Diversity and Inclusion

The Iowa State University Library's Open Scholarship Services advocates for a more inclusive scholarly communication ecosystem and centers diversity, inclusion, and social justice in its approach to scholarly communication. Traditional publishing practices erect economic and technological barriers to accessing knowledge and reinforces a Eurocentric male perspective, marginalizing the voices of women, communities of color, scholars from the Global South, and other underrepresented identities in the scholarly record.

The University Library's Open Scholarship Services is commited to:

• Utilizing our collections budget to advocate for sustainable and equitable publishing and access models;
• Advancing the democratization of knowledge and reducing economic barriers to access through Open Access;
• Interrogating our information systems and platforms for Eurocentric and gendered biases and working to dismantle these; and
• Actively seeking to publish scholarship of and by marginalized communities.

Specific actions Open Scholarship Services has taken include:

• Developing a diversity policy for our library publishing program and centering the representation of marginalized communities in the program's mission;
• Including diversity and inclusion as a review criterion for open educational resources;
• Raising awareness of biases in academic publishing through publications and conference presentations; and
• Offering workshops on systemic racism and representation in media.

In support of working towards a more equitable and inclusive scholarly communications system, the Iowa State University Library is a supporting partner of the Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communication and a signatory of the Helsinki Initiative on Multilingualism in Scholarly Communication.