We believe in the strength of diversity in all its forms, because inclusion of and respect for diverse people, experiences, and ideas lead to superior solutions to world challenges and advances chemistry as a global, multidisciplinary science.
We are committed to promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and respect (DEIR); identifying and dismantling barriers to success; and creating a welcoming and supportive environment so that all ACS members, employees, and volunteers can thrive.
ACS Publications’ Diversity Action Commitment
At ACS Publications, we are committed to developing, implementing, tracking, and reporting on our progress to ensure that our editors, advisors, reviewers, and authors are more diverse and that all authors receive the same fair treatment and opportunity to publish in our journals. We acknowledge that we do not have all the answers now, but we seek to hear from and listen to our community on how we can improve our journals to be more diverse and inclusive.
As first steps, we commit to taking the following actions:
- Gathering and making public our baseline statistics on diversity within our journals, encompassing our editors, advisors, reviewers, and authors; annually reporting on progress.
- Training new and existing editors to recognize and interrupt bias in peer review
- Including diversity of journal contributors as an explicit measurement of Editor-in-Chief performance
- Appointing an ombudsperson to serve as a liaison between Editors and our Community
- Developing an actionable diversity plan for each ACS journal
For more on these commitments, please read our joint editorial on behalf of all Editors, Staff, and Governance Members, published in June 2020.
Progress on Our Commitments
DEIR Commitments in Action
Through editorials, special issues, virtual content collections, and our programs and services, we seek to support the examination of and facilitate conversation around topics that advance DEIR in the chemical sciences.
Resources
Interested in learning more about diversity, equity, inclusion, and respect at the ACS? Visit the ACS DEIR Resources and Information Hub.
Better Together
We want to hear from you. Share your ideas about how we can improve our journals to be more diverse, equitable, and inclusive: Community Feedback Form
Collectively, we can accelerate change and advance issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and respect. ACS Publications is partnering with other publishing organizations to address these issues across scholarly publishing:
