The Executive Orders issued in early 2025 by the incoming US administration have sent shockwaves across the nation, drastically impacting multiple industries, communities, and populations—including the scholarly publishing industry. The unprecedented threats to federally funded research, public health monitoring, academic freedom, and the scholarly record are far-reaching and are likely to alter both the practice of scientific research and the communication of scientific information for years if not decades to come. A particularly troubling undercurrent pervading these threats is the prohibition of programs, practices, and initiatives that are essential for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) efforts throughout the scientific enterprise as well as the scholarly publishing industry. This sudden wave of adversity has left many in our industry feeling overwhelmed, disoriented, and unmoored.

Yet in the face of these many uncertainties, one thing is certain: the Council of Science Editors (CSE) remains committed to our role as an indispensable advocate and resource for the responsible and equitable communication of science. This commitment includes fostering a diverse community of members who support each other in CSE’s mission and maintaining a safe space for members to share knowledge, exchange ideas, and offer suggestions for change. Through our publications, initiatives, partnerships, and core tenets, CSE has demonstrated its commitment to DEIA in several ways.

Code of Conduct

The CSE Code of Conduct¹ makes it clear that our intention is to create an environment where everyone is welcome and comfortable. This environment spans all of CSE’s interactive endeavors, including our events, committee meetings, educational offerings, and administrative procedures.

Strategic Plan

Our strategic plan includes a goal to advance CSE’s commitment to DEIA principles by promoting diverse membership and leadership throughout the organization, inviting speakers of all backgrounds to participate in our educational events, and ensuring that our content and resources address the needs of our entire community. In particular, our Annual Meeting, Fall Virtual Symposium, and other educational offerings seek to include DEIA-centered components where relevant, both in terms of topics and presenters.

Recommendations Paper

Section 2.7 of the CSE Recommendations Paper² is a detailed documentation of DEIA best practices in the scholarly publishing industry. In addition to laying out a strong foundation establishing the need for said practices, this comprehensive section includes suggested actions that can be taken to implement DEIA efforts within scientific publications and science publishing institutions and cites multiple resources designed to help publishers execute these actions.

DEIA Committee

Our DEIA Committee holds monthly meetings to discuss, develop, and implement DEIA-focused initiatives within the organization. With leadership from current co-chairs Amy Ritchie Johnson and Sumi Sexton, this dedicated team of CSE members works tirelessly to maintain and bolster current DEIA-centered goals while also exploring new ways of advancing and sustaining CSE’s commitment to this increasingly critical aspect of our operations. The committee also contributes the present column in every issue of Science Editor to report its progress, share resources, provide updates about the committee’s initiatives and activities, and explore DEIA-related topics.

DEIA Scholarly Resources Page

Our DEIA Scholarly Resources page³ provides a compilation of materials available from multiple societies to help editors implement DEIA efforts at their own publications. The CSE DEIA Committee curates this page to ensure that the resources provided therein are as relevant and as up to date as possible, and their most recent initiative is to compile resources pertaining to the scholarly publishing industry’s responses to the 2025 Executive Orders. CSE members and the community at large are welcome to visit this page to use these resources, as well as submit suggestions for additional resources via the CSE Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Resources & Initiatives Collector.⁴

C4DISC

CSE is a current member and one of the 10 cofounding organizations of the Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC), which was formed to address the lack of DEIA in the scholarly publishing industry. As part of this important coalition, CSE strives to abide by the C4DISC Joint Statement of Principles⁵ and promotes the usage of C4DISC’s many Toolkits for Equity to “provide a common framework for analysis, a shared vocabulary, and best practices to address racial disparities specific to the scholarly publishing community.”⁶ These toolkits, which are intended for use at both institutional and individual levels, include the Antiracism Toolkit for Allies⁷; the Antiracism Toolkit for Organizations⁸; the Antiracism Toolkit for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color⁹; Guidelines on Inclusive Language and Images in Scholarly Communication¹⁰; and a Focused Toolkit for Journal Editors and Publishers.¹¹

