Background

Diversity among editorial boards and in the peer review process maximizes the likelihood that the dissemination of reported results is both relevant and respectful to readers and end users. Past studies have examined diversity among editorial board members and reviewers for factors such as gender, geographic location, and race, but limited research has explored the representation of people with disabilities. Here, we sought to understand the landscape of inclusivity of people with lived experience of spinal cord injury specifically in journals publishing papers (2012–2022) on their quality of life.

Methods

An open and closed 12-question adaptive survey was disseminated to 31 journal editors over a one-month period beginning December 2022.

Results

We received 10 fully completed and 5 partially completed survey responses (response rate 48%). Notwithstanding the small sample, over 50% (8/15) of respondents indicated that their journal review practices involve people with lived experience of spinal cord injury, signaling positive even if incomplete inclusivity practices. The most notable reported barriers to achieving this goal related to identifying and recruiting people with lived experience to serve in the review and editorial process.

Conclusions

In this study we found positive but incomplete trends toward inclusivity in journal practices involving people with lived experience of spinal cord injury. We recommend, therefore, that explicit and genuine efforts are directed toward recruitment through community-based channels. To improve representation even further, we suggest that editors and reviewers be offered the opportunity to self-identify as living with a disability without discrimination or bias.

中文翻译：

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观点之桥：编辑委员会和同行评审中具有脊髓损伤生活经历的人的代表

背景

编辑委员会之间和同行评审过程中的多样性最大限度地提高了报告结果的传播与读者和最终用户相关且尊重的可能性。过去的研究考察了编辑委员会成员和审稿人之间性别、地理位置和种族等因素的多样性，但探索残疾人代表性的研究有限。在这里，我们试图了解有脊髓损伤生活经历的人的包容性情况，特别是在发表有关他们生活质量的论文（2012-2022）的期刊中。

方法

从 2022 年 12 月开始的一个月内，向 31 名期刊编辑分发了一项包含 12 个问题的开放式和封闭式适应性调查。

结果

我们收到了 10 份完全完成的调查回复和 5 份部分完成的调查回复（回复率为 48%）。尽管样本很小，但超过 50% (8/15) 的受访者表示，他们的期刊审稿实践涉及有脊髓损伤生活经历的人，即使包容性实践不完整，也发出了积极的信号。据报道，实现这一目标的最显着的障碍与识别和招募具有生活经验的人员来参与审稿和编辑过程有关。

结论

在这项研究中，我们发现了涉及有脊髓损伤经历的人的期刊实践中积极但不完整的包容性趋势。因此，我们建议通过基于社区的渠道进行明确和真诚的招聘。为了进一步提高代表性，我们建议编辑和审稿人有机会在没有歧视或偏见的情况下自我认定为残疾人。