Joint Statement of Principles

Acknowledgements

Scholarly communications requires creativity and a wide range of skill sets and viewpoints. The future of scholarly communications would be positively impacted by attracting and retaining a pool of highly talented and creative professionals from diverse backgrounds and with a wide range of skill sets and viewpoints.

Research shows that diverse teams working together and capitalizing on innovative ideas and distinct perspectives outperform homogeneous teams. Professionals from diverse backgrounds and life experiences bring different perspectives, creativity, and individual enterprise to address the issues facing our industry. There are many benefits that flow from a diverse scholarly publishing ecosystem, including: fostering innovation and problem solving; contributing to robust learning environments, worker satisfaction, increased sales potential and financial performance; improving the quality of market solutions, and responsiveness to market needs. Diverse teams will enable us to better serve the increasingly diverse research and academic communities that are both the creators and consumers of scholarly publications.

To ensure sustainability and growth, our industry must commit to long-term efforts to curb the deeply ingrained patterns of exclusion and inequities in our practices, policies, and frameworks.

Definitions

Diversity refers to the composition of a group of people from any number of demographic backgrounds, identities (innate and selected), the collective strength of their experiences, beliefs, values, skills, and perspectives; and, the historical and ongoing ways in which these groups have been affected by structures of power. The variability in a diverse group is apparent in the characteristics we see and hear as well as through behaviors and expressions that we encounter and experience in our workplaces and organizations. Diverse organizations are not by default inclusive.

Inclusion is the act of establishing philosophies, policies, practices, and procedures to ensure equitable access to opportunities and resources to support individuals in contributing to the organization’s success. Through encouraging awareness of power structures, creating opportunities for those who have historically been excluded, and attempting to decenter majority culture, inclusion creates infrastructure for allowing the diversity within organizations to exist and thrive in a manner that can enhance innovation and problem solving. Inclusive organizations are by definition committed to achieving diversity at all levels.

Principles

In principle and in practice, collectively, our organizations value and seek diversity and inclusive practices within the scholarly communications ecosystem. Our goal is to promote involvement, innovation, and expanded access to leadership opportunities that maximize engagement across identity groups and professional levels. Identity groups include and are not limited to:

• ability/disability
• age
• appearance
• citizenship status
• ethnicity
• gender and gender identity
• geographic location
• military/veteran status
• nationality/national origin
• political beliefs
• pregnancy/parental status
• professional career level
• race/color
• religion/value system
• sexual orientation
• socio economic background/social class

Collectively we will provide leadership and commit time and resources to accomplish this objective while serving as a model to our members, both individuals and organizations, engaged in D+I endeavors.

We are committed to:

• eliminating barriers to participation, extending equitable opportunities across all stakeholders, and ensuring that our practices and policies promote equitable treatment and do not allow, condone, or result in discrimination;
• creating and maintaining an environment that respects diverse traditions, heritages, and experiences;
• promoting diversity in all staff, volunteers, and audiences, including full participation in programs, policy formulation, and decision-making;
• raising awareness about career opportunities in our industries to groups who are currently underrepresented in the workforce;
• supporting our members in achieving diversity and inclusion within their organizations.