COURSE-CORRECTING GEOSCIENCE PUBLISHING: INSIGHTS FROM AGU’S EQUITY-CENTERED WORK IN SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS

An expansive and inclusive geoscience community is paramount to finding the best solutions to societal challenges. Though the geosciences have historically been dominated by a few homogenous groups, the collaborative and global nature of our science impels us to change our systems to include historically marginalized voices. This work includes correcting the power imbalances exisiting within scholarly publishing, to foster a more equitable and inclusive publishing environment. Using examples from AGU Publications, this presentation will highlight the importance of collaboration in creating equity-focused structural and policy changes, as well as offer insights on navigating the challenges within the process. Topics include the development of the recently launched Inclusion in Global Research Policy (an authorship policy to improve equity and transparency in international research collaborations and to help address the issue of parachute science), using demographic data collection as a tool to help introduce more diversity to editorial boards and reviewer pools, and enacting a mandatory implicit bias training for AGU Publications’ 850+ editors and associate editors.