(127a) Chemical Engineering Education: An Analysis of the Development and Current State of the Deij Submission Requirement

Since 2021, Chemical Engineering Education (CEE) has required the authors of all manuscript submissions to consider their work through a diversity, equity, inclusion and (now) justice (DEIJ) lens, either by incorporating a relevant discussion in the manuscript itself or communicating it within the cover letter accompanying the submission. Through this requirement, CEE aims for authors to consider and highlight the human-centered impact of their work as well as encourage authors to surface the scholarship of researchers in these areas. Broadly, as engineers, one of our responsibilities is to solve problems to improve humanity, and the societal, cultural, and global impact of what we do should be clear. This desire for clarity is certainly not new. Indeed, the US National Science Foundation has been requiring grant submissions to address the broader impacts of their efforts specifically and formally since 1997.

Since the CEE submission requirement has been in effect, supporting infrastructure has been developed to aid authors in realizing and communicating the impact of their work through a DEIJ lens. First, a paper was solicited by experts in the community to highlight and contextualize some of the existing literature in the DEIJ space, which included a reference list of more than 135 works in this area. Second, CEE had an open call for an editor, with a focus on DEIJ and the submission requirement. Third, the journal envisioned a document that authors could use before their submission (or, better yet, before they started their intervention) which contained direct and clear examples of DEIJ (and related principles) within previously published articles in CEE.

While the first two items in the above paragraph have been completed, the third required a deeper dive. Initially, we identified ways that other authors had incorporated impact into their manuscripts by examining all CEE manuscripts published in the past decade. For manuscripts that did not have impact conveyed clearly, we brainstormed ways that it could have been incorporated. Next, we organized these into accessible themes that broadly fit into the lens of DEIJ. Some example themes include workplace development (how does the paper impact training and career development?), implications (how can this work impact change in the chemical engineering field?), and environmental justice (how does this work impact the environment, and consequently, people?). The themes, along with definitions and exemplar CEE papers that incorporate the theme, were organized in a one-page support document to help authors better incorporate impact into their own work before they submit to CEE. This document, along with an Assistant Editor who can provide individualized support to authors, can help ensure that all CEE manuscripts published clearly convey the human-centered impact of their work.

Accordingly, this presentation will provide more details on the development of this initiative (since 2021), how authors have (or have not) adhered to such submission requirements, and the feedback received on this one-page support document. Ample time for Q/A discussion will be embedded into the presentation.