Equality, diversity and inclusion: the latest

What actions have we taken since joining the joint commitment for action on inclusion and diversity in publishing?

Last year ICE Publishing entered the joint commitment for action on inclusion and diversity in publishing. We have been working hard and are happy to reveal further updates, read on to find out what we’ve been doing.

Name change policy

We are pleased to confirm that our name change policy has now been updated.

Authors may seek to change their names for a variety of reasons such as marriage, divorce, alignment with gender identity, or religious conversion. Under our new policy, we will work with authors who request a change to their name on their published article.

Authors who submit a name change request to our journals will not be asked to specify the reason or to provide legal proof of the name change. However, we may request information to reasonably establish the identity of the requester to ensure validity.

The name change will then be processed by our Production team and the published article will be updated without an erratum or notification. For complete discretion, other co-authors will not be notified of the change, unless requested.

ICE Publishing cannot guarantee that name changes will be implemented in indexes and databases that refer to these publications.

We also encourage authors to use and update their ORCID iDS for their published articles. ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier, which authors own and control, and it connects all their published work across different publications. You can use your iD to share your information with other systems, ensuring you get recognition for all your contributions, saving you time and hassle, and reducing the risk of errors.

Note that name change requests by an author are treated differently from requests to add, remove, or change the author order.

Editorial Panels and Boards meet diversity targets

As a membership organisation ICE values diversity and works to create a fairer environment free from harassment and discrimination and one in which everybody feels included and valued.

ICE strives to help its members and other stakeholders to create engineering outcomes which are accessible and inclusive of all, and which build a fairer and more equitable society.

The ICE required balance within all of its panels and committees, and ICE Publishing needed inclusive and diverse representation across our editorial panels. We are pleased to report that across our 35 journals we are meeting a minimum of 20% representation from individuals who:

1. describe themselves as female,
2. would not describe themselves as 'White British'.

We have also updated our editorial guidance to state that ‘peer reviewers and editorial panel members are to be selected based solely on relevant knowledge without regard to race, religion, nationality, sex, or gender.’ And we promise that ‘ICE Publishing and its editorial panels/boards will continue to provide an unbiased assessment of submissions and judge content without regard to race, religion, nationality, sex, gender, seniority, or institutional affiliation of the author(s).’

Watch this space for more progress and get in touch with any questions.


Interested in becoming an Editorial Panel member or an author? View our calls for contributors.