy Alexander, Sara Rouhi & Emily Banks https://lnkd.in/eZV4Wyzf

Next C4DISC Community of Practice Call - Open Access (April 11) The next C4DISC Community of Practice call will be on April 11, 2024 at 11 am Eastern / 4 pm UK. The topic will be Open Access. Open Access: our definition for the purposes of this call is when there are no financial, legal or technical barriers to accessing content. In many cases, the author pays for the article publication charge though there are many different models across publishers and societies. Questions for discussion 1. What are the biggest challenges from your organizations’ perspective? 2. How is the article submission process addressing implicit bias by/from editorial reviews? 3. How are broader DEI practices translating into goals that support both authors and the community? 4. What is your experience in open pedagogy? 5. Are authors/researchers receiving due credit when co-authoring; how do we ensure equitable credit? 6. Are DEI principles being integrated into OA initiatives to promote a scholarly ecosystem that is accessible and inclusive of all? Participants will have breakout room discussions around any aspect of this topic they wish to bring and we will come together for the last part of the call to hear key takeaways. If you are a COP member you will receive the Zoom link ahead of the call. If you have not yet joined the COP then – learn more here on how to join the community. We have bimonthly calls looking at topics suggested by community members and a discussion group for asynchronous communication. https://lnkd.in/ehAGxdsC We hope to see some of you on the call!