In a time when powerful public and private institutions are bowing to political pressure—softening or even abandoning their commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion and scrubbing their communications of language reflecting those values—it feels necessary to say something I never thought I’d need to: The Open Notebook‘s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is core to our mission, and that will never change. We continue to stand by the promise we have made to our community:
We take seriously our responsibility to address inequities and lead by example by establishing and codifying practices and processes that ensure that values of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) remain forefront in our work, from how we recruit for, select, and mentor early-career fellows and other contributors, to how we select and frame our editorial content, to how we design courses and workshops. We strive to improve representation in the field of science journalism and eliminate inequities in the work we do.
These values are not just a box to check. They are woven into everything we do, from the stories we highlight, to the voices we amplify, to the way we support journalists from all backgrounds. They also actively improve our work as journalists. As we move forward, we’ll continue to listen, learn, and push ourselves to do better. That is a promise I make to you on behalf of the TON team.