Deanne Dunbar

Stories touch our lives, shape our identities and change how we view the world. They can be factual or fictional, text-based or visual and can take many forms—from novels and non-fiction to conspiracy theories, rumors and disinformation. We can characterize stories by their plot, their characters, their audience, their style, their themes or their purpose. Given the massive power of stories to alter the course of society, innovative methods to understand them empirically are necessary.

The ‘Diversity and Inclusion’ theme of Peer Review Week this year invites us to consider some concrete approaches to reducing gender and other forms of bias in the peer-review process. We asked PLOS ONE Academic Editor, Cassidy Sugimoto, to share her ideas about actions that peer reviewers and journals could take to increase the diversity of gatekeepers in scientific communication. Cassidy Sugimoto is Associate Professor of Informatics at Indiana University Bloomington.