Inclusive book publishing at Springer Nature

Introduction: Diverse perspectives drive progress

At Springer Nature our mission is to be part of progress – and that begins with inclusion: of people, perspectives, and ideas. We believe that diverse perspectives drive progress, and we are committed to creating an environment where people and ideas can flourish.

Working with large global networks of researchers as authors, editors, and reviewers during the publishing process means that we have an opportunity and responsibility to better reflect the changing demographics of the research community and to ensure that we provide a trustworthy and bias-free process.

To support these efforts, we are working to understand the demographics of the external editors and authors we work with, and we are supporting our editors and reviewers with data-informed insights and training on implicit bias in the publication journey. Bringing diverse voices and perspectives into publishing activities and building inclusive practices within our publishing programmes are ongoing efforts.

In this report, we explore initiatives underway at Springer Nature to further our commitments and we present findings on gender representation as an illustration of how we are using data-informed insights within our programme.

Building inclusive practices in book publishing

Books are a fundamental part of the academic landscape and the primary output in some disciplines. As a book publisher, the decisions we make everyday impact researchers’ career paths, the academic record, and ultimately the future of the disciplines in which we publish.

We take this responsibility seriously and aim to address possible biases in our internal systems to ultimately ensure that our work reflects the diversity of our audience. To that effect, we have developed a thoughtful and deliberate approach to integrating inclusive practices into our publishing programmes: from rolling out an inclusive language guide to collecting self-reported demographic data from authors.

Ensuring that everyone working in the book publishing environment shares a basic understanding of implicit bias is an essential first step as we move towards creating a fairer, more equitable publishing programme. To deepen this foundational knowledge on implicit bias and ensure that it is translated into daily practice, our editors conduct peer-to-peer workshops where they discuss their own programmes and formulate plans to improve diversity of their published works and authors.

Indeed, diversity is not only about who we publish but also what we publish. Springer Nature’s Intentional Content Strategy, launched in 2023, encourages editors to commission work directly related to topics such as inclusion and equity. Whether it’s a book on racial bias in medical treatment or representation of women on screen, our books inform intellectual discourse, thereby helping to move the dial towards greater representation, inclusion, and a more equitable world.

To ensure that our eBooks are accessible to all users, they adhere to level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.2) wherever possible. This includes implementing structure and semantics in our digital formats, such as EPUB and HTML, to facilitate ease of navigation across assistive technologies.

We constantly refine our production processes to integrate accessibility best practices from the outset, ensuring new publications meet the needs of all our users. As part of our commitment to accessibility, we are also pursuing certification through Benetech. This certification process helps validate our efforts and assures customers of the quality and accessibility of our digital products.

Gender distribution of book authors and editors

While we are focusing on gender distribution and how this compares with representation in the research community, understanding geographic diversity has been an ongoing and important aspect of our strategy. For example, we find that 50% of our authors and volume editors and 56% of our book series editors come from Europe and Central Asia (mapping to World Bank regions). Over time we may extend this analysis to other demographic areas.

The analysis shows that 29% of lead authors and editors of books are women, and 24% of book series editors.

Fig 1. Gender distribution of book authors and editors

Fig 2. Gender distribution of book series editors

There is variability in representation by discipline which largely aligns with trends in representation of women within the research community, and with what we have previously reported for gender demographics of journal editors and journal authors and reviewers. For example, the high representation of women in the social sciences and humanities for book authors and editors is consistent with the high representation of women researchers in these fields within the research community^{i, ii}.

A notable exception to this consistency in representation of women in publishing and in research is medicine and life sciences where the representation of women as lead authors and editors of books (26%) and book series (19.5%) is below the estimated representation of women researchers in these fields (39-48%)^{i, ii}.

Fig 3. Gender distribution of book authors and editors across disciplines

Table 3. Gender distribution of book authors and editors across disciplines

	Men	Women
Books, Applied Sciences	78%	22%
Books, Medicine and Life Sciences	74%	26%
Books, Computer Science	74%	26%
Books, Business, Economics, Politics, Law	70%	30%
Books, Sciences	81%	19%
Books, Humanities	58%	42%
Books, Social Sciences	53%	47%

Fig. 4: Gender distribution of book series editors across disciplines

Table 4: Gender distribution of book series editors across disciplines

	Men	Woman
Books, Humanities	71%	29%
Books, Sciences	85%	15%
Books, Applied Sciences	83%	17%
Books, Business, Economics, Politics, Law	76%	24%
Books, Social Sciences	63%	37%
Books, Medicine and Life Sciences	80,5%	19,5%
Books, Computer Science	80,5%	19,5%

Different types of books serve different functions and vary in levels of influence and usage. To understand diversity in this context, we looked at the representation of women lead authors and editors across different book types.

Nearly a half of PhD theses are published by women researchers (49%); this gender parity is consistent with reports showing near gender-balance in early career cohorts^{i, ii}. On the other hand, for textbooks, only around 19% have women as lead authors and editors. Lead authors and editors for these types of books are typically recruited from senior researchers, a group shown to have wide gender gaps^{i, ii}.

Fig 5. Gender distribution of book authors and editors across book types

Table 5. Gender distribution of book authors and editors across book types

	Men	Women
Proceedings	75%	25%
Contributed volume	67%	33%
Monograph	69%	31%
Professional book	76%	24%
Textbook	81%	19%
Brief/Privot/Essentials	67%	33%
Reference Works	70%	30%
Ph.D. Thesis	51%	49%
General interest	76%	24%
Atlas	74%	26%
Reviews	81,5%	18,5%

Looking Ahead

Our support of more inclusive approaches to research and learning aims to help shape a more equitable and effective global knowledge ecosystem.

Looking ahead, we will continue our data-driven approach to support our inclusive publishing efforts. We need to understand where we are in order to assess progress and the effect of measures taken. To this end, we are collecting self-reported gender identity data from our authors and are presenting here the first ever snapshot of inferred gender diversity amongst our book authors and series editors. Having this information will not only inform our data-driven approach to measuring change but inspire action.

We are also integrating a range of resources on inclusive publishing into our workflows, from policy documents to recruitment toolkits, and extending our efforts to cover Springer Nature’s entire book publishing programme.

Taking action

Whilst we work to be part of progress, within Springer Nature and in collaboration with the communities we serve, we also publish relevant content for business, leadership, and researchers. The book market for professional guidance and thought leadership in this area is strong and growing. Below are some examples of what we have published in this field:

Kay Formanek

Beyond D&I

Leading Diversity with Purpose and Inclusiveness

Poornima Luthra , Sara Louise Muhr

Leading Through Bias

5 Essential Skills to Block Bias and Improve Inclusion at Work

John Paul Sánchez, Donald Rodriguez

Latino, Hispanic, Or of Spanish Origin+ Identified Student Leaders in Medicine

Recognizing More Than 50 Years of Presence, Activism, and Leadership

Angela Wroblewski, Angelika Schmidt

Gleichstellung in progress

Von Frauenförderung zu Diversität und Inklusion

Marco Marabelli

AI, Ethics, and Discrimination in Business

The DEI Implications of Algorithmic Decision-Making

Helana Darwin

Redoing Gender

How Nonbinary Gender Contributes Toward Social Change

Methodology

This report provides a first assessment of inferred gender diversity in authors, editors, and series editors in book publishing at Springer Nature between 2019-2024.

Gender was inferred using NamSor, a gender inference AI tool, to predict and assign gender labels, based on names and geography, where available, for better accuracy. All data processed is anonymised and reported in aggregate, preserving privacy and preventing the use of our data for training models. The data collection and processing methodology adheres to legal standards and is fully compliant with our internal policies.