Gender diversity

Abstract

As a companion document to the toolsuite on gender equity, these guidelines provide some practical suggestions to help Diamond OA publishers and service providers integrate gender equity into their activities. These guidelines include the recommendations laid out in the Diamond Open Access Standard (DOAS)  (Rico-Castro et al. 2024). Given that each IPSP may be at a different stage of integrating gender equity practices, and that each IPSP may have different resources at their disposal, the guidelines have been organized into three broad categories:

A. Easy to accomplish: So-called “quick wins”, these are practices that can be implemented relatively quickly and easily and need few resources.

B. Moderate investments for the mid-term: These practices may require more effort or resources to implement than the “quick wins”, but overall these investments are relatively modest and can be achieved without significant costs.

C. Longer term goals: These practices may require additional planning or resources, or may need to be developed over a longer period of time.

Within each category, an attempt has been made to organize the suggestions from most easy to accomplish/least resource-intensive to most challenging/resource-intensive. It is important to note that this list of guidelines is suggestive, rather than comprehensive, and the suggestions may not be equally relevant to all IPSPs. 

Main Text

As a companion document to the toolsuite on gender diversity, these guidelines provide some practical suggestions to help Institutional Publishers and Service Providers (IPSPs) integrate gender equity into their activities. hese guidelines include the recommendations laid out in the Diamond Open Access Standard (DOAS) (Rico-Castro et al. 2024). Given that each IPSP may be at a different stage of integrating gender equity practices, and that each IPSP may have different resources at their disposal, the guidelines have been organized into three broad categories:

A. Easy to accomplish:

1. Raise awareness, provide information and/or basic training about unconscious bias and how to avoid it (e.g. to authors, peer reviewers, editors and editorial board members, employees).
2. Encourage the use of inclusive language and images when preparing a manuscript to ensure that gender disparities are not unconsciously reinforced through terminological or image choices. 
3. Encourage the use of gender neutral or gender-inclusive language when preparing peer review or editorial feedback.
4. Craft and share an equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging (EDIB) statement that addresses gender diversity to signal to authors and readers that the IPSP/journal values and seeks out a range of perspectives.

B. Moderate investments for the mid-term:

1. Seek out an appropriately gender-diverse pool of authors, reviewers, editors  and board members, track progress and make an action plan. Once a gender-diverse pool of reviewers has been established, be sure to solicit reviews from the various genders in appropriate proportions.
2. Offer authors and peer reviewers the option to self-report their gender (and include non-binary options), and monitor and track progress towards meeting diversity goals. However, note that some authors may not wish to self-report, and in such cases, it is important to respect their privacy.
3. Implement a policy requiring authors to submit a citation diversity statement.
4. Implement a policy to ensure that authors include a suitable representation of sex/gender in research subjects/study populations, and that they report on this aspect appropriately. For some types of study (e.g. health research), not reporting on gender could reduce the usefulness of the findings for some populations. However, note that some study participants may not wish to report their gender, and their right to privacy must be respected.
5. Implement double-anonymous review (author and reviewer are unknown to one another) to reduce reviewer gender bias.

C. Longer term goals: 

1. Conduct an author diversity audit regularly (e.g. using a survey).
2. Consider open review (where authors and reviewers are aware of the other’s identity) as a means of promoting inclusion by inviting a wide community to comment BUT consider whether this openness may disadvantage some authors (e.g. those who belong to a disadvantaged gender minority).
3. Hire and retain gender-diverse employees (including in senior positions) because homogeneous environments foster homogeneous attitudes and practices.

Related toolsuite articles

• Gender diversity

Related guidelines

• Equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging

Related training materials

• Equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging

References 

• Consortium of the DIAMAS project. (2024). The Diamond OA Standard (DOAS). Zenodo. https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.12179619

Further reading

• Ashwell, S.J., Baskin, P.K., Christiansen, S.L., and DiBari, S.J. (2023). ‘Three recommended inclusive language guidelines for scholarly publishing: Words matter’. Learned Publishing 36(1): 94-99. https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1527 
• Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communication (C4DISC). (2022). Guidelines on inclusive language and images in scholarly communication. https://c4disc.pubpub.org/guidelines-on-inclusive-language-and-images-in-scholarly-communication 
• Dalhousie University. Citation Diversity: An Introduction. https://dal.ca.libguides.com/c.php?g=725994&p=5272267#s-lg-box-wrapper-19595845 
• Dalhousie University.  Citation diversity statement. https://dal.ca.libguides.com/c.php?g=725994&p=5272267#s-lg-box-wrapper-19596811 
• European Association of Science Editors (EASE).  Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) Guidelines and SAGER checklist. https://ease.org.uk/communities/gender-policy-committee/the-sager-guidelines/ 
• Knowledge Works Global. (2023). Bias awareness in scholarly publishing. https://www.kwglobal.com/blog/2023/4/26/bias-awareness-in-scholarly-publishing 
• Northwestern University Law Review. Diversity and Inclusion. https://northwesternlawreview.org/about/diversity/ 
• Princeton University Press. Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Statement. https://press.princeton.edu/about/equity-inclusion-and-belonging 
• Royal Society of Chemistry.  Inclusion and Diversity in Peer Review. https://www.rsc.org/journals-books-databases/author-and-reviewer-hub/authors-information/insights/2023/august/inclusion-and-diversity-in-peer-review/#:~:text=A%20peer%20review%20process%20that,contribute%20to%20the%20scientific%20record. 
• Sociological Science. Analytics: Volumes 1-3. https://sociologicalscience.com/about/analytics/  (Example of diversity tracking)
• Sorensen, M. S. (2023). ‘Diversity in the Publishing Workplace—What Can We Do To Make Systematic Changes at the Top?’ Sci Ed. 46: 24-26. https://doi.org/10.36591/SE-D-4601-10  
• Taylor & Francis, Increasing Diversity on Your Editorial Board. https://editorresources.taylorandfrancis.com/the-editors-role/managing-editorial-boards/598-2/ 
• The Georgetown Law Journal. Diversity. https://www.law.georgetown.edu/georgetown-law-journal/about/prospective-members/diversity/ (example of a diversity statement) 
• University of Florida. Improve transparency.  https://ufl.pb.unizin.org/deipublishing/chapter/improve-transparency/ 
• University of Florida. Peer review and implicit bias: Review Models and DEI. https://ufl.pb.unizin.org/deipublishing/chapter/peer-review-and-implicit-bias/ 

Licensing

This article is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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