Improving gender balance in editorial boards: A perspective from the Communications journals series

The Communications journals are a family of open access journals serving specialist communities in several disciplines. They adopt a combined editorial model whereby professional in-house editors work alongside academia, or industry-based external editors that are referred to as Editorial Board Members (EBMs). Manuscripts submitted to the journals can be handled by either an in-house editor or an EBM. This editorial model allows each journal to be well embedded in its respective community through their EBMs’ engagement, while having strong expertise in editorial matters through professional editors. As community journals, we wish to be represented by and provide role models for the communities we serve, and this requires continuous action in addressing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), including gender balance. 

Why 

The Communications journals’ editorial model offers us a great opportunity to have a direct voice in our communities through the representation of our EBMs. One of our aspirations is for our boards to showcase our vision of what we wish our community to look like in terms of gender balance. We believe that this can provide greater visibility for those who might otherwise not be represented through systemic bias, and creates more visible role models, particularly for earlier career researchers. Furthermore, and as well documented in several sectors, DEI offers opportunities to reach out to new networks and fields and can provide different perspectives that may increase growth, innovation and success. 

Challenges 

Some fields of research in which the Communications journals operate have a well identified minority representation of women (see [1,2,3] as examples]. There are several reasons for this (see [3] and references therein) and these communities have slowly started to put in place practices to address some of the issues that lead to such demographics, including systemic bias. However, not only are there fewer women active in some fields, but women tend to put themselves forward less for our EBM roles when we advertise them (even when we account for the percentages in the field).   Women also decline opportunities proportionately more often when we specifically invite individuals. The reasons behind this are unclear but may indicate a more cautious attitude to taking on additional community responsibilities or women may already be engaged in community work at a rate higher than their male colleagues [4,5].

How do we change this 

In line with our vision, the editorial teams at the Communications journals have proactively worked towards increasing gender diversity in the representation of all stakeholders, from EBMs to authors and reviewers:

• Some of our journals have created specific quantitative targets for recruitment of women and actively seek out women to represent their field on the board. 
• We engage our EBMs in discussions about gender equity and diversity and in actively inviting a diverse pool of peer reviewers when they select the referees for the manuscripts they handle. They are also encouraged to invite women as authors of commissioned content, for example when interacting with colleagues at conferences and other settings: actively soliciting submissions from women could lead to more women authors (especially lead authors). 
• A main opportunity for EBM recruitment is to engage people who have worked with us before: our authors and reviewers. Hence more diversity in those pools naturally leads to more diversity in the editorial board, with a goal to making this process self-sustainable. 
• Despite the challenges described above we believe that things are changing with regards to gender representation in younger generations. We therefore believe that appointing earlier career researchers is beneficial for addressing gender imbalance. It also offers an opportunity to identify some of those rising stars in the sectors and give them the visibility they deserve, while providing them with the option to learn about an important element of the academic ecosystem in acting as editors for a journal.
• We try to be flexible:  women more often than men tend to ask us to come back to them in the future if they are unavailable when we first reach out to them.  We follow up on that. 
• We regularly create content that reflects our goals (Editorials, Collections, Commentaries, Q&As).  These attract interest from Women in Science groups and the community at large, which can in turn lead to speaking and engagement opportunities for women scientists featured in our content. 
• We also enable applications for prospective EBMs, which can be done via dedicated forms linked in our websites or by directly contacting the editors, and we encourage women (and other minorities) to apply. 

Where are we now? 

The proactive work of the Communications journals in addressing gender imbalance in their editorial boards has results in an overall representation of women of 44%, with some journals going beyond 50% (Communications Psychology editorial board). Even in disciplines where the proportion of women researchers at associate professor or above is of the order of 20% (at most), like physics and engineering, our boards showcase between 30% and 50% EBMs who are women. This is higher than the average across Springer Nature journals [6]. Our approach shows that it can be done, even in fields with significant gender imbalance, and we demonstrate that, as a portfolio we contribute to growing expectations of a new normal of gender balance in editorial boards. There is more work to do, and it is demanding.  But we are committed to our vision and to being a force for what the gender balance in our communities should be, rather than matching the current gender representation. 

References: 

[1] How journal editors can support women in chemistry, Communications Chemistry  volume 5, Article number: 22 (2022) 

[2] Strategies to support women in research publishing, Communications Engineering  volume 2, Article number: 39 (2023)

[3] Wasted talent: the status quo of women in physics in the US and UK, Communications Physics  volume 7, Article number: 77 (2024) 

[4] Akin, Y. The time tax put on scientists of colour. Nature  volume 583, 479–481 (2020).

[5] Armani, A. M. et al. The need to recognize and reward academic service. Nature Review Materials  volume 6, 960–962 (2021).

[6] Editor Diversity at Springer Nature Journals

Authors: 

Dr Elena Belsole is Chief editor of Communications Physics. She holds a PhD in Astrophysics and Space Sciences from Paris VI and conducted her research on X-ray astrophysics at the CEA Saclay (France). She carried out postdoctoral research at Bristol and Cambridge Universities before moving to a career in STM publishing. Before joining  Communications Physics she was the executive editor of New Journal of Physics. Elena has a passion for physics and is enthusiastic about continuously implementing innovative ways to serve the physics community. She is also dedicated to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as well as sustainability with her journal and across Springer Nature, 

Dr Ros Daw is Chief Editor of Communications Engineering, one of the newer journals in the family, that she launched in 2021. Ros received her BEng and PhD from the University of Sheffield followed by postdoctoral research in bioengineering at the University of Washington, Seattle. In 2001 Ros joined Nature’s physical sciences editorial team and over the years has covered and championed research in various engineering disciplines including materials, biomedical and mechanical engineering. In early 2024 Ros took a short secondment in Nature's Publishing Strategy team, to explore new journal opportunities in the Nature Portfolio.