Initiating More Actionable Discussions About DEI in Scholarly Publishing

[Danielle Padula]

As the Open Access movement enters a period of acceleration, spurred by a combination of funder mandates, institutional initiatives, and, in recent months, the COVID-19 pandemic, the scholarly community appears to be on the tipping point of a truly open research future. And, in many ways, that vision is being realized with publishers increasingly adopting CC BY copyright licenses for their journals. However, the paths to OA are still being paved, and, at this time of unprecedented social justice movements around the world, stakeholders are becoming more acutely aware of the importance of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in decision making.

The theme of this year’s OA Week, “Open with Purpose: Taking Action to Build Structural Equity and Inclusion,” focuses on ways organizations can foster DEI in OA publishing. To build off of last year’s OA Week question, “open for whom?”, Scholastica reached out to DEI advocates across the scholarly communication landscape to ask them their perspectives on how the community can facilitate greater action around DEI in OA publishing. In a two-part blog series, stakeholders respond to the question:

Considering the many facets of DEI in OA publishing, what is one area you think organizations should be focusing on right now to facilitate actionable DEI initiatives, and what questions should we be asking internally and across stakeholder groups to start that conversation?

Scholastica thanks everyone who took the time to share their perspective! You can read the full OA Week blog series here.