Authors

Publication of academic journal articles or books and frequency of citation are the standard markers for evaluating scholars in hiring, promotion, or tenure decisions. A high degree of productivity (“publish or perish”) also influences the ability of researchers to win grants and other awards. And yet, publishing opportunities are often more limited for those who are not already ensconced in academic power structures.

For more information about inequities in authorship and actions you can take, please refer to the following sections:

Power Structures and Authorship
Gender and Authorship
Language/Geographic Location and Authorship
What Can You Do?

Power Structures and Authorship

“…[D]ata suggest that publication patterns largely reproduce significant power imbalances within the system of academic publishing.” (Wellman & Piper, 2017). Given this environment, authors from historically marginalized communities can find themselves at a distinct disadvantage in acquiring the necessary publishing opportunities to support their professional advancement. As in the case of editorial boards and peer reviewers, lack of equitable access to scholarly publishing opportunities among authors has repercussions for membership within academic fields, often perpetuating established and well-connected networks and sidelining new voices and perspectives. “Where authorship distribution is particularly uneven, it may reflect an underlying lack of equity in access to resources—that is, a small number of investigators control data and funding, to the exclusion of others” (Hart & Perlis, 2021) These power imbalances can also be amplified during periods of cultural stress, such as a global pandemic, causing marginalized communities to lose ground disproportionately to other groups (Malisch et al., 2020).

Gender and Authorship

Gender persistently surfaces as a site of inequity in authorship. Researchers point to data that suggest that men receive more credit than women for their publications (Langin, 2021) and are more often listed as first authors, even in a co-authoring situation with a woman. This inequity in credit sharing “may be a contributing factor to the continuing gender imbalances reported for academic positions, grant funding, and awards” (Broderick & Casadevall, 2019).

Authorial and citation inequities persist regardless of the perceived quality of the research and related publications (Dworkin, 2020), though this effect can be reduced through deliberate editorial practices: “When articles are reviewed anonymously (double-blind review), the number of articles published with women listed as the first author increases (Budden et al., 2008), highlighting the impact of implicit bias in this process” (Calaza et al., 2021). Additional research is necessary to determine the degree to which these gender inequities may be replicated or even amplified for non-binary authors.

Language/Geographic Location and Authorship

Biases associated with language and geographic location g can also be barriers to academic publishing opportunities. Studies show that reviewers respond more favorably to those abstracts written in “international academic English” than abstracts with identical scientific content written by non-native English speakers, regardless of the quality of the scientific research (Politzer-Ahles, Girolamo, & Ghali, 2020). Female, non-Western authors are at a particular disadvantage, as “gender and geographical affiliation are separate but compounding determinants of authors’ access to publishing, and publishing in high impact journals, with women authors from [low and middle income countries] particularly underrepresented” (Merriman et al., 2021).

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What Can You Do? How to Effect Change as an Author

Many publishers have begun to include statements and/or policies regarding equity, inclusion, and accessibility, but not all journals have implemented these goals at the level of author submission and review. Authors can advocate for others and for themselves as they engage with editors or publishers to publish their research.

Suggested actions:

Advocating for others
- Consider what unconscious (or implicit) bias is and the ways in which it might influence your choice of publishing venue, coauthors, and reading and citation practices.
- Collaborate and co-author with researchers and scholars outside of your immediate network.
- Give credit broadly and inclusively to participants in and contributors to your research.
- Reference the work of underrepresented researchers and scholars in your field.
  - See ‘Diversifying citations’ in The rise of citational justice: how scholars are making references fairer
  - Cite Black Women movement
- When asked to recommend reviewers, include reviewers from underrepresented groups to broaden the reviewer pool.
- Use inclusive, empowering, and respectful language when writing and speaking.
Advocating for yourself
- Network with editors and editorial board members at conferences and meetings, and become familiar with the people and publications that are important in your field.
- Ask established colleagues in the field to refer or recommend you to a journal’s editor before formal submission.
- Recommend reviewers who are likely to understand and judge your work fairly.
- Question inaccurate reviews and/or suggested edits; consider withdrawing your publication if your concerns are not being addressed.
- Write to editors and ask colleagues to write to editors or other authors on your behalf when you see that your published work is not being appropriately cited or is being plagiarized.
- Negotiate your author rights if you don’t feel comfortable with the contract you are being offered.
Consider submitting your work to journals and publishers that emphasize diversity with regard to policies, editorial staff, and authors. Established and tenured faculty might find this approach more feasible, particularly in fields with predominantly single-author publications. Anyone, regardless of their role, can ask whether a journal has established policies for equity and inclusion. Even if a journal does not have such policies, such inquiries can be valuable in prompting action.