Helping Black, Indigenous, and People of Color THRIVE in Scholarly Publishing
Acknowledgements
So many people put a tremendous amount of time into making this toolkit a reality. First are the BIPOC writers, readers, and editors who shared their experiences, knowledge, and training to the shaping of this content. A full list of contributors can be found at the end of this toolkit. We also thank the Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC) and the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) for supporting this work as well as the Knowledge Futures Group for committing resources towards producing this toolkit and hosting it on PubPub, the open-source community-led publishing platform. Additionally we would like to thank the GRAPHEK design team that graciously volunteered their time and skills to create the visual concept for this toolkit. We wanted specifically to share GRAPHEK’s notes on how they envisioned this thoughtful design:
“This concept is based on embroidery as a way to show the resilience of the BIPOC community in academic research and the networking encouraged by the toolkit. When cloth is damaged, embroidery and patches not only repair, they reinforce the cloth to be stronger and more resilient to future wear & tear. Even though each individual goes through their own unique experiences and tribulations, there are connecting threads that create solidarity. By sharing stories, crossing paths, and giving each other the resources necessary to navigate spaces riddled with systemic biases and racism, this toolkit can help BIPOC shape a more just and inclusive field.”
Note to Reader
This toolkit is different from previously published toolkits: although its access is not limited, it has been created by BIPOC in publishing, and is intended to be a resource primarily for BIPOC.
Navigating academic publishing as a racialized person, be it Black, Indigenous, or from another racialized group, can be a very challenging experience.
How many of us have had to, upon answering the question about what you do for a living, immediately followed that with explaining that we are not “those type of publishers”...
There is a high likelihood that you may be the only or one of a very few BIPOC employee(s) at your workplace. This is isolating. You may also find yourself in an environment where there is an unspoken expectation that you represent the needs for all BIPOC groups ...
The field of scholarly publishing can feel very isolating. While organizations vary greatly in size and demographics, it can be challenging to network and connect with people whether you’re at a large or small publisher...
We know that the challenges of working within the scholarly publishing are numerous, and that this toolkit cannot address the many specific experiences of BIPOC people who work within the industry. In particular, while we want to address the commonality of many of the issues ...
The content contained within each of the Toolkits for Equity in Scholarly Publishing is for informational and educational purposes only. It is NOT intended to be used as legal advice. Always research local, state, and national laws and consult with a lawyer before making any legal decisions regarding workplace antiracism.
This document is published under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. As a result, you are free to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and remix, transform, and build upon the material. However, we ask that if you are adapting or customizing the content that you not substantially dilute the language or materially alter the spirit in which the content was originally written. We welcome others’ efforts to customize these guides to reflect their own specific contexts (regional, professional, etc.).
You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. You may NOT use the material for commercial purposes. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
This license does NOT extend to third-party content, text or images, that has been cited. Please contact the original authors of any third-party content if you wish to reuse or adapt.
If you are using this toolkit, we’d love to hear about it so we can track its impact in our community. Please contact the publishers directly at equitytoolkits@gmail.com to let us know how the toolkits have helped you or your organization.
