SDG Sustainability Roadmap

Level 1 | Getting Started

Concrete steps to drive on SDGs

Level 1 of the STM SDG Roadmap arms publishers with the guide rails for action:

  • providing suggestions for the first year of a publisher’s sustainability journey: starting a conversation around the SDGs internally; raising awareness and gathering support from colleagues and leadership; taking stock of your organisation’s current position and its ambition for change
  • serving as a prototype — we will be open to receiving feedback on how to improve this level and will build that into levels 2 and 3, to be launched in the forthcoming months
  • underscoring key elements from SDG commitments by integrating the SDG Publishers Compact Commitments and the SDG Publishers Compact Fellows Top Tips for Academic Publishers. 

So roll up your sleeves, tour this linear roadmap and explore all the resources inside each step along the way. 

 

BACK TO ROADMAP HOME

LEVEL 1

Engage : Leadership & Knowledge

Gather views

Use your survey administration software of choice to send this questionnaire around and gather your colleagues’ views about SDGs and their organisations’ related activities. 

VIEW MORE

STM Forum Members Colleague Questionnaire  

Introduction 

This questionnaire is designed for publishing companies who want to understand the existing awareness and activity within their organisation that supports the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It will take no longer than 10 minutes to complete.   

Find the Survey HERE.

Accelerate : Research & Knowledge

Complete the checklist 

List of questions to investigate the current status in an organisation.

Engage : Leadership & Knowledge

Get leaders’ buy in 

Organise a presentation and discussion with your Board. 

  • Find example decks here  
Advocate : Comms & Training

Publicise signing 

Communicate signing the Compact and display logo on your website. 

VIEW MORE
Advocate : Comms & Training

Adopt Charters & Join initiatives 

Consider adopting existing Charters and joining existing initiatives that can advance your organisation’s positions on key SDGs. 

VIEW MORE

Consider adopting existing Charters and joining existing initiatives that can advance your organisation’s positions on key SDGs. 

Accessibility (Goal 4 Quality Education, SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities) 

DEI (SDG 5 Gender Equality, Goal 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities) 

Climate (SDG 3 Health and well-being, SDG 12 Responsible production and consumption, SDG 13 Climate Action)  

Carbon Footprint Calculation/Net Zero Targets (SDG 3 Health and well-being, SDG 12 Responsible production and consumption, SDG 13 Climate Action)  

  1. Communicate involvement 

Advocate: Comms & Training 

Communicate when you sign onto pledges, projects, standards, etc. 

Engage : Leadership & Knowledge

Nominate your champion

Nominate person(s) to champion SDG progress and coordinate activity. 

 

VIEW MORE

Nominate person(s) to champion SDG progress and coordinate activity. 

To select the right person(s) for the job, you should look for someone with expertise in at least one of the following areas. If resources allow, the named contact could be someone who leads a committee that includes expertise in each of these. 

Leadership Skills 

  • Influencing to drive commitment across, up and down the organisation 
  • Empowerment of teams (publishing, marketing, leadership, reporting) to lead on roadmap delivery and stakeholder mapping 
  • Reporting of progress and targets to celebrate success and drive to future roadmap levels.  

Core Skills 

  • Excellent communication and presentation skills 
  • Thorough understanding of the dynamics and processes of STM journals and books publishing 
  • Excellent interpersonal and relationship management skills 
  • Proactive approach and commercial awareness 
  • Accustomed to working on multidisciplinary projects 
  • Awareness and understanding of the SDGs and how they relate to publishing 

Optional Skills 

  • Understanding of the research or scientific process as it pertains to our publishing 
  • Thorough understanding of the needs of editors, authors and referees as key customers 

Domain Expertise (in at least one of these domains, and awareness of all four, potentially through network of “sponsors”):   

  • Oversight of Production/Supply Chains for journals/books (internal and suppliers) 
  • Oversight of DEIA/EDI activities and policies (internal and outreach)  
  • Oversight of Publishing strategy (subject/regional coverage, new products) 
  • Responsible for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)/Corporate Social Responsibility  

The potential titles for this role could be: 

  • SDG Action Manager/Lead 
  • Sustainability Manager/Director 
  • SDG programme Director/Manager 

Please find here a suggested job description for this position

The following learning resources can be used to provide internal education and training on SDGs: 

Prioritize : Drive Progress in Key SDGs

Engage in industry activities 

Engage with industry activities related to your selected priority SDG. 

