Taking Responsibility

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

We are proud to play an active role in promoting and celebrating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) across our company and through our publications and activities.

At Springer Nature, our mission is to open doors to discovery, enabling millions of researchers, teachers, clinicians and other professionals to access, trust and make sense of the latest insights so that together we can improve and enrich lives and help to protect our planet for future generations. We believe that DEI are essential to achieving this mission. 

We commit to championing DEI in the communities we serve, using our networks and brands. We will work to eliminate barriers to creating, discovering and using knowledge, and supporting equitable outcomes in learning and advancing scholarship — from young learners to PhD-level and beyond.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is one of our highest strategic priorities and our approach has two main streams: an internal focus on DEI within our organisation, and an external view, working with the research, education and professional communities we are a part of. 

    DEI at a glance

      


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    DEI at Springer Nature Group

    • In our organisation

      Organisation

      We want everyone at Springer Nature to feel able to contribute at their best and thrive, together creating a diverse and inclusive culture with structures that support equitable opportunities for merit-based success. 

      Employee Networks © Shutterstock / Rawpixel.comCase study: Our Employee Networks 

      Our employee networks unite colleagues who share an identity with those who support them and who want to learn more about their perspectives and experiences. The networks — with more than 1,400 members — focus on building connections between colleagues, raising awareness on important topics, consulting on business initiatives and advocating for their communities at Springer Nature and beyond. In 2021, our networks organised over 50 events and shared over 75 blog posts.

      We support network projects and events with a robust governance structure, sponsorship by senior leaders and advice and resources from the DEI team. Visit our employee networks page to find out more.


      Two Women © Shutterstock / Jacob LundCase study: Springer Nature’s mentoring programme

      In 2022, Springer Nature launched its latest 12-month guided mentoring programme for 85 mentee/mentor pairs. It connects mentees from three groups who experience lower levels of inclusion or are currently underrepresented in leadership at Springer Nature, as identified by the 2021 Global Inclusion and Diversity survey, with mentors within our organisation. Its goal is to help mentees to develop professionally by building new skills, expanding their networks and growing their careers at Springer Nature.



      Our internal DEI strategy

      Strategy focus

      Action we’ve taken

      Equitable recruitment and succession
      • Introduced inclusive hiring checklists and training to support hiring managers to make fair decisions. 

      • Committed to building more diverse candidate lists by partnering with organisations such as the Black Young Professionals network and using targeted job boards such as HBCUconnect.com.

      Representation goals to improve representation in global leadership
      • Used learning from our Global Inclusion and Diversity survey to develop and agree a global race and ethnicity representation goal at leadership level, along with local goals in the US and UK. 
      • Set a target in 2018 that 45% of our top three tiers of leadership should be women by 2023.
      Talent development that recognises structural inequalities
      • Launched a mentorship programme targeted at groups that are underrepresented in leadership or experience lower levels of inclusion, based on the results of our Inclusion and Diversity survey. 
      • Committed to clear, transparent criteria for promotion eligibility
      Inclusive leadership as well as individual responsibility for inclusion
      • Encouraged employees to set an objective focused on DEI, recognising personal impact on positive cultural change. 
      • Hosted a two-week learning campaign on ‘Practising Inclusion’ with 34 training sessions.
      • Developed training on inclusive behaviours to launch in Q3 2022, building on existing training on Unconscious Bias and Anti-harassment.
      Investment in our employee networks
      • Introduced a governance structure and series of guides, in addition to new support measures, such as setting aside a percentage of work time for employees to use on network activity.
      • Added employee network representation on the DEI Council
      • Established annual meetings with network leaders and the Executive Board

      Explore more content on DEI in our organisation

    • In our communities

      Communities

      We are committed to using our networks, brands and voice to champion diversity, equity and inclusion in the research, education and professional communities we work with. 

      In recent years, we have taken steps across our portfolio, aiming to improve representation and amplify the voices of underrepresented perspectives, and to make our products and services more accessible. We know there is more to be done and we commit to driving progress. 

      To help us achieve our mission to open doors to discovery for all, we have a strategic framework, outlining where we can make a difference and how we will take action.

      Mentoring © Shutterstock / fizkesCase study: Elevating Black excellence

      The contribution made by Black innovators and leaders to the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) has not always been widely recognised. In 2021, Springer Nature’s Black Employee Network launched a speaker series, available on YouTube, that aims to showcase Black excellence, especially for those entering the research publishing and STEM sectors. Network organisers interview speakers from partner organisations in areas related to STEM about their career paths, role models, mentorship and diversity.


      Diversity and Inclusion © Shutterstock / Jack FrogCase study: Inclusive authorship

      Transgender authors can face a lengthy and very public process, often with associated personal and professional risk, when seeking to correct their publication record. In 2021, we announced the implementation of a new policy to enable trans authors and others to correct their names on their published works.  

      By providing the tools and support to do this silently and safely, we aim to redress these challenges for authors and to further drive forward the elimination of these systemic barriers within the academic community. As part of this policy, biographical information, including pronouns and author photographs, will be corrected as needed to reflect the name change. We have implemented this policy across all of our scholarly journals, magazines, conference proceedings and books.

