Annual Report on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)
Verlag Barbara Budrich GmbH and Barbara Budrich Academic Press GmbH
for the year 2025
1. Introduction
This report outlines our efforts to make our society more diverse, equitable and inclusive, beginning with our own companies, Verlag Barbara Budrich GmbH and Barbara Budrich Academic Press GmbH – hereafter also referred to as the Budrich publishing houses. This is the second DEI report issued by our companies. In it, we both determine our current status quo and formulate our objectives for 2026.
The aim of this DEI report is to assess where we stand and which areas we are already addressing. These areas – publishing programme and collaborations, recruitment processes, accessibility, and equal treatment in everyday working life – are explained in detail. We then review the goals set for 2025 and evaluate what has been achieved.
Subsequently, we formulate our objectives for 2026. In particular, we address the following topics:
- Promoting diversity, equity and inclusion through active programme development in relevant subject areas;
- Promoting diversity, equity and inclusion by involving scholars and cooperation partners from all continents;
- Promoting inclusion by increasing accessibility in accordance with the Accessibility Strengthening Act (BFSG) and beyond;
- Supporting freedom of expression, democracy and diversity;
- Raising awareness within our team of our own attitudes and perspectives.
It is noted that the Managing Director, Barbara Budrich, bears primary responsibility for DEI within the company. A comparative review is undertaken for the first time in this report.
Finally, this report presents a demographic overview of the team in order to examine it with regard to DEI categories. The report concludes with a final summary.
2. DEI Stocktaking
Among the values and guiding principles of the Budrich publishing houses is the commitment to regard all people as equal, irrespective of ethnic origin, gender, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual identity, and to eliminate or prevent discrimination. This is also enshrined in the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG).
2.1 The Publishing Programme
The Budrich publishing houses’ programme of books and journals in the social sciences and educational sciences focuses on academic fields that frequently engage with topics from the DEI spectrum. The five disciplines covered by the publishing houses are:
- Education
- Gender Studies
- Political Science
- Social Work
- Sociology
The active development of the publishing programme alone ensures that the publishing houses and team members frequently engage with DEI-related issues.
An analysis of the books and journals published between 2023 and 2025 yields the following picture:
| Year | Book publicationsn | Books with explicitly DEI-relevant topics | Percentage | Journals total | Journals with explicitly DEI-relevant topics | Percentage |
| 2023 | 125 | 57 | 45,6% | 28 | 8 | 28,5% |
| 2024 | 126 | 52 | 41,3% | 28 | 8 | 28,5% |
| 2025 | 120 | 52 | 43,3% | 28 | 8 | 28,5% |
The absolute number of explicitly DEI-relevant publications has remained the same; there has been a slight percentage increase in books compared to the previous year. This fluctuation – as already noted in the 2023/2024 comparison – is within a range that can hardly be influenced by the editorial team. Nevertheless, the objective of increasing the proportion of publications addressing DEI-related topics remains in place.
While just under 30% of our journals are explicitly focused on DEI topics, individual articles addressing DEI-related issues also appear in our other journals, even where the journal as a whole does not have an explicit DEI focus.
2.2 The Recruitment Process
In 2022/2023, Verlag Barbara Budrich recruited several new members of staff. This led us to supplement our entire multi-stage recruitment process with elements of anonymisation and objectification. In this way, we ensure that, beyond the necessary recruitment criteria (e.g. evidence of subject-specific expertise and proficiency in German and English for editors in our subject departments), no additional criteria are taken into account when issuing an initial invitation to interview.
Furthermore, interviews are now conducted by at least two people in order to identify and eliminate any potential biases at an early stage.
2.3 Accessibility in Digital Products
The Accessibility Strengthening Act (BFSG) came into force in Germany on 28 June 2025. We have been addressing this issue for many years in the production of our books and journals and have acquired extensive expertise in order to be well prepared for this date.
Our websites are also designed with great care, and we endeavour to ensure accessible functionality.
We are well prepared for the requirements of the BFSG. Where this is not (yet) possible for various reasons, we are at all times willing to work with individuals and/or associations representing affected groups to improve conditions.
In addition, we also strive to comply with United States accessibility requirements. Unlike the BFSG, Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA Title II) also applies to journals.
2.4 Equal Treatment in Everyday Working Life
Our Code of Honour was developed in August 2018. We created this code together as a team and use it as guidance for our cooperation and daily interactions. To date, we have not made any explicit reference to DEI within the Code of Honour; however, the guidance it provides implicitly includes principles of mutual appreciation and respect, and thus equal treatment.
In our day-to-day work, we endeavour to support team members at different stages of life. This is achieved in particular through flexibility regarding working hours and place of work, as well as through a culture of openness and trust. This ranges from granting parental leave for mothers and fathers, to a high degree of flexibility in cases of personal illness, illness and care of close relatives, and even the possibility of sabbaticals, insofar as this can be organised within a small team.
3. DEI Strategy, Objectives and Governance
DEI Strategy and Objectives 2025
For 2025, Verlag Barbara Budrich GmbH and Barbara Budrich Academic Press GmbH formulated the following DEI objectives:
- Promoting diversity, equity and inclusion through active programme development in relevant subject areas;
- Promoting diversity, equity and inclusion through active acquisition activities with regard to authors;
- Promoting inclusion by increasing accessibility in accordance with the Accessibility Strengthening Act and beyond;
- Supporting freedom of expression and diversity;
- Raising awareness within our team of our own attitudes and perspectives.
Looking back, we can report on the individual points as follows:
Promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion through Active Programme Development in Relevant Subject Areas
In 2025, we paid close attention to developments in the relevant thematic fields. As we depend on our authors to address these topics, we were able to include several outstanding titles in our publishing plans.
