“With the current focus on anti-Black racism, there has been a fresh look at all of our cherished institutions and how structural racism may be at work behind the scenes,” writes Monnica T Williams Ph.D. in a recent article that offers observations about race and peer-review from a Black female professor.

Here are some excerpts:

There are biases operating in academic publishing, even within the process of generating peer-reviewed scientific articles. These published works form the foundation of what we know (and think we know) in science but are not as solid as we’d like to believe.

The writer continues:

I have become well-acquainted with the academic publishing process, having published way too many peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. I currently serve as an associate editor for several psychology journals, I am on the editorial board of several more, and I have even served as guest editor for a few special issues. I have peer-reviewed enough academic papers to put me in the 99th percentile on Publons, for those of you know that is. Yes, this means that I am officially a psychology nerd and probably need to get out more, but before I become derailed into a discussion about how hard you have to work to be Black and female in the academy (see Buchanan, 2020) I want to share some of my observations about race in publishing as a person in the thick of it.

Read the full article: Racism in Academic Publishing by Monnica T Williams Ph.D.