GW Ethics in Publishing Conference 2021
Monday, 18 October 2021
Abbreviated schedule:
12:00 Welcome and Opening Remarks, John W. Warren and Puja Telikicherla
12:15-1:10 Inclusion and Identities in the Publishing Workplace
Dianndra Roberts, Royal College of Psychiatrists
Shaina Lange, ACS Publications
1:15-2:15 Expanding Inclusion and Training on Disabilities and Ethics
Simon Holt, Elsevier
Emma Molls, University of Minnesota Libraries
2:15-2:30 Break
2:30-3:40 Ethics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Scholarly Publishing
Simon Linacre, Cabells
Randy Townsend, American Geophysical Union; George Washington University
Elizabeth Adams, EMA Advisory Services
Chhavi Chauhan, American Society for Investigative Pathology
Jeff DeCagna, Foresight First LLC
3:40-4:25 The Antiracism Toolkit for Organizations
Jocelyn Dawson, Duke University Press
Damita Snow, American Society of Civil Engineers
Randy Townsend, American Geophysical Union; George Washington University
Kerry Webb, University of Texas Press (Moderator)
4:30-5:20 Closing Plenary: Career Development and Equitable Publishing
Stephanie Williams, Wayne State University Press
Walter Biggins, University of Pennsylvania Press
Full Schedule, Descriptions and Bios
12:00
Welcome: John W. Warren; Opening Remarks:, John or Puja Telikicherla
12:15-1:10 Inclusion and Identities in the Publishing Workplace
Dianndra Roberts: Tick box, 'Other' (will be 5:15pm UK time)
Shaina Lange: Inclusive Author Name Change Policies
Tick box, 'Other'
Discussing the importance of inclusive language regarding identities, in particular, how we address protected characteristics such as race, gender, and disability. Dianndra will be taking a look at how we can ensure we are acknowledging language differences on a global scale and how we can support inclusive identities within the workplace.
Dianndra Roberts is the Senior Publishing Coordinator at the Royal College of Psychiatrists working across the books and journals portfolio. In 2019, she founded and chairs the African and Caribbean Forum for staff and is also an active member of the RCPsych Equality Taskforce. In 2021, Dianndra was appointed as Co-chair of the ISMTE DEI Advisory Council. Dianndra is passionate about equality, diversity, and inclusion and how we can use our platforms to be active allies, especially in the workplace.
Inclusive Author Name Change Policies
Authors who change their name for any reason—including gender identity, marriage, divorce, or religious conversion—risk not receiving proper credit for their scholarly contributions or face having to publicize personal information to explain the change. Inclusive author name change policies aim to remove barriers to equity and inclusion, professional mobility, and author credit by offering authors the option to update their name on prior publications without the need for an erratum/correction, legal documentation, or co-author approval. This presentation will outline the need for publishers to adopt such policies, how ACS Publications implemented their policy, and considerations for the industry moving forward.
Shaina Lange (she/her) is the Senior Publications Ethics Manager at ACS Publications, overseeing the strategy and activities to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and respect in the journals program. She also supports ethics policy and case management. Shaina represents ACS in several cross-publisher working groups and committees to improve diversity and accelerate change within the scholarly publishing industry and larger research ecosystem. Previously at the ACS, she led editorial analytics efforts for ACS journals to monitor performance and support data-driven editorial and product development. Shaina holds a Master's of Professional Studies in Publishing from the George Washington University and a Diversity & Inclusion Certificate from Cornell University. Prior to the ACS, Shaina worked in non-profit book publishing following several years in the special events industry.
https://publish.acs.org/publish/diversity; Twitter handle: @ShainaLange
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1:15-2:15 Expanding Inclusion and Training on Disabilities and Ethics
Simon Holt: Disability Inclusion at Elsevier
Emma Molls: Expanding ethics training for student-run journals
Disability Inclusion at Elsevier: A Case Study
Accessibility of commercial products has gained much traction over recent years, but creating a disability confident environment for employees within the publishing industry is equally important. The social model of disability states that people are disabled by barriers in society, not by their impairment or difference. Barriers can be physical, like buildings not having accessible toilets and they can also be caused by others’ attitudes to difference, like assuming disabled people can't do certain things. People with either physical or neurological disabilities make up 15% of the global working-age population, according to the UN. However, employment opportunities for people with disabilities continue to lag behind those of the rest of the population by as much as 50%. This talk will explore how a grassroots movement is helping Elsevier to unlock the potential of this substantial segment of our workforce.
Simon Holt is a Senior Publisher at Elsevier. He is also Business Lead for Disability, spearheading Elsevier’s Disability Action Plan. He founded and co-chairs Elsevier Enabled, Elsevier’s disability employee resource group. He has contributed to the Scholarly Kitchen on disability inclusion in the publishing industry, and sits on the Publishers’ Association’s Accessibility Action Group. He lives in Oxford, UK.
