Striving for an equitable workforce in scholarly publishing, an industry with a striking imbalance in the leadership dynamics!

Through June 2023, the Workplace Equity (WE) Survey will be open and a report will be prepared later in 2023. Sponsored by the WE Project with the Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communications, our purpose is to compare the scholarly publishing community’s DEIA trajectory against 2018 baseline data. For the first time, the 2018 WE survey captured parameters that defined equity and diversity in the scholarly publishing landscape. This poster highlights 2018 key findings. We have a remarkable opportunity to assess worldwide shifts and widespread attention to diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion (DEIA) practices. Since the first survey, the death of George Floyd, the #metoo movement, and the pandemic have brought systemic discrimination into focus. We invite broad participation from across the industry. The key findings uncovered a highly inequitable workforce. Despite a predominantly female workforce (76%), men accounted for more senior management/executive roles (21%) compared to women (11%) with over-representation of White men in executive leadership roles. Gender-based pay gaps were also found, with 33% of men making more than $100K, compared to just 20% of women. The proportion of women in the workforce was found to decline with age and rank, while the reverse applied to men.