Adoption of Policies on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) at BAR - Brazilian Administration Review

INTRODUCTION

Recently, in February 2023, we defined a set of policies to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) in the evaluation and communication of research in our journal.

From that, we imagine that readers may ask themselves: being BAR a business and management journal, what are the reasons that led it to adopt such policies?

We would answer… good question!

Generally speaking, we can group the numerous reasons into three groups: ethical-social; legal or normative, and economics.

From an ethical-social point of view, DEIA has the potential to promote a more integrated, socially just, sustainable, and prosperous world, and we believe that deeply. I would like to strongly state that this is the main reason.

Second, from the legal or normative perspective, it is observed that more and more measures to promote DEIA are imposed on society. Measures for the inclusion of people with disabilities; quotas for minorities in various private and public economic environments; the status of sexual and gender diversity, among many others. Aspects of corporate compliance, for example, begin to address and promote diversity and fairness (Wade, 2020).

Finally from the economic approach, there are numerous and growing studies that associate DEIA in organizations with direct impacts on organizational performance: innovation (Hewlett et al., 2013), reputation and brand (Alli, 2022), organizational learning capacity (Lyman et al., 2022), and on the economic results of companies (Woolley et al., 2010). We understand companies as actors in the institutional environment capable of promoting profound changes in society, legal practice, and the economy, especially if these changes can bring applied results. In this way, by contributing to companies increasingly perceiving DEIA as positive for their success, we are also contributing to promoting a fairer society.

However, this change is much deeper than it appears. For an organization to be able to put them into effect consistently and permanently, it is necessary to understand the historical root of the problem.

From this, BAR seeks to contribute in two ways: the first is through the guest article written by Dr. Rohden (2023), presented in this issue and next to this editorial, which seeks to broaden the understanding of DEIA and its consequences for organizations. The second is through the establishment of our policies that will express our commitment to DEIA and will govern our actions in this regard.

BAR POLICIES TO PROMOTE DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION, AND ACCESSIBILITY (DEIA)

Our policies were implemented to comply with recommendations from prestigious institutions such as COPE - Committee on Publication Ethics, of which BAR is a member, subscribing to its principles, and Program Scielo - Scientific Electronic Library Online, in which BAR is indexed since 2009. As an organization, COPE aims to provide guidance about ethical issues regarding research and publication. To establish a more inclusive and diverse scholarly publishing community, one of the aspects considered and defined by COPE is to make itself present concerning DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility) policies. SciELO, as an indexing base, thinking about the global audience of researchers, has defined as one of its criteria for evaluation and permanence of journals the promotion of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the evaluation and communication of research.

Since November 2022, BAR’s editorial team has been discussing the role of the journal in promoting this topic. It is important to note that this work is ongoing and iterative since this is only the first set of policies determined to guide BAR’s authors, reviewers, and editors in compliance with diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility policies, given that these topics are constantly evolving.

In general, BAR’s standards incorporate anti-racism, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Authors, reviewers, and editors are encouraged to review APA’s racism, bias, and discrimination resources (American Psychological Association [APA], 2023), including APA’s action plan for addressing inequality (Shullman & Evans, 2020), as well as the APA’s equity, diversity, and inclusion framework (APA, 2021a), and COPE’s diversity and inclusivity resources (Committee on Publication Ethics [COPE], 2023) before submitting their research and before reviewing for BAR.

Summarily, the policies involve (a) broadening authorship and editorial board representation (regarding both gender and institutions); (b) diversifying research samples; (c) justifying sample inclusion efforts; (d) use of inclusive language; (e) proper approaches to the use of sex and gender information (sex and gender equity in research); (f) prevent bias and racism in the peer review process; (g) taxonomy for authors’ contributorship; (h) data sharing and open science badges; (i) accessibility efforts. We’ll address each topic in the following sections.

Broadening authorship and editorial board representation

BAR is constantly working on broadening authorship and editorial board representation. The journal aims to: (a) achieve gender equity for authors and reviewers, as well as for members of the Editorial Board, especially among the associate editors. To do so, the journal aims on improving the representation rate by 15% a year until it reaches equality on all fronts; as well as to (b) achieve a more diverse set of authors regarding the institutions, regions, and countries they represent. In addition, BAR welcomes research that is sensitive to diversity and it values the editing, writing, and participation of diverse scientists.

Diversify research samples

Authors are encouraged (but not obliged) to submit researches that extend beyond samples from white/Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic populations. BAR welcomes submissions with small but diverse samples in service of broadening who is represented in the content published by the journal.

Justify sample inclusion efforts

In addition to describing sample demographics, authors are also encouraged (but not obliged) to justify their samples and provide an overview of their sample inclusion efforts. They may provide detailed participant demographic descriptions in their method sections and in the manuscript abstract, regarding gender balance in the recruitment of participants, ethnic or other types of diversity in participant recruitment, and whether the study questionnaires were prepared in an inclusive way.

Use of inclusive language

Authors are also encouraged to use inclusive language when writing the manuscript. Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Please refer to APA’s inclusive language guidelines (APA, 2021b).

Sex and gender equity in research

Authors can refer to the sex and gender equity in research (SAGER) guidelines (Heidari et al., 2016) and the SAGER guidelines checklist (Van Epps et al., 2022). These offer systematic approaches to the use and editorial review of sex and gender information in study design, data analysis, outcome reporting, and research interpretation - however, please note there is no single, universally agreed-upon set of guidelines for defining sex and gender.

