Edi(torial) 2024: action plan for change and new initiatives

Platelets has undergone a number of changes during 2023 with our transition to new Editors-in Chief (EICs), alongside our new open access format. This process has allowed us to re-focus and restate our commitment to transparency and activism in the arena of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the Journal.

I previously outlined our ambition to take stock of our position and identified areas that were critical to identify relevant policy options.¹ These included issues regarding geographical bias, gender-related bias and LGBTQ+ inequity. Working with our publishers, Taylor and Francis, we have formalized the role of EDI officer and we are proud that Platelets is Taylor and Francis’ first Journal to recognize and formalize this role. As EDI officer, I will be responsible for reporting on EDI-related issues, feeding into Editorial Board (EB) meetings and working closely with our EICs to develop and deliver key policies.

The issue of EDI and publishing is not new, however there are limited data available on the impact of geography, gender and other protected characteristics upon submissions and acceptance rates. With an eye to our neighbors, Research Practice in Thrombosis and Hemostasis (RPTH) have conducted important work in this area. RPTH founding Editor Dr Cushman is commended for their work in promoting transparency around author, reviewer and editorial board demographics.^2,3 Their work highlights the imbalance between male and female authors and the acceptance rates. There are limitations to this approach though with gender being inferred from names, incomplete survey data and variable response rates. At Platelets, we are committed to evaluating our current position and aim to publish a snapshot of our EDI position in the coming year. Whilst gender remains a large issue, we will focus on collecting data on other protected characteristics (e.g. ethnicity, sexual/gender identity and disabilities).

Update on current position

Our new EICs Elizabeth Gardiner and Will Parker have been working hard on delivering our transition away from print issues to online open access. This has coincided with additional EB members being appointed to balance workload and expertise. The composition of EB is imbalanced with respect to gender (31% female members), race, LGBTQ+ and other characteristics. We are actively working to appoint more female and emerging leaders in clinical and fundamental research to the board. Initiatives to balance the EB are outlined in our action plan.

We have updated our guidance for editors and reviewers to increase the contribution by trainees (a.k.a. early-career researchers) to the peer review process. This is an approach already being employed by some of our regular reviewers and we wish to extend this further. Reviewers will be asked to highlight contributions by others to the review and we are developing an annual acknowledgment page for people that have reviewed more than 5 manuscripts in the past year. The total number of manuscripts reviewed will not be published and reviewers will have the opportunity to opt-out of the scheme. We anticipate that this initiative will increase our reviewer pool, whilst increasing diversity and range of opinion, without impinging on the quality of the reviews.

Finally, we have worked with our publishers to implement a name-change policy that is available to all authors. Reasons that underly name changes are varied but may include a change in relationship status (i.e. marriage or divorce) or as part of gender transitioning. The impact of not changing names would leave people in the situation of having to potentially omit key publications from their CV or other documents in order to avoid being “deadnamed.” Taylor and Francis have a simple process that will update names on HTML and PDF format manuscripts that will track through to third-party reference managers that have relevant agreements. The nature of the change does not require a corrigendum and more information is available online (Defining authorship in your research paper – Author Services (taylorandfrancis.com).

Action plan

Moving forward, we have identified three key areas to focus on the next 12 months to embed and improve EDI at Platelets. Namely, we will review and survey of EB membership, review our submission data, and commission a special review series on EDI-related issues.

1. Editorial board review and survey: Working with our publishers, we are conducting a survey of our editorial board to inform future EB appointments. All appointments are merit-based and to ensure coverage of relevant clinical and fundamental research areas. In discussion with EICs, we are developing an expression of interest form for people to nominate themselves, or others, as Principal Editors. All nominations will be reviewed by the EICs and any appointments will be made at their discretion and with an eye on EB expertise requirements. This has the advantage of expanding the pool of potential editors and broadening diversity of opinion in discussions.

2. Review submission data: Submission data will be reviewed to understand whether there are disparities between acceptance rates based on geographical location. We will also generate statistics on the gender identity of first and corresponding authors. Should we identify areas where there are imbalances, these will be discussed with the EICs and an action plan developed. Actions may extend to outreach in areas where submissions or acceptance rates are low to increase journal visibility and training or guidance for our editors and reviewers. Should publication costs be a factor, we will work with our publisher to explore fee waivers and discount schemes.

3. Special collection - focus on EDI: We will introduce a new collection to focus on EDI issues in clinical and fundamental platelet research. This broad collection will cover areas, such as “Increasing representation in studies of platelet function,” “Healthcare equity for transgender populations,” “EDI and managing bleeding disorders.” We are open to recommendations for topics and/or contributions to this new collection. Please contact me with any suggestions for topics and possible authors.

There is plenty of work to get going with and we invite you to please tell us your opinions on these policy areas and suggestions for our consideration going forward. We are also keen to hear from you if you want to contribute to our EDI special collection.

Additional information

Funding

Dr Taylor is supported by a British Heart Foundation Project Grant [PG/22/10965].