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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Open Access Publishing: Exploring Barriers and Solutions

NSF Award #2209643

ABSTRACT

Three significant and intertwined changes in the ecological research landscape are occurring: new commitments to removing barriers that exclude scientists of diverse backgrounds, availability of open data streams, and a shift towards Open Access (OA) publishing through author-pays models. Given the importance of scholarly publishing in hiring and promotion, barriers to publishing could undermine or negate other interventions and programs to recruit and retain diverse scholars in environmental biology. Therefore, the Ecological Society of America (ESA) proposes a community survey and a workshop to explore barriers to full participation of a wide diversity of Ecology and Environmental Biology scientists in publishing research, with particular attention to potential impacts of the shift to Open Access publishing models.

The objectives of this workshop and community survey are to 1) raise awareness of the intersection between open science and diversity, equity, and inclusion, 2) evaluate the current state of diversity, equity, and inclusion in publishing (including identifying data gaps), 3) gather data about potential barriers to publishing Open Access, and 4) provide a forum for stakeholders to identify solutions to potential barriers. The goals of the workshop are to convene society and publishing leaders to examine the current status of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the publishing process, to explore rising concerns that transitioning to Open Access could exacerbate inequalities in scholarly publishing and to discuss strategies to alleviate financial burden associated with publishing. This workshop will have significant broader impact on the Ecology and Environmental Biology community by 1) Facilitating networking and conversation around diversity, equity, and inclusion in publishing in the Ecology and Environmental Biology society and publishing leaders, 2) Providing additional data on the impact of author publishing charges and how the charges affect authors? decisions on where and when to publish, 3) Identifying best practices and pitfalls when moving towards fully Open Access publishing models, and 4) Identifying characteristics of different funding models to support authors publishing Open Access articles.

Check out our Poster from the 2023 ESA Annual Meeting here: OA DEI Poster 2023

 

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Open Access Publishing: Workshop to explore barriers and solutions

Dates: February 1-2, 2023
Location: Washington, DC

ESA hosted an NSF-funded workshop, “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Open Access Publishing: Workshop to explore barriers and solutions” on February 1-2 at the AGU Conference Center, 2000 Florida Ave, in Washington, DC.  Approximately 50 professionals from across STEM publishing attended this hybrid event.

 The objectives of this workshop were to: 

  •             raise awareness of the intersection between open science and DEI, 
  •             evaluate the current state of DEI in publishing (including identifying data gaps), 
  •             facilitate networking and conversation around DEI in publishing among Ecology and Environmental Biology society and publishing leaders, and
  •             provide a forum for stakeholders to identify best practices when moving towards Open Access publishing models.

 Workshop report is in prep.

 

Workshop Organizing Committee 

Matthew McCary, Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Rice University 
Catherine O’Riordan, Executive Director of Ecological Society of America 
Pamela Padilla, Dean of the College of Science and Professor of Biology, University of North Texas 
Adrienne Sponberg, Society Programs Director for Ecological Society of America 
Richard Wallace, Editor-in-Chief of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment