Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Peer-Review: Perspectives from a C4DISC-SSP Toolkit, a Major University, and a Scholarly Publisher

Although most scholarly journal editors/publishers recognize the value of diversity, equity, and inclusion among their associate editors and editorial boards, it can be overwhelming to actually constitute a new editorial board or change a long-established one in which diversity has not been included. Editors need advice regarding the actions they can take to diversify their boards. This panel will look at the perspectives of three organizations that have recently developed toolkits/guidelines to ensure equity in peer review and present practical suggestions. 1) The C4DISC Toolkit authored by members of the SSP DEIA Committee, “Building Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in Editorial Roles and Peer Review: A Focused Toolkit for Journal Editors and Publishers,” 2) the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communication website developed by the University of California, and 3) the Sage website, “Embracing the role of the reviewer: developing diverse, equitable, and inclusive peer review teams.” Although speaking from different perspectives, the panelists will discuss strategies for broad and intentional recruitment among marginalized communities, developing an inclusive culture within the journal team, gathering and using demographic data, changing review processes to avoid biases, increasing training opportunities, instituting mentorship programs, providing authors with feedback about bias-free wording in reviewer comments, posting open calls for editorial board vacancies, setting goals for accountability over time, and appointing special diversity oversight editors.