Abstract
IFLA Journal strives to make publishing original research accessible to librarians and researchers from around the world. Being a truly inclusive journal, however, faces historical, systemic, and economic barriers that make this goal difficult to achieve. It is well documented that scholars who are not native speakers of English or from regions that are less represented on editorial boards struggle to get their work accepted in international peer reviewed journals. The work of sociologist Fran Collyer provides striking evidence of bias toward the global North in both citation patterns and acceptance rates of scholars, which impacts the way in which knowledge is transferred around the world (Collyer, 2018). The problem of un-equal access to publishing opportunities and the often one-way flow of knowledge and techniques should be of great concern to the library profession as a whole since this issue impacts both the collections we build and the manner by which professional practices are shared and adopted transnationally.
The recent COPE study on issues in publication ethics documents the extent to which journal editors across the humanities and social sciences are aware of the issue of inclusivity in academic publishing. Of a survey of over 650 editors, 64% report problems of language (i.e. English) and writing quality as barriers to inclusivity. In addition, 55% of editors struggle to recognize and deal with bias in the peer review process. Among editors of Libraries and Information Technology journals, the issue of inclusivity was equally salient among respondents to the COPE study (2019). The IFLA Journal editorial committee and editor are keenly aware of this issue and work to avoid the continued replication of barriers to an equal transnational exchange of techniques, ideas, and professional knowledge within the field of library and information science. It is clear that there can be improvement. IFLA Journal’s acceptance rate for submissions since 2016 is 32%, a number consistent with many academic journals. As members of a scholarly community, we consent to a rigorous double-blind peer review process helps to ensure new ideas are promoted and the methods that drive research and discovery are sound. Submissions from Africa and the Asia Pacific region, however, are rejected at rates above the average while those from North America, Europe, and Latin America surpass the average. This is a problem for us all. Although scholars from Africa and the Asia Pacific region submit more manuscripts for review and are thus well represented in the journal, there is a clear need to work towards review processes, organizational structures, and professional development programs that can help make research and publishing more accessible to all of our colleagues in the field. Over the past several years, IFLA Journal has implemented policies and activities aimed to make publishing more inclusive.
As noted previously, language is one of the primary barriers to inclusivity in academic publishing. The Esperanto movement in the early 20th century attests to the fact that language is a long-standing barrier to sharing scientific knowledge. Academic writing requires language that is clear, precise, and appropriate to the professional terminology on a specific field. This is a difficult challenge for any researcher to meet when working within their first language not to mention their second or third language. To the extent possible, the journal’s editorial policies attempt to decouple language from the review of the novelty, research method, methodology, and analysis of each manuscript. We ask reviewers to focus their review to the content of work and attempt to overcome challenges presented by manuscripts that have been translated or written by non-native speakers of the journal’s publishing language. Rather than reject papers that are difficult to comprehend because of language, the editor will often return a manuscript for language editing when a paper seems to be within the scope for the journal. Through this process, IFLA Journal addresses language barriers within the final editorial process by providing an editorial assistant to work with authors to improve language and readability for papers that have been accepted on the merits of the research. Further steps in the editorial process require either financial resources or skilled volunteers to work with authors on improving the language within their manuscripts. This can slow down the publication process by several weeks as author and editorial assistant trade revisions. Although imperfect, this process lowers to some degree the significant barrier presented by language.
To increase representation, IFLA Journal changed the composition of the editorial committee. Following the practice of many international journals to have regional editors, the journal added members to its editorial committee to both increase submissions from and provide mentorship to potential authors in regions that are less represented. Working with the IFLA Professional Committee the journal added editorial committee members designated to represent the Asia and Pacific Region and the African Region in 2019. We are pleased to welcome Professor Amany M. Elsayed of Helwan University in Egypt, and Professor Diljit Singh, University of Malaya (retired). An editor for Latin America will be added by 2020. These three new members guarantee further diversity within an editorial committee of nine at-large members, which is chaired by Dean Shali Zhang of Auburn University in the USA. We hope this will help the journal avoid some of the biases described in Collyer’s work. Of course, this is likely not enough to cover the breadth of diversity found within these continents.
Finally, the editorial committee aims to provide professional development to scholars and practitioners in the field by offering a series of workshops on research methods and practices. In August of 2019, the IFLA Journal editorial committee partnered with Sage and the IFLA Social Science Libraries Section to host a two-day workshop on qualitative research methods for library and information science practitioners. Hosted by the Laskaridis Foundation in their beautiful library in Pireaus, Greece, this workshop attracted 20 participants from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America. To make the workshop accessible, the IFLA Professional Committee provided funding for 8 participants to receive scholarships to supplement costs of travel and lodging. Featuring a keynote address from Professor Judy Broady-Preston the editor of Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication and CILIP President, the workshop provided participants with access to journal editors and reviewers to learn more about the publishing process and ways to better position their work for publication. Additionally, the workshop introduced students to methods and tools to equip them to design, conduct, and critique qualitative and mixed methods research. Participants explored the strengths and weaknesses of a variety of data collection methods and evaluated strategies for using and combining them. The majority of the workshop focused on issues of research design and data collection to allow participants to design projects and community programs in a manner that will allow results to be shared with the broader professional community through peer reviewed journals.
In 2020, the editorial committee is partnering with the IFLA Library Theory and Research Section and Social Science Libraries Section for another workshop on the topic of engaging in international research. Led by Professor Peter Lor, who recently published International and Comparative Librarianship: Concepts and Methods for Global Studies, this workshop will focus on metatheory, methodology and methods for international and comparative research within library and information science. The workshop is tentatively scheduled to take place August 13-14, 2020 in Dublin, Ireland in advance of the IFLA World Library and Information Congress. Further information will be forthcoming on the IFLA website.
Although the wide arc of history and difficult to surmount economic issues contribute greatly to unequal access and representation within academic publishing, editorial boards are increasingly striving to implement policies that will limit bias from within the peer review process. We hope the changes IFLA Journal is making in editorial policy and committee composition will make a positive impact on the field. Adding research and publishing workshops to these activities will hopefully disseminate what is often insider’s knowledge on the publishing process and make publishing research more accessible to the global library profession.