ACS Publications publishes diversity report

ACS Publications has published a report on the gender, racial, ethnic, and regional representation of its authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial advisory board members. The report is the result of a promise made by ACS Publications editors in a June 2020 editorial to gather and publish “baseline statistics on diversity within our journals, encompassing our editors, advisors, reviewers, and authors” (ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c10979).

The report finds that men outnumber women at a rate of 2:1 or more in each of the groups examined, while nonbinary people make up less than 1.5% of these groups. In descending order, the greatest number of authors and reviewers reside in East Asia and the Pacific, the US and Canada, and Europe and Central Asia. Most editors and board members are based in the US and Canada. Most authors, reviewers, and editors self-identify as East Asian or White.

ACS Publications plans to use the data to design and evaluate changes to its procedures and programs to address systemic issues in scientific publishing.