By Anna Korzeniowska, eLife Research Culture Manager
In this ninth report into equity, diversity and inclusion at eLife, we highlight recent developments and planned actions for the next six months.
We continue to make strides in 2025 implementing actions from our previous report and working towards strengthening equity and inclusion broadly in scientific scholarly publishing. In this report, we outline steps we have taken to accomplish plans set out in our November 2024 report. Those plans covered the following:
- Establish an observer programme for our Early-Career Advisory Group (ECAG) members to give feedback on potential improvements in our peer-review process
- Recruit the next group of researchers into our Ambassadors programme
- Recruit new members to the Global South Committee for Open Science to bring the membership to 13
If you have any questions on this update or previous ones, please share them using the comments section below or email edi@elifesciences.org. To provide anonymous feedback, please use this form.
Supporting inclusive and empowered communities
Ben Barres Spotlight Awards
In 2024, recipients of the Ben Barres Spotlight Awards included 10 winners and 4 runners-up, who have used the funds to advance their research careers. Each year, the awardees are asked to organise an event at their institution to showcase their research and illustrate how the award has helped them achieve their goals. The 2024 awardees are in the process of organising their events, and we will update on their progress later this year.
The Ben Barres Spotlight Awards pay homage to our late colleague Ben Barres, who served as a Reviewing Editor for eLife. Ben was a vocal champion for trans and women’s rights and shined a light on injustices within academia. Through the award scheme, we strive towards Ben’s vision of a more inclusive and equitable scientific community by highlighting pioneering researchers from groups that are underrepresented in biology and medicine or from countries with limited research funding.
Increasing geographical reach of eLife Communities
In the last six months we have been busy recruiting new members to our advisory boards and the eLife Ambassadors programme.
Early-Career Advisory Group (ECAG)
The ECAG is finalising its recruitment efforts to add a representative from China to the group. In the next six months, the ECAG will also strive to recruit a member from India.
eLife Global South Committee for Open Science (GSC)
At the start of 2025, the GSC welcomed 3 new members, bringing the overall number to 11. The new members are based in India, Colombia and the Virgin Islands, further increasing the geographic reach of the committee. We are still committed to recruiting a representative from the Pacific Islands in the coming months.
eLife Ambassadors Programme
We successfully recruited 109 eLife Ambassadors who represent 39 countries and 8 geographic regions, including Africa, Europe, North America, East, South and Central Asia, Latin America, and Oceania. We hosted welcome calls with the new cohort of eLife Ambassadors at the beginning of March 2025. The calls were scheduled at two different times (morning and afternoon) to allow all new Ambassadors to access the events regardless of their time zone. Starting in April, the Ambassadors will embark on a number of training courses, covering various topics ranging from peer review through to Open Science. We are very excited to see what the Ambassadors achieve during their time with us.
Addressing bias in peer review
ECAG observer programme
The ECAG have been working with our editorial leadership and staff to establish an observer programme in order to help address potential bias in our peer review. In the first phase of the programme, between October 2024 and January 2025, the ECAG members observed our consultative peer-review process. The next step for the programme is to extend the observation to gain more insight into our process, after which the ECAG will provide written feedback and recommendation to our editorial and leadership teams. We believe this initiative will further amplify the voices of early-career researchers (ECRs) in the public review of research, and will lead to an even more transparent and inclusive peer-review system for the benefit of science communication, where all stakeholders are involved and valued.
Encouraging inclusive and equitable research
GSC activities in 2024-25
In December 2024, the GSC organised their second public webinar, entitled “Mapping Open Science Initiatives in the Global South”. The invited speakers, who are all based in the Global South, presented on the various initiatives which they are involved in. The recording of the webinar is available here.
The Committee members have also been working on a number of joint initiatives aiming at amplifying the voices of researchers based in the Global South and showcasing Open Science initiatives from the region. The 2024 “year in review” blog written by the Committee provides more details on the progress of these initiatives and their future plans.
Underpinning action with equitable infrastructure
Including diverse perspectives in user testing
In our April 2024 update, we reported that our technology team had been working with diverse groups of user testers to shape the design of our website. These efforts have contributed to eLife winning the OpenAthens UX Award 2025 for its user-driven approach to the design of Reviewed Preprints published under the eLife Model. This fantastic achievement illustrates that including diverse perspectives in the design of products can make a difference to how successful they are.
Next steps
- Recruit an ECR representative to the eLife Board
- Recruit new members to the ECAG and the GSC to further increase their geographical representation, and include authors who have previously published with eLife in these groups as appropriate
- Implement the feedback from the ECAG observer programme into eLife’s peer-review processes
- Open applications for the Ben Barres Spotlight Awards 2025 edition
Explore previous reports on our progress:
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