The APA Division 44 Science Committee has been working to improve psychological science in sexual orientation and gender diverse (SOGD) research. In committee meetings, the topic of challenges members have faced in publishing their SOGD research often arose. Knowing that these challenges are not something they alone have navigated and also that much of what they had learned about SOGD research was acquired incidentally, and given the relative newness and marginalization of the field, the committee members decided to write a guide about how to publish SOGD research to share what they had learned through experience with younger generations of SOGD researchers. They also hoped their guide would help editors and reviewers understand how best to evaluate SOGD research for publication. Essentially, the committee members felt they wanted to create a guide that would have helped them tremendously had it existed when they were all starting out as researchers.
In writing the guidance, the committee members wanted to make sure they were not acting as if they were the final arbiters of everything related to SOGD research. Understandings of sexual identity and gender are constantly evolving, which can create challenges and opportunities as both new and established SOGD researchers learn how to conduct often slow-moving and underfunded research in this highly dynamic and exciting field. Therefore, the goal of committee members was not to create hard-and-fast rules but instead to build the capacity to do good research by helping SOGD researchers think through how to approach their work given their unique research contexts and needs.
Conducting research among any marginalized or minoritized population brings specific challenges in terms of publishing. The committee members have been told by grant or article reviewers too many times to count that they needed a majority comparison group (e.g., White, cisgender, or heterosexual people) or that their work has limited relevance to the general population or to the field of psychology. They have had their work described as too “niche” to publish in non-SOGD-specific journals. For those who both do this research and are members of the communities they study, it can be hard not to internalize the metamessage that SOGD research (and two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual plus [2SLGBTQIA+] people) lack importance in psychology. This can make these critical reviewer and editor comments challenging both professionally and personally. The new guidance provides SOGD researchers with tools to address such criticisms of their work while concurrently demonstrating to editors and reviewers the importance and relevance of SOGD research to psychology as a whole.
The guide highlights seven publishing considerations for SOGD research, including theory and framing, methodological considerations that have downstream effects on publishing, reflexivity and ethics language, and responses to reviewers. A checklist is included to guide researchers and reviewers in evaluating SOGD manuscripts. Important aspects of SOGD research missing from older guides are discussed, including publishing in general journals; conducting research focused on nonbinary identities; decolonizing SOGD research; embedding work in extant SOGD and Black, Indigenous, and people of color scholarship; avoiding bias in language; and interacting with reviewers and editors. Although this guidance was created for psychology researchers, it has the potential to be useful for researchers in other social science and health-related fields. Overall, the guide helps SOGD researchers make ethical and informed decisions to ensure the 2SLGBTQIA+ community’s needs are at the forefront of their work.
Indeed, research in this area brings with it a lot of responsibility—particularly to the communities being studied and to which many researchers belong. Anytime an article on this topic is published, its findings could be intentionally or unintentionally misinterpreted or misapplied in a way that could reify stereotypes and biases and that could be used to support policies or programs that actively harm 2SLGBTQIA+ people. It is important for SOGD researchers to be exquisitely careful in how they frame, present, interpret, and discuss implications of their findings. It is also concomitantly important that they embrace, acknowledge, and treat with respect the power and responsibility they have in doing SOGD research.
The “Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity Research Manuscript Writing Guide” was written to provide support and direction for researchers, mentors, reviewers, and journal editors. By providing tools to deeply engage with the complexities of SOGD research and navigate obstacles to disseminating findings in scientific journals, the committee members hope to encourage researchers and reviewers to be thoughtful and to keep the needs of the community top of mind.
Although it is not extensively discussed in the guidance—whereas it is addressed in Veldhuis (2022)—this guide was written against the backdrop of a hostile climate for 2SLGBTQIA+ people, including SOGD researchers. It is not safe in some parts of the country to do SOGD research, some universities may be limiting or even shutting down SOGD research, and fewer safe places exist for SOGD researchers who are on the faculty position job market. This guide can provide support for these researchers by confirming and amplifying the importance of their research area and the need for more SOGD research and researchers while also providing tools to help navigate at least some of the professional effects of anti-2SLGBTQIA+ forces. This guidance can serve as a reminder to SOGD researchers who are relatively isolated that they are not alone. The committee members who wrote the guide have all benefitted greatly from generous colleagues and mentors who have helped them navigate SOGD research, and they hope that this guide makes things easier for the next generation of SOGD researchers.