Expanding ethics training for student-run journals
The University of Minnesota Libraries (UMN) publishes six journals with editorial boards composed of graduate students and four journals with editorial boards composed of undergraduate students. Each journal varies between the level of faculty involvement, journal platform, and the demographics of authors and readers. This variety presented a challenge to the Libraries in offering consistent training and core curriculum for all journals, and resulted in offering only highly-tailored, individual-journal, editorial board-requested trainings each year. Beginning in 2018, the UMN Publishing Librarian has offered "publishing ethics training" to student journals. This training, which focused on publishing ethics, used a mix of COPE’s (Committee on Publication Ethics) core practices and, what Charlotte Roh calls, “bias and diversity within traditional publishing structures.” The training focused on the implications of running a journal, instead of focusing on the traditional procedural and functional editorial duties that earlier Libraries training provided. The training had editors consider ethical scenarios from the role of publisher, editor, reviewer, author, and reader. These scenarios were based on real examples from the global research community and all centered around larger issues of bias, racism, colonialism, and power structures. This training has been repeated each year since and has received positive feedback from student journal editors. This presentation will provide a framework for ethics training for student journal editors and will act as a call to action for other publishers who work directly with student journals.
Emma Molls (they/she) is the Publishing Librarian at the University of Minnesota. At Minnesota, Emma leads the Publishing Services Team to develop and manage open access publications created by faculty, students, and scholarly societies. Emma is an associate editor and advisory board member for the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), editorial board member of Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication, and board member at the Library Publishing Coalition. Emma's 2018 paper, co-authored by Kate McCready, "Developing a Business Plan for a Library Publishing Program" won the 2019 Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Library Publishing. https://www.lib.umn.edu/services/publishing
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2:15-2:30 Break
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2:30-3:40 Ethics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Scholarly Publishing
Simon Linacre: A New Perspective: Assessing Journals According to SDG Relevance
Randy Townsend, Elizabeth Adams, Chhavi Chauhan, and Jeff De Cagna: AI Ethics: What Should Publishers Be Talking About?
A New Perspective: Assessing Journals According to SDG Relevance
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be used to reassess academic research evaluation in terms of quality and impact. Notions of impact are being adopted by the publishing industry in a paradigm shift from notions of “quality” in terms of citations. Using the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to represent a way forward in how research is both initiated, progressed and assessed, we present a case study applying an artificial intelligence rating system to ascertain degrees of impact for academic journals. Our AI system utilises the UN's 17 SDGs as normative standards to rate the impact of academic journals in business and sustainability, offering a wholly new perspective on what journal quality can mean. This presentation will cover the initial development of an AI database to create an SDG Dashboard for assessing business school curricula, the adaptation of the AI to develop a journal rating, and implications for future AI-based research in bibliometrics based on the team's experience. The pilot study resulting from the AI's development will also be showcased, where traditionally top-ranked journals perform poorly against sustainability-focused titles.
Simon Linacre is currently Marketing Director at Cabells having previously spent 15 years at Emerald Publishing, where he led its management journal division and had wider experience of journal acquisitions, Open Access, research impact and business development. Simon has been published in academic journals on the topics of bibliometrics, publication ethics and knowledge transfer. Simon is a Trustee for COPE and also an ALPSP tutor. He holds Masters degrees in Philosophy and in International Business, with global experience lecturing to researchers on publishing strategies.
AI Ethics: What Should Publishers Be Talking About?
Publishers increasingly rely on advances in technology to provide valuable understandings of usage, produce more engaging experiences for our readers, and create more immersive content to attract and retain attention. In this session, leaders in AI Ethics will discuss the various ways in which innovations in technology services and solutions intersect with critical aspects of the publishing industry, revealing new gray areas of ethical consideration.
Elizabeth Adams (she/her) is an AI Ethics & Organizational Culture Advisor and CEO of EMA Advisory Services. She is a Scholar-Practitioner recently featured in Forbes - "15 AI Ethics Leaders Showing the World the Way of the Future." Elizabeth helps educate leaders in government, academia, and industry to mitigate bias in Artificial Intelligence systems by developing, adopting, and operationalizing Leadership of Responsible AI™ an inclusive leadership function that grounds Responsible AI frameworks. She offers 25 years of expertise in technology leadership, civic tech policy, social advocacy, inclusive tech design, and diversity and inclusion. For over two decades she has studied the science of business and technology influences on society. Elizabeth has mastered her craft by interviewing, observing, advising, and working alongside successful technical and non-technical leaders, creating alliances with communities that translate theory into results. Elizabeth is a highly sought-after international speaker who engages with her audiences through learning events, panels, workshops, and keynote speaking engagements.
Dr. Chhavi Chauhan works as Director for Scientific Outreach at the American Society for Investigative Pathology and Director of Continuing Medical Education (CME) Program at the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics. She is one of the leaders of the Women in AI Ethics Collective and an expert at the AI Policy Exchange. She is a biomedical researcher, expert scholarly communicator, and a sought after mentor in the fields of scientific research, scholarly publishing, and AI Ethics, especially for women and minorities. She is a thought leader, a renowned international speaker, and a strong advocate for equitable and accessible healthcare. She sits at the intersection of scientific research, scholarly communications, and AI Ethics in Healthcare. Her vision is to provide equitable personalized healthcare to all, beyond geographies, and despite socioeconomic disparities.
