A Commitment to Equity from the Editorial Board

2020-06-10

The Editorial Board of Unbound: A Journal of Digital Scholarship endorses the statement from FemEdTech in their “Open Letter to Editors/Editorial Boards” exhorting journal editors to recognize and accommodate the disproportionate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on women scholars and researchers. We also acknowledge that, in these uncertain times, people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and people with disabilities are also facing unprecedented challenges. In the spirit of the Statement of Inclusion & Accessibility that governs our activities, we commit ourselves to the following actions to foster the work of diverse contributors, and to recognize and accommodate the needs that may otherwise prevent them from contributing research and silence their voices.

  1. Our rolling submission process with no fixed deadlines for specific issues allows for participation by scholars on their timeline.
  2. We invite potential contributors to submit papers written by authors of all genders. Our rolling and transparent editorial process ensures diverse, equitable representation for all submissions. 
  3. We encourage submissions from people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and people with different abilities, whose work will be treated equitably under these processes.
  4. Editors of special issues follow the same procedures, and are encouraged to highlight voices that have been marginalized or silenced elsewhere.
  5. We recognize that schooling, caring, and community responsibilities fall disproportionately across gender. We commit to allowing for flexibility in deadlines during our transparent peer review process to accommodate both the needs of our volunteer reviewers and authors.

We are grateful for the volunteer labor of our editors, authors, and reviewers. We could not exist without you. If there are additional actions we, as a Board, need to take, we are listening and will strive to meet the needs of our community.