Fostering a more diverse, equitable and inclusive peer review process at SAGE

By Amanda Bockman, Julia Slater, Katie Gibson & Sam Perkins

The theme of Peer Review Week 2021 is Identity in Peer Review, a timely topic that raises some interesting questions. Does anonymity provide a fairer peer review process? How does the identity of peer reviewers shape publications? And how can we make sure that the peer review process is welcoming and inclusive to all?

At SAGE, we’ve been working to ensure our peer review process reflects SAGE’s ambition to be a diverse, equitable, and inclusive publisher. See our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Pledge for more information on our commitments, and read on to learn some of the ways we’re taking action. 

Updating our language

As mentioned in a previous blog, SAGE Journals launched four working groups (or “streams”) to guide and mobilize our diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) commitment. Within the Content Stream, we aim to ensure that the content published in our journals is free from bias, represents our diverse readership, and that the language used in published articles is inclusive and sensitive to our communities.

A starting point was looking at our use of language, specifically the common terminology used in peer review. Although “blind” is by definition an apt descriptor of an element of many peer review styles, its metaphorical use within academia perpetuates ableism, essentially likening sight with knowledge and blindness with ignorance.

Further dissemination of its use is not aligned with our commitment; therefore, at SAGE we will now use the term “anonymized” review. Not only is “anonymized” inclusive and accurate, but it also provides a more precise translation for non-native English speakers. This change will be most apparent on journal submission guidelines, online submission systems, and Journal Author, Editor, and Reviewer Gateways. 

Introducing a name change policy

In May of this year, we announced our new name change policy. This policy allows any author to update their name on the author list of a published paper, and, as Sam Perkins explains in this blog post, was specifically designed to address the needs of trans and gender non-conforming authors. The aim of this policy is to make the process of updating a name as simple and easy as possible, to avoid placing an additional burden on individuals. To this end, we’ve partnered with all seventeen US national laboratories, allowing the labs to contact us requesting updates to names on the author’s behalf. We have also set up working group to support on future iterations of, and questions related to, SAGE's name change policy.

Diversifying our journal networks

We are encouraging our editorial boards to consider how they can improve their ethnic and gender diversity, and to ensure that, as a minimum, board membership is representative of the wider research community. We have developed a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion toolkit that is being used internally by our staff to support our Editors and editorial boards in their efforts to diversify.  Additionally, we have created resources for Editors including guides on making the most of the editorial board, mentoring Early Career Researchers, and taking action on diversity. We hope that having more diverse boards will provide new perspectives on who and what we publish, and open up journals to new networks of contacts, reaching new communities of potential reviewers.   

Our author marketing team has also been working on ways to make our journals more inclusive for authors and reviewers. They have developed a series of tools and resources such as the ‘your paper and peer review’ guide for authors, as well as information on becoming a reviewer and reviewer training. Aimed in particular at Early Career Researchers and anyone who may be less familiar with academic norms, we hope these resources will help to demystify publishing processes and promote inclusivity.

Collecting demographic data within our peer review systems

The SAGE Journals Data Stream working group is seeking a way to collect demographic data within our peer review systems. Our hope is that with this data, we can improve diversity, equity, and inclusion. By understanding the current demographics, we can set measurable goals for the future. With regards to Peer Review, we are interested in collecting the gender, race, and ethnicity identities of our authors and reviewers to see who is contributing to each journal.

We are currently weighing the feasibility of different ways to systematically, ethically, and efficiently collect these data points across all of our journals whilst still adhering to GDPR best practices.

We hope that these efforts will help to make the peer review process at SAGE a fairer system for all, and we welcome this Peer Review Week as a chance reflect on our progress to date, share our ideas and experiences, and most importantly, continue to hold ourselves to account and learn more.

About the authors