Report : Progress & Targets

Identify KPIs 

Identify key indicators and baseline. 

VIEW MORE

Inclusion & Diversity

  • Good minimum standards for inclusion and diversity are set out here in the Joint Commitment 
  • Relevant for publishers as employers, C4DISC’s Statement of Principles here
  • Publishers Association Inclusivity Action Plan here
  • An example could be ‘increase women representation in senior leadership positions’ with kpi to track year on year.

Accessibility

  • Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Three levels in WCAG 2.1 A, AA and AAA (highest level beyond European current legal requirement).
  • here are three levels in WCAG 2.1, Level A(the lowest level), Level AA, and Level AAA (the highest level). WCAG 2.1 AA, A levels should be tested for. AAA is nice to have but is higher than the legal requirement in Europe currently
  • Four Principles of Web Content Accessibility: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable and Robust. Aim for WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards as a minimum:
  1. Usecolour contrast 
  2. Providealternative text for images, icons, and other visual elements.
  3. Usesemantic HTML elements to provide structure and context to your content.
  4. Ensure that your system can beused with a keyboard.
  5. Provide clear and conciseinstructions and error messages.
  6. Test your experiencewith users who have a range of abilities. 
  • Establish web accessibility metrics  
Advocate : Comms & Training

Review your guide 

Start a review of your guide for authors and reviewer guidelines, if relevant for the community of reference. 

Engage : Leadership & Knowledge

Join the STM Social Responsibility Lab 

Learn more about STM’s work in this space — and see how to get involved with our Lab. 

Accelerate : Research & Knowledge

Get involved with R4L 

Increase participation from the global south by teaming up on R4L Discover, R4L Learn, R4L Open and R4L Exchange

VIEW MORE
Engage : Leadership & Knowledge

Sign the SDG Publishers Compact 

  • You can do so at this link. 
  • You can find a full list of members here. 
Engage : Leadership & Knowledge

Create dedicated committee 

Create a Working Group or Committee that will support the organisations’ activities related to SDGs, and ensure diversity in business function and geographical location. 

VIEW MORE

Create a Working Group or Committee that will support the organisations’ activities related to SDGs, and ensure diversity in business function and geographical location. 

The following learning resources can be used to provide internal education and training on SDGs: 

 

Advocate : Comms & Training

Communicate involvement 

Communicate when you sign onto pledges, projects, standards, etc. 

Prioritize : Drive Progress in Key SDGs

Select priority SDG(s) 

Select the SDGs that are most relevant to your organisation and portfolio so that you can accelerate progress especially in those areas and engage your community of reference. 

VIEW MORE

Select the SDGs that are most relevant to your organisation and portfolio so that you can accelerate progress especially in those areas and engage your community of reference.

Example: the International Water Association focuses its activities on SDGs 6 Clean Water and Sanitation, SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities. See Sustainable Development Goals Task Force – International Water Association (iwa-network.org). 

Advocate : Comms & Training

Create SDG web page 

Create a page dedicated to SDGs on your website to collect relevant info and resources. 

VIEW MORE
Report : Progress & Targets

Report in 

There are different approaches possible to reporting about your progress on SDGs.

VIEW MORE

There are different approaches possible to reporting about your progress on SDGs.

  • Reporting in a tabular manner against the 10 commitments set out in the Publishers Compact [e.g. RSC available here, to upload to website] 
  • Reporting by SDGs prioritised e.g. IOS press 1-year report (iospress.com) + presentation 
  • Thematic reports: Oxford University Press Responsible Publishing Report 2021-22 
  • UN Global Compact survey questions: see 2021 survey questions and results here 
  • Integrate SDG activity into your annual reporting if part of business strategy e.g. CABI. 

SDG Roadmap Resources

Collectively, we will evolve and continue to fortify this roadmap with more resources as we go. Do you have an asset, idea or resource to add? We’d love to hear from you if so.

Provide links to resources, one per line. (GDrive, Wetransfer, Dropbox, etc)