Some of these books will be published in the course of 2026. These include, for example, Methoden in den Gender Studies, edited by Esto Mader et al., and Joy, Reflections, Resistance – LGBTIQ+ Lived Realities in Africa, edited by Mariel Reiss and Ayadele Sogunro.
Another ongoing aim has been to make as many publications as possible available in Open Access in order to facilitate reception and dissemination.
In 2025, we published a total of 185 books and 61 journal issues (including 65 publications for the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB)). Of our books, 79 were published as so-called Gold or Diamond Open Access titles – that is, made freely available immediately upon publication. This corresponds to a share of 57% and thus represents a significant increase compared to the previous year, when 43% of our books were published as Gold or Diamond Open Access.
Promoting Inclusion by Increasing Accessibility in Accordance with the Accessibility Strengthening Act (BFSG)
In 2025, we produced the majority of our eBooks in line with the requirements of the BFSG. In particular in the case of Open Access titles, we sought to facilitate reception for people with visual impairments.
Promoting DEI through the Awarding of Scholarships
Since the beginning of 2025, we have awarded an international study scholarship, currently in cooperation with the German association “Help for Kyegegwa e.V.” and TAPA in Uganda. We are currently supporting the studies of Cissy Atuhaire, who is completing a Bachelor’s degree in Schoolwork and Social Administration at Mountains of the Moon University in Uganda.
Supporting Freedom of Expression and Diversity
Some of our publications are released as licensed editions for the Federal and State Agencies for Civic Education. These include, for example, titles such as Richard Stöss’s Der rechte Rand Europas. Rechtsextremismus und Rechtskonservatismus bei den Wahlen zum Europäischen Parlament 1979 bis 2024. We consistently seek to disseminate relevant publications through these partners in order to enhance the visibility of democratic values.
In 2025, through our relevant publications, blog posts, monthly newsletters, individual episodes of the Budrich Podcast for Social Sciences (launched in May 2025), and numerous social media posts, we repeatedly and explicitly advocated for freedom of expression, academic freedom, diversity and democracy.
At the Frankfurt Book Fair, Barbara Budrich contributed to a panel on “Women in Publishing”, jointly organised by the International Publishers Association (IPA) and UN Women. An interview with Barbara Budrich and her colleague Helga Frese-Resch from the publishing house Kiepenheuer & Witsch on the topic of freedom of publication and academic freedom appeared in the Book Fair edition of Börsenblatt and on the blog of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association.
Raising Awareness within Our Team of Our Own Attitudes
We postponed our plan to revise our Code of Honour once again: we had already reviewed it more intensively in 2024 and concluded that no changes were currently required.
In December 2025, we held an initial introductory workshop on anti-discrimination. We were pleased to engage bestselling author and leading German anti-discrimination trainer Tupoka Ogette for this purpose. In her workshop, she made one point particularly clear to us as a team: if we are not directly affected by discrimination, we have the choice whether to engage with the issue or not. Those who experience discrimination do not have this choice. The team was unanimous in its response: we want to continue engaging with this topic.
Governance and Responsibility
Responsibility for developing the relevant areas continues to lie with the Managing Director, Barbara Budrich. She is supported by the two Heads of Department, Miriam von Maydell (Editorial/Production) and Karen Reinfeld (Marketing/Sales).
4. Objectives for 2026
By and large, the objectives formulated for 2025 will remain in force for 2026. Specifically, we intend to pursue the following:
As mentioned above, we work with publications and authors who frequently address aspects of DEI. This in itself means that many issues arising from the relevant contexts are already discussed within the company.
For 2026, we aim to raise awareness among ourselves and our cooperation partners to contact scholars from the Global South more frequently and to invite them to collaborate – whether as authors, editorial board members, peer reviewers or members of our International Advisory Board.
We will examine which further measures can be offered to the entire team to help us reflect on our own prejudices and potentially discriminatory attitudes.
In addition, we intend for a member of the team to assume the role of DEI Officer in order to support the leadership trio.
5. Demographic Data
In our small team, it is hardly possible to collect demographic data anonymously. For this reason, we have decided to report only established criteria. No one in our team has identified as non-binary to date, which is why we assume that we can currently operate with two categories.
With regard to the age spectrum, we report only such data as can be presented without disclosing the age of individual team members. For 2024 and 2025, the following structure emerges:
| 2024 total | 2024 percentage | 2025 total | 2025 percentage | |
| Total number of staff members | 23 | 100% | 20 | 100% |
| Persons perceived as female | 18 | 78% | 15 | 75% |
| Persons perceived as male | 5 | 22% | 5 | 25% |
| Age range | ||||
| Up to 29 years | 6 | 26% | 5 | 25% |
| 30 to 49 years | 10 | 44% | 9 | 45% |
| 50 years and over | 7 | 30% | 6 | 30% |
Changes Compared to the Previous Year
There have been minimal changes in personnel. Three female members of staff have left us since 2024 – one due to retirement and two in order to pursue new professional directions.
6. Conclusion
For 2025, I can reiterate last year’s conclusion: viewing the Budrich publishing houses through the lens of DEI requirements shows us that we practise openness and diversity in many areas. Looking ahead, we intend to work on bringing these issues more explicitly into focus, so that we can clearly demonstrate how we are striving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive.
Get in touch with us!
This second DEI report is an important component of our commitment to social sustainability and part of an ongoing process towards an open and forward-looking publishing culture. We warmly invite you to enter into dialogue with us about equal opportunities, diversity and inclusion, and we look forward to your thoughts and suggestions. Please do write to us!