Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science Global Engagement Task Force Report

Abstract

The Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS) is an organization whose mission focuses on bringing together scholars who want to improve methods and practices in psychological science. The organization reaffirmed in June 2020 that “[we] cannot do good science without diverse voices,” and acknowledged that “right now the demographics of SIPS are unrepresentative of the field of psychology, which is in turn unrepresentative of the global population. We have work to do when it comes to better supporting Black scholars and other underrepresented minorities.”The purpose of the Global Engagement Task Force, started in January 2020, was to explore suggestions made after the 2019 Annual Conference, held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, around inclusion and access for scholars from regions outside of the United States, Canada, and Western Europe (described in the report as “geographically diverse” regions), a task complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic and civil unrest in several task force members’ countries of residence. This report outlines several suggestions, specifically around building partnerships with geographically diverse open science organizations; increasing SIPS presence at other, more local events; diversifying remote events; considering geographically diverse annual conference locations; improving membership and financial resources; and surveying open science practitioners from geographically diverse regions.

Towards a culture of open scholarship: the role of pedagogical communities

“…Further, pedagogical communities play a key role in offering a sense of community to those who would otherwise be deprived of such a learning opportunity when there are fewer top-down initiatives and infrastructure to encourage change. As such, these communities are essential to address recent concerns regarding the lack of diversity in the open scholarship movement, e.g., [17][18][19][20][21]. By breaking the boundaries of academic fields and geographical locations, such communities contribute to the advancement of social justice, making the movement more diverse and representative of the plural needs of academics.…”