INFORMS Open Forum

"Who Are the Gatekeepers? An Examination of Diversity in INFORMS Journal Editorial Boards"

  • 1.  "Who Are the Gatekeepers? An Examination of Diversity in INFORMS Journal Editorial Boards"

    Posted 09-23-2021 23:11
    Dear colleagues,

    I am pleased to share with you this paper (https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/serv.2021.0274) that has been recently published by Service Science and is free to access. In the paper, the authors, Laker Newhouse and Margaret Brandeau, explore the important subject of diversity in the editorial boards of all 16 INFORMS journals. 

    The research was in part supported by the INFORMS initiative on DEI. 

    We hope the paper can serve as a basis for discussion as to what more we can do as a community to increase editorial board diversity and inclusiveness and to level the playing field for everyone.

    Saif

    Who Are the Gatekeepers? An Examination of Diversity in INFORMS Journal Editorial Boards

    Laker J. Newhouse, Margaret L. Brandeau


    Abstract: Publishing in respected scholarly journals is critical to academic success. However, if journal editorial boards fail to reflect the diversity of thought in a field, worthy work may be overlooked. This study assesses the level of diversity in the editorial boards of the 16 INFORMS journals. We examine gender, whether an individual is an underrepresented minority, and institutional affiliation, and perform a network analysis to identify coauthor relationships between editorial board members. We find that the editorial boards have low levels of diversity: women comprise just under 20% of the editorial board members; fewer than 1% of editorial board members are underrepresented minorities; and 10 institutions (less than 5% of the total) account for more than 25% of the editors. We find a high level of connectivity between editorial board members (as measured by co-author relationship) for some of the INFORMS journals, suggesting the influence of an "in crowd" of like-minded individuals. INFORMS can and should work to end this state of affairs: we provide a set of actionable recommendations for broadening diversity and reducing connectivity on the INFORMS journal editorial boards. In this way, INFORMS journals can support a diversity of backgrounds and views, enabling the publication of a broader range of ideas and invigorating academic discourse in our profession

    --
    Saif Benjaafar
    Presidential Endowed Professor 
    Distinguished McKnight University Professor
    University of Minnesota

    Editor-in-Chief, Service Science