Journal of Adolescent Health 72 (2023) 171e172
www.jahonline.org
Editorial
The Journal of Adolescent Health’s Current Practices and Future
Opportunities for Promoting and Sustaining Racially and Ethnically
Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Scholarly Publishing Policies and
Practices
“To ensure that scholarly publications reach their widest possible
audience and provide scholars a transparent and equitable path
to publication, unimpeded by bias, it is essential that our
industry address the systemic role that racism plays” (Coalition
for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communications, 2020)
Publishers that disseminate scholarly works have begun to
focus their attention on ways of improving diversity, equity, and
inclusion (DEI) in their operations [1e5]. Despite these efforts,
there is a need for further development and implementation of
sound and innovative policies and practices to foster change, and
to sustain progress toward a more racially and ethnically diverse,
equitable, and inclusive system for academic publishing. Sys-
temic racism and discrimination (e.g., implicit bias) have long
roots in the scholarly publishing ecosystem that are unlikely to
be remedied by short-term or superficial solutions that do not
address root causes. Therefore, effective and sustained efforts to
promote racial and ethnic DEI necessitate multipronged and
multilevel approaches. To this end, we, the editorial leadership of
the Journal of Adolescent Health (JAH), the official scholarly
publication of the Society of Adolescent Health and Medicine
(SAHM), have begun the process of self-reflection and critical
examination of our current policies and practices that we use to
solicit, evaluate, and disseminate information to key constitu-
ents, stakeholders, and the broader community (e.g., adolescent
and young adult healthcare providers, educators, researchers,
advocates, and caregivers). Although this commentary is
narrowly focused on our efforts related to racial and ethnic-
based DEI, JAH, in parallel with SAHM, has a longstanding
demonstrated commitment to promoting DEI across a wide
range of groups and social dimensions (e.g., individuals minori-
tized because of sexuality, gender identities, disability, chronic
conditions) [6,7].
JAH publishes and disseminates high quality, high impact
scholarly publications, which advance the field of adolescent and
young adult health and medicine. This includes publication of
original research, editorials, commentaries, and SAHM position
papers that inform advocacy for equitable public health policies,
research, and healthcare focused on reducing racial and ethnic
health inequities among adolescents and young adults. JAH’s
Conflicts of interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
1054-139X/Ó 2022 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2022.11.004
editorial leadership is committed to an equitable peer review
process that involves a large diverse and inclusive editorial
board, many of whom are individuals from historically excluded
groups in science, research, healthcare, and public health. We
recognize that such diverse perspectives are necessary for
enriching the field of adolescent and young adult health and
medicine.
What is JAH Currently Doing to Promote Racial and Ethnic
DEI?
1. JAH has a proven record of publishing original scholarly pub-
lications, editorials, commentaries, and SAHM position papers
focused on the identification of, and strategies to prevent and
reduce, health disparities as well as related social determinants
of health and health inequities in racial and ethnic minoritized,
marginalized, and resource-limited communities. Recent
publications have also described ways in which the intersec-
tion of social identities (e.g., race and ethnicity, gender and
gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability) transect
with social inequalities (e.g., poverty, education, and over
policing), which provides a context for increased health risks
and vulnerability for multiply minoritized and marginalized
groups of adolescents and young adults.
2. JAH’s editorial leadership has redoubled its efforts to diversify
the journal’s editorial board and manuscript reviewers. We
are also committed to extending reach to groups and orga-
nizations that do not typically have access to the journal.
3. JAH is working with its publisher, Elsevier, to improve trans-
parency in authorship by collecting basic demographic infor-
mation as a starting place to document and further examine
the extent to which JAH’s authors are racially and ethnically
diverse and representative of the field of adolescent and
young adult health and medicine.
4. JAH’s editorial leadership continues to work toward ensuring
that manuscript reviewers are not only content experts but
are also racially and ethnically diverse.
5. JAH endorses the use of language that reduces bias and pro-
motes health equity in all publication submissions, including the
use of person-first language when describing study participants’
health conditions and inclusive, non-stigmatizing language
172 Editorial / Journal of Adolescent Health 72 (2023) 171e172
when describing study participants’ race and ethnicity, gender,
gender identity, and sexual orientation [8e11].
6. JAH launched the new and innovative Intersection segment to
extend its reach and access to a more diverse and inclusive
audience of adolescents and young adults, lay groups of
community-based organizations, youth-service providers,
caregivers, and others to express their perspectives and allow
their voices to be heard through spoken word or visual art (see
https://www.jahonline.org/intersectioncollection).
Although these practices have been key to JAH’s success as a
scholarly publication, we recognize that there is more work to
do. Our editorial leadership is wholly committed to building on
these efforts by further extending our reach to more diverse
groups of authors, board members, reviewers, and readers. We
are also committed to further diversifying our editorial board by
extending our reach internationally and to minoritized and his-
torically excluded groups. Going forward we will continue to
build on our existing practices, but we will also seek out new
opportunities that will further deepen and sustain our impact on
improving DEI in scholarly publishing. The following are exam-
ples for moving forward.
Opportunities for Deepening and Sustaining JAH’s Impact
on Racial and Ethnic DEI
1. JAH’s leadership will continue to work with its publishers to
design, collect and evaluate concrete and specific metrics to
better quantify our progress toward promoting and sustaining
DEI across racial and ethnic groups at all levels of the
publication process.
2. JAH will issue notices of our interest in publishing high quality
submissions that focus specifically on promoting DEI in
adolescent and young adult health, education, training,
research, and public health advocacy.
3. JAH will issue notices of our interest in publishing high quality
submissions that focus on reducing health inequities in ado-
lescents and young adults, including improving measurement
of key constructs such as structural racism and other systemic
determinants that affect health outcomes.
4. JAH will work toward extending its editorial board pipeline by
offering workshops to early career faculty and advanced
trainees, particularly those who are minoritized and histori-
cally excluded, to gain experience in writing and reviewing
manuscripts for scholarly publications.
5. JAH will identify new ways of involving diverse groups of
adolescents and young adults in the publication of informa-
tion in which they are the focus.
In conclusion, we, the editorial leadership of JAH, are
committed to being a part of the long-term solution for promoting
an anti-racist, antibias, and a more inclusive and equitable
scholarly publishing system. By tangibly improving DEI in our
publishing practices we are contributing to the overall scientific
quality and advancement of research, healthcare, training, and
policies that affect the health and well-being of all adolescents
and young adults. We will continue to leverage the rich diversity
of SAHM’s membership and extend our reach to diverse col-
leagues, constituents, and community stakeholders to accomplish
our goals of sustainable DEI policies and practices. We welcome
new ideas and new opportunities to attain our goals.
Cherrie B. Boyer, Ph.D.
Associate Editor
San Francisco, California
Carolyn T. Halpern, Ph.D.
Associate Editor
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Debra K. Katzman, M.D.
Associate Editor
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
David A. Ross, B.M.B.Ch., Ph.D.
Associate Editor
Bad Herrenalb, Germany
Tor D. Berg, B.A.
Managing Editor
San Francisco, California
Teresa Dal Santo, Ph.D.
Editorial Analyst
San Francisco, California
Carol A. Ford, M.D.
Editor-in-Chief
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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