Big boost to academic diversity as 52 publishers standardize author data collection process

The Joint Commitment for Action on Inclusion and Diversity in Publishing, led by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), recently published a new set of guidelines for gathering author demographic data. The collective of 52 global publishers, representing more than 15,000 peer-reviewed academic journals, agreed to standardize questions used to collect data that highlights action required to overcome biases in scholarly publishing.¹