Jeff De Cagna FRSA FASAE, executive advisor for Foresight First LLC in Reston, Virginia, is an association contrarian, foresight practitioner, governing designer, stakeholder/successor advocate, and stewardship catalyst. In his work, Jeff advises association and non-profit boards on how they can navigate an irrevocably-altered world and shape a better and different future. A graduate of the Johns Hopkins and Harvard universities, Jeff has continued his learning with the future at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Oxford University, Harvard Business School, the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, and the Institute for the Future. In August 2019, Jeff became the 32nd recipient of ASAE’s Academy of Leaders Award, the association’s highest individual honor given to consultants or industry partners in recognition of their support of ASAE and the association community.
Randy Townsend, MPS, has dedicated 15 years to scholarly publishing. He has been a steadfast leader in providing oversight to allegations of misconduct and ethical considerations. Randy sits on the Board for the Society of Scholarly Publishing, the Advisory Board for the AM&P Network’s Association’s Council, is the Chair for the Council of Science Editor’s Webinar Subcommittee, and on the International Society of Managing and Technical Editor’s Programming Committee. Randy is also the inaugural EIC for the GW Journal of Ethics in Publishing and an Associate Professor of the MPS in Publishing program at George Washington University.
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3:40-4:25 The Antiracism Toolkit for Organizations
Jocelyn Dawson, Damita Snow, Randy Townsend, and Kerry Webb (Moderator): Anti Racism Toolkit for Organizations
Antiracism Toolkit for Organizations
The Antiracism Toolkit for Organizations provides tools for understanding institutionalized racism, broadening hiring and recruiting practices, working to correct bias, including historically excluded perspectives in decision-making, measuring the impact of DEI efforts, and creating affinity groups and mentorship programs. In this session, attendees will learn practical ways to transform the scholarly publishing workplace by implementing inclusive policies, procedures, and norms and will learn why we need to move beyond a diversity mindset to an actively antiracist mindset. Attendees will come away with a better understanding of how systemic racism manifests in the field of publishing, how to make equity work effective and sustainable, and how to recruit and retain BIPOC staff.
Jocelyn Dawson is the journals and collections marketing manager at Duke University Press. She has served on committees of AUPresses and the Society for Scholarly Publishing and is a previous member of the SSP’s Board of Directors. She serves on SSP’s DEI committee, plays an active role in E&I efforts at Duke UP, and has authored pieces on inclusion topics for The Scholarly Kitchen. She co-leads the Toolkits for Equity project to develop antiracism guides for scholarly publishing. Twitter:jocelyndawson71
Damita Snow, CAE, is the senior manager for publishing technologies at the American Society of Civil Engineers where she manages the publications content of the corporate website as well as the Society’s online library of publications, ASCE Library. She is also in charge of all aspects of maintaining the user interface of ASCE Library and serves on ASCE’s Communications, Cooperation, and Culture Committee. She is also the immediate past chair of ASCE’s Staff Diversity and Inclusion Council, a group that she founded and developed within ASCE. She co-chairs the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee for the Society for Scholarly Publishing and is an AM&P Network Association Council board member. She also co-chairs the Publications Special Interest Group for the Council of Engineering and Scientific Society Executives and was the co-chair for their 2021 Annual Meeting. Last of all, Damita is a current member of the Ethics in Artificial Intelligence Content Creation Task Force for the American Society of Association Executives.
Randy Townsend (see bio, above)
Kerry Webb is the Senior Acquisitions Editor at the University of Texas Press for Latinx/Chicanx studies, and Latin American studies. She is also the co-lead along with Ale Mejia on the upcoming Toolkit for BIPOC People in Scholarly Publishing.
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4:30-5:20
Closing Plenary: Career Development and Equitable Publishing
Join Stephanie Williams, Director of Wayne State University Press, and Walter Biggins, Editor-In-Chief at University of Pennsylvania Press, for a conversation on career development, personal and professional trajectories, how they got to where they are now, and what’s next. In this dual-interview discussion, Stephanie and Walter will touch upon strategies that create and enhance opportunities in publishing, and discuss the role of mentorship in creating access for entry- and mid-level career development.
Stephanie Williams (@BookishSW) is the Director of Wayne State University Press. She was previously Director at Ohio University Press and began her publishing career as a promotions assistant at Pelican Publishing Company, followed by marketing management roles at the University Press of Florida, the University of Missouri Press, and the University Press of Kentucky.
Walter Biggins (@walter_biggins) is Editor-In-Chief at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He is the co-author of Bob Mould’s Workbook, a 33 ⅓ title, and has extensive experience establishing and running prizewinning book series, creating successful mentoring programs, and collaborating on campus initiatives.
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5:20:5:30 Closing remarks, Puja Telikicherla