      Championing DEI in the communities we work with

      Our strategic focus

      How we’ll do it

      Examples of our action so far

      Share our DEI ambition

      Clearly communicate our position and ambition for DEI by developing and widely sharing the principles on which we base our engagement with our communities and business partners.

      • DEI communications toolkits to support colleague engagement with key stakeholders in our communities.
      • Developed DEI guidelines for educational content and training to accompany them.

      Data driven

      Collect and use reliable data on DEI opportunities in our communities to measure, monitor and further our progress by developing best practices of data collection and reporting.

      • Collected Nature conferences data to improve representation which so far shows we have made year-on-year progress and have achieved a near 50/50 gender division across events, organisers, keynotes, plenaries and short talks. 
      • Launched a new survey to understand what DEI means to our global research community.

      Inclusive and accessible content

      In our published content and events: actively promote DEI by positively profiling the work of authors, researchers and academics from underrepresented groups in all stages of their careers and do so accessibly for all audiences. Promote better research practice through our policies.

      • Developed regression testing software Pa11y to design accessible websites and made sure it was free and open source for others to use including Gitlab and Netlify.

      Increase representation

      For our commissioned authors, peer reviewers and editorial board members: further increase diverse representation by engaging and supporting our external networks.

      • Created guidance to help editors integrate DEI considerations when recruiting editors in chief.

      Understand DEI in our supply chain

      In our supply chain: diversify our publishing supply chain by putting transparent processes in place to create and track new business relationships.

      • Started reaching out to some of our largest suppliers to understand more about DEI in our supply chain.

      Understand structural barriers

      Research and understand structural barriers to equality in the research and education communities we work with, by leveraging our networks, brands, voice and convening power to facilitate the wider sharing and discovery of research, data and perspectives.

      • Convened events on equity with our communities, for example our recent Breaking Barriers for Gender Equity through Research which included a new mentoring scheme for participants and introduced journal mentoring programmes to provide insights and training into the peer review, editorial and publishing process.

      Address these barriers with partners

      With our communities, societies, policymakers and funders, address structural barriers to opportunity in publishing by forming partnerships and actively working with others (with focus on the Global South and inherited privilege of elite institutions).

      Explore more content on DEI in our communities

      Read The Source ↗ blog for more DEI resources and commentary.

    • In our published content

      Through our research, education and professional publishing business we interact with millions of people every day.  We connect with them as authors, as peer reviewers, as editors of our journals, as readers, as teachers and as users of our platforms. This means that we have the opportunity to influence behaviour on a large scale and affect real change.

      Internal Medicine © SDI Productions / Getty Images / iStockCase study: Renaming 21 titles to become gender neutral

      Together with Clarivate, Springer Nature has changed the name of 21 journals part of the Springer Nature Medizin imprint to become more clearly inclusive. The titles had been named after the profession to which their content was targeted and in the German language the gender-neutral titles for professions is usually identical to the masculine form. They now focus on the specialist field it is publishing research in. For example, Der Internist is changing to Die Innere Medizin (Internal Medicine) and Der Chirurg (The Surgeon) to Die Chirurgie (Surgery). The content concept, thematic focus and viability of each title will remain unchanged.

      Guest Editors © Springer NatureCase study: Nature’s guest editorial on racism in science

      Shortly after the tragic murder of George Floyd in 2020, Nature committed to producing a special issue of the journal on racism in science under the guidance of external experts and joined the #shutdownstem movement. Four guest editors were invited to help guide this work: Melissa Nobles, Chad Womack, Ambroise Wonkam and Elizabeth Wathuti. Together they worked with the Nature team to help guide content for two upcoming special issues due later this year, and wrote this editorial setting out why science needs to reckon with its history of racism, and their ambitions for Nature.

      School © SDI Productions / Getty Images / iStockCase study: Designing inclusive educational content

      As part of their objective to produce inclusive content that supports all students and teachers, Macmillan Education has created Diversity, Equity and Inclusion guidelines for all of their editorial, marketing and digital teams. These are available in English and Spanish and are being used across their various Curriculum and ELT publishing teams. They have also created internal training that helps employees understand how to use the DEI guidelines to create educational content as well as introduce them to different DEI concepts.



      Commitment to DEI in the research we publish

      Action we’re taking

      • We are committed to integrating the values of diversity, equity and inclusion into the way we work and what we create and publish – across our content, products, platforms and services.
      • For example, in our education business, Macmillan Education has developed an Education for Sustainable Development and Citizenship programme for students and teachers. 
      • Publishing research that is representative of the entire research community and reflects the growing diversity among researchers, enriches our ability to find solutions to challenges in research and beyond. We have a set of principles so that expectations are clear about how we will take a more active role in accelerating progress on equality, diversity and inclusion: read our latest update on delivering these principles across our research publishing business.
      • For example, Nature has released new guidance and practice for reporting on sex and gender in research studies and announced a new approach to inclusion and ethics in global research focused on reducing exploitation practices like helicopter research and ethics dumping. 

      "Given the extent of Springer Nature’s interactions with researchers, institutions, funders and wider society, we feel we have a duty to do more to actively address diversity in research and to support others in doing so."

      MAGDALENA SKIPPER, EDITOR IN CHIEF, NATURE

      Explore more content on DEI in the research we publish