Embracing cultural diversity expands the scope of research and makes it more relevant to a broader readership. It also helps avoid misunderstandings and unintended offenses.
Journals can implement various strategies to increase diversity among the volunteer groups that comprise editorial boards, peer reviewers, and other key personnel. Several resources offer insight on how to do so, including policies and guidelines.
Diversity and Inclusion in Research
Championing cultural diversity expands the scope of research and makes it more relevant to a broader readership. Understanding how various cultures interpret their work can help researchers avoid misunderstandings and unintended offenses.
In addition, the quality of scientific research can increase when researchers with diverse life experiences perform it. However, promoting diversity and inclusion in research can be difficult. For example, it has been shown that a lack of diversity in peer review leads to bias.
Publishers like Bentham Science Publishers can address this issue by making their journals open-access and encouraging more diverse authors. They can also provide resources for their editors and reviewers to promote cultural awareness in research, such as policy toolkits and editorial style guidelines. This fosters a more welcoming atmosphere where writers of all stripes feel appreciated for their contributions. This will ultimately lead to better scientific output. As a result, science will be more effective in serving society.
Embracing Cultural Diversity
While the research world may appear very diverse, there is a significant gap between diversity and representation. Most researchers are white and male. Research participants are also overwhelmingly college-aged and white. Classic social science experiments only included white men, while people of color were forcibly experimented upon with inhumane and often fatal results.
A disproportionate amount of diverse trainees drop out of the research pipeline from undergraduate degrees to graduate school and beyond. This could be due to implicit bias, lack of opportunities, and mentorship heavily emphasizing inclusivity, financial barriers, and family responsibilities.
Many strategies supporting cultural diversity in recruitment and retention can be applied to research environments. This includes ensuring an inclusive atmosphere, being open-minded and respectful of differences, standing against prejudice, and avoiding unintentional microaggressions. These efforts will lead to better outcomes and more innovative work.
For instance, Bentham Open is a well-known scientific publisher that aims to make scholarly research more accessible through open-access publishing models.
Creating Inclusive Environments
Evidence shows that embracing equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) leads to research excellence. Moreover, EDI can allow researchers to strengthen their team bonds and enhance their understanding of people with different cultural backgrounds, experiences, and abilities.
Journals can encourage inclusivity by recruiting reviewers from diverse backgrounds and encouraging the use of gender-neutral language when referring to individuals. They can also create inclusive spaces by fostering open communication, providing opportunities for collaboration, and supporting social activities that facilitate team bonding.
In the current ‘publish or perish’ academic environment, rejection rates may be higher for authors from under-represented groups, which can obstruct career progression and reinforce negative cycles of exclusion. However, journals can address these issues by providing support and mentoring to under-represented groups and by adopting a more holistic approach to reviewing, with more significant consideration of the intersections of identities such as race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and disability.
Investing in Cultural Diversity
In an era when business is increasingly seen as a public good, companies focusing on diversity and inclusion are likelier to perform better, attract talent, and create value for society. Companies prioritizing diversity also gain a competitive advantage by fostering innovation and creativity among employees with different experiences and perspectives.
The quest for diversity begins with training. While many people of diverse backgrounds study science-related fields, many drop out at each stage of the research pipeline, often due to implicit bias, limited financial resources, or family commitments. Strong mentorship that explicitly values inclusivity can help to address these issues.
When deciding what articles should be published, there is an obvious need for more diversity in editorial boards. This can be achieved by recruiting individuals from various disciplinary backgrounds, gender identities, and ethnicities. This would also foster increased cultural competency in editors, given their diverse set of lived experiences.