STM Forum Members Colleague Questionnaire  

Introduction 

This questionnaire is designed for publishing companies who want to understand the existing awareness and activity within their organisation that supports the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It will take no longer than 10 minutes to complete.   

Find the Survey HERE.

Find out more: sarah@stm-assoc.org 

• Getting started – Research4Life 
• R4L Discover: Donate your content to Research4Life
• R4L Open: Adopt R4L Country waiver best practice
• R4L Learn: Explore R4L’s Capacity Development Training Work
• Become a Member of Friends of Research4Life 
• Sponsor a Country Connector: More Countries available! 
• Get involved in a Committee: Build your publisher’s profile and SDG engagement 
• Explore R4L’s Capacity Development Training Work 
• How to Register – for Institutions in LMIC Countries 
• R4L Marketing Materials to use in your publisher communications and website 

Consider adopting existing Charters and joining existing initiatives that can advance your organisation’s positions on key SDGs. 

Accessibility (Goal 4 Quality Education, SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities) 

• Accessibility Book Consortium (ABC)- International  
• EPUB Accessibility 1.1 
• Inclusion & Diversity Funds for improving accessibility  
• Guidelines & Standards for Accessibility 
• Home | Documentation | Inclusive Publishing in Practice 

DEI (SDG 5 Gender Equality, Goal 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities) 

• Joint commitment for action on inclusion and diversity in publishing 
• Diversity and Inclusion – Publishers Association 
• Benetech 
• Peer Review Taxonomy 
• C4DISC 
• SAGER Guidelines 
• Helsinki Initiative on Multilingualism in Scholarly Communication 

Climate (SDG 3 Health and well-being, SDG 12 Responsible production and consumption, SDG 13 Climate Action)  

• Book Chain project 
• Greencast 
• The Climate Pledge 
• EASE Environmental Manifesto 
• Publishing Declares 
• TCFD and/or climate emergency statement  

Carbon Footprint Calculation/Net Zero Targets (SDG 3 Health and well-being, SDG 12 Responsible production and consumption, SDG 13 Climate Action)  

• Publishers Association Carbon Calculator for UK book and journal publishing 
• CarbonNeutral Protocol 
• Science-Based Targets 

1. Communicate involvement 

Advocate: Comms & Training 

Communicate when you sign onto pledges, projects, standards, etc. 

Nominate person(s) to champion SDG progress and coordinate activity. 

To select the right person(s) for the job, you should look for someone with expertise in at least one of the following areas. If resources allow, the named contact could be someone who leads a committee that includes expertise in each of these. 

Leadership Skills 

• Influencing to drive commitment across, up and down the organisation 
• Empowerment of teams (publishing, marketing, leadership, reporting) to lead on roadmap delivery and stakeholder mapping 
• Reporting of progress and targets to celebrate success and drive to future roadmap levels.  

Core Skills 

• Excellent communication and presentation skills 
• Thorough understanding of the dynamics and processes of STM journals and books publishing 
• Excellent interpersonal and relationship management skills 
• Proactive approach and commercial awareness 
• Accustomed to working on multidisciplinary projects 
• Awareness and understanding of the SDGs and how they relate to publishing 

Optional Skills 

• Understanding of the research or scientific process as it pertains to our publishing 
• Thorough understanding of the needs of editors, authors and referees as key customers 

Domain Expertise (in at least one of these domains, and awareness of all four, potentially through network of “sponsors”):   

• Oversight of Production/Supply Chains for journals/books (internal and suppliers) 
• Oversight of DEIA/EDI activities and policies (internal and outreach)  
• Oversight of Publishing strategy (subject/regional coverage, new products) 
• Responsible for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)/Corporate Social Responsibility  

The potential titles for this role could be: 

• SDG Action Manager/Lead 
• Sustainability Manager/Director 
• SDG programme Director/Manager 

Please find here a suggested job description for this position

The following learning resources can be used to provide internal education and training on SDGs: 

• THE 17 GOALS | Sustainable Development (un.org) 
• The Sustainability Journey (ipaacademy.net) 
• IPA SDG Dashboard Initiative – IPA SDG Dashboard (internationalpublishers.org) 
• Launch of the SDG Publishers Compact at the 2020 Frankfurt Book Fair – YouTube 
• SDG Publishers Compact – United Nations Sustainable Development 
• EASE resources on environment and sustainability 
• EASE resources on gender policy 
• EASE resources on DEI 
• SDG Publishers Compact Fellows (sdgcompactfellows.org) 
• Resources for a Fairer Society (Emerald) 
• Resource for Healthier Lives (Emerald) 
• Resources for Quality Education for All (Emerald) 
• Resources for Responsible Management (Emerald)  
• Emerald Thought Leadership 

Inclusion & Diversity

• Good minimum standards for inclusion and diversity are set out here in the Joint Commitment
• Relevant for publishers as employers, C4DISC’s Statement of Principles here
• Publishers Association Inclusivity Action Plan here
• An example could be ‘increase women representation in senior leadership positions’ with kpi to track year on year.

Accessibility

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Three levels in WCAG 2.1 A, AA and AAA (highest level beyond European current legal requirement).
• here are three levels in WCAG 2.1, Level A(the lowest level), Level AA, and Level AAA (the highest level). WCAG 2.1 AA, A levels should be tested for. AAA is nice to have but is higher than the legal requirement in Europe currently
• Four Principles of Web Content Accessibility: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable and Robust. Aim for WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards as a minimum:

1. Usecolour contrast
2. Providealternative text for images, icons, and other visual elements.
3. Usesemantic HTML elements to provide structure and context to your content.
4. Ensure that your system can beused with a keyboard.
5. Provide clear and conciseinstructions and error messages.
6. Test your experiencewith users who have a range of abilities.

• Establish web accessibility metrics