Member Support Survey

On March 3, 2025, a CSE member support survey was distributed in an effort to understand the ways in which members have been impacted by the federal government’s actions, align CSE’s resources with member needs and challenges, and advocate for members more effectively. Among the many responses received, the most prominent impacts reported by respondents included stressors and challenges regarding the restrictions on inclusive language terms, obstacles to publishing high-quality research, loss of research funding and employment, and a general concern for authors. The question “How can CSE support you?” yielded pleas to continue our DEIA efforts by providing DEIA-focused resources, educational offerings, and community-building opportunities; to create safe spaces for members to voice their opinions and concerns; to be a strong champion of DEIA within the scholarly publishing industry; and to simply “keep being CSE.” When asked about the preferred environment for members to discuss current events and other relevant topics, respondents indicated the CSE Listserv, unrecorded networking sessions, and CSE Connect events as desirable options. The DEIA Committee and Board of Directors are currently reviewing this feedback, and plans are underway for a CSE Connect event that will allow members to discuss the many challenges facing the scholarly publishing industry, create a safe space for collegial support, and explore viable, sustainable options for moving forward.

Reaffirming Our Purpose

The home page of the CSE website states:

Our purpose is to serve our members in the scientific, scientific publishing, and information science communities by fostering networking, education, discussion, and exchange. Our aim is to be an authoritative resource on current and emerging issues in the communication of scientific information.

CSE holds fast to our purpose and our aim to be an authoritative resource on current and emerging issues in the field of science communication, and DEIA principles will continue to constitute an indispensable component of what we do. We believe that promoting equitable actions that advance multifaceted and multidisciplinary diversity strengthens the scientific process, scholarly discourse, research outputs, and communication of research for the benefit of a diverse global society. With this in mind, and across all of our efforts, CSE remains committed to fulfilling our goals, supporting our members, and being an invaluable resource for DEIA-centered action throughout the scholarly publishing community.

References

1. Code of conduct. Council of Science Editors; [accessed 2025 Mar 29]. https://www.councilscienceeditors.org/code-of-conduct
2. Council of Science Editors, Editorial Policy Committee. CSE’s recommendations for promoting integrity in scientific journal publications. Council of Science Editors; [accessed 2025 Mar 29]. https://cse.memberclicks.net/recommendations-for-promoting-integrity-in-scientific-journal-publications
3. DEIA scholarly resources. Council of Science Editors; [accessed 2025 Mar 29]. https://www.councilscienceeditors.org/deia-scholarly-resources
4. CSE diversity, equity, and inclusion resources & initiatives collector. Council of Science Editors; [accessed 2025 Mar 29]. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/G53ZC6B
5. Joint statement of principles. Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC); [accessed 2025 Mar 29]. https://c4disc.org/joint-statement-of-principles/
6. Toolkits for equity. Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC); [accessed 2025 Mar 29]. https://c4disc.org/toolkits-for-equity/
7. Antiracism toolkit for allies. Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC); [accessed 2025 Mar 29]. https://c4disc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/toolkits-for-equity_antiracism_allies.pdf
8. Antiracism toolkit for organizations. Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC); [accessed 2025 Mar 29]. https://c4disc.pubpub.org/antiracism-toolkit-for-organizations
9. Antiracism toolkit for Black, Indigenous, and people of color. Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC); [accessed 2025 Mar 29]. https://c4disc.pubpub.org/antiracism-toolkit-for-black-indigenous-and-people-of-color
10. Guidelines on inclusive language and images in scholarly communication. Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC); [accessed 2025 Mar 29]. https://c4disc.pubpub.org/guidelines-on-inclusive-language-and-images-in-scholarly-communication
11. A focused toolkit for journal editors and publishers: building diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in editorial roles and peer review. Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC); [accessed 2025 Mar 29]. https://c4disc.pubpub.org/toolkit-editors-and-publishers

This article was commissioned and approved by the CSE DEIA Committee.

Peter J Olson is CSE Secretary and Board Liaison to the CSE DEIA Committee. Emilie Gunn is CSE President-Elect. Amy Ritchie Johnson co-chairs the CSE DEIA Committee with Sumi Sexton.