Prevent bias and racism in the peer review process

Editors must immediately alert the editor-in-chief should they identify bias and/or racism in the peer review process. Should racism be identified in the peer review process, by a reviewer or editor submitting a biased or discriminatory review, the editor-in-chief of the journal can delete the review, uninvite the reviewer from serving with the journal, and communicate clear reasons as to why the review was rejected. In this topic, BAR will follow recommendations from the APA’s racism, bias, and discrimination resources (APA, 2023).

Taxonomy for authors’ contributorship

Following APA’s recommendation, BAR adopts the CRediT (contributor roles taxonomy) for authors’ contributorship and requires author contribution statements for all published articles. CRediT is “a high-level taxonomy, including 14 roles, that can be used to represent the roles typically played by contributors to research outputs” (CRediT, 2023, online). The roles describe each contributor’s specific contribution to the scholarly output. Author contribution statements promote equity and inclusion by specifically attributing contributions to each author. Author contribution statements likewise allow for the inclusion of collaborators whose contributions are less obviously represented in the written article, such as colleagues who may have provided input in the early stages of an article or who handled more logistical aspects of the research.

Data sharing and open science badges

BAR encourages data sharing and adopts open science badges. Data sharing is an important mechanism for promoting scientific progress and encouraging a culture of openness and accountability in research. Data sharing also expands the pool of individuals who can conduct research. For researchers who are geographically dispersed or have limited resources, open and freely accessible data help foster scientific discovery. In addition, as of 2023, to encourage and recognize authors who decided to share their data and materials, the appropriate COS open science badge is placed on the cover page of the published article’s PDF. Badges are a useful way to signal the journal’s openness to data and materials sharing and to recognize authors who have made their materials or data publicly accessible.

Accessibility efforts

BAR’s commitment to accessibility includes making the journal’s published contents freely accessible to and inclusive of all our users, including those with visual, hearing, cognitive, or motor impairments. We recommend that readers access the journal page on Scielo (https://www.scielo.br/j/bar/ retrieved on May 09, 2023) since they index all of our content and make it available in both PDF and HTML format. To open PDF files, you will need a PDF viewer such as Adobe Reader. Adobe Reader is highly configurable for visually impaired and motion-impaired users. For guidance, please see the document Reading PDFs with reflow and accessibility features (Adobe, 2022). Even though the embedded images do not have alternative text, the image caption is provided adjacent to the image and can be read by a screen reader. Regarding text-to-speech compatibility, some users may benefit from listening to text. The platform does not currently include an embedded text-to-speech tool. However, text-to-speech compatibility is: (a) built into the Edge browser; (b) available as plug-ins for Chrome and Firefox browsers; and (c) built into most modern digital devices such as PCs, Macs, tablets, and smartphones.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

Scientific discoveries must be accessible to everyone, regardless of their background. BAR is committed to this journey and ensuring that society benefits from scientific advancements. By adopting this new BAR’s ethical-social, legal, and economic policies, we can achieve academic and scientific social justice, which is highly valued in society today.

REFERENCES

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  » https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/reading-pdfs-reflow-accessibility-features.html
• Alli, L. N. (2022). Diversity and inclusion in the beauty and cosmetic advertising and its impact on corporate reputation. CUNY Academic Works. https://academicworks.cuny.edu/bb_etds/142
  » https://academicworks.cuny.edu/bb_etds/142
• American Psychological Association (2021a). Equity, diversity, and inclusion framework. https://www.apa.org/about/apa/equity-diversity-inclusion/framework.pdf
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• American Psychological Association (2021b). Inclusive language guidelines. https://www.apa.org/about/apa/equitydiversity-inclusion/language-guidelines.pdf
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• American Psychological Association (2023). Racism, bias, and discrimination. https://www.apa.org/topics/racism-bias-discrimination
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• Rohden, L. (2023). Inclusion and diversity in companies: Premises to maximize quality of life and profitability. BAR - Brazilian Administration Review, 20(2), In Press.
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• Woolley, A. W., Chabris, C. F., Pentland, A., Hashmi, N., & Malone, T. W. (2010). Evidence for a collective intelligence factor in the performance of human groups. Science, 330(6004), 686-688. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1193147
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• Data Availability:

  BAR - Brazilian Administration Review encourages data sharing but, in compliance with ethical principles, it does not demand the disclosure of any means of identifying research subjects.

• Plagiarism Check:

  BAR maintains the practice of submitting all documents received to the plagiarism check, using specific tools, e.g.: iThenticate.

• Peer review:

  is responsible for acknowledging an article’s potential contribution to the frontiers of scholarly knowledge on business or public administration. The authors are the ultimate responsible for the consistency of the theoretical references, the accurate report of empirical data, the personal perspectives, and the use of copyrighted material. This content was evaluated using the double-blind peer review process. The disclosure of the reviewers’ information on the first page is made only after concluding the evaluation process, and with the voluntary consent of the respective reviewers.

• Copyright:

  The authors retain the copyright relating to their article and grant the journal BAR - Brazilian Administration Review, the right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) The authors also retain their moral rights to the article, including the right to be identified as the authors whenever the article is used in any form.

Data availability

BAR - Brazilian Administration Review encourages data sharing but, in compliance with ethical principles, it does not demand the disclosure of any means of identifying research subjects.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  24 July 2023
• Date of issue
  2023