UKSP council would like to strongly endorse the initiative publicised last week by MIST council on equitable letters in space physics. This is a key way that we can help promote equity within the community and in particular support the early career members of of community.

Equitable Letters for Space Physics (ELSP) seeks to encourage merit-based recommendations and nominations in the space physics community by providing resources for letter writing and reviews of recommendation and nomination letters. ELSP seeks to achieve this goal by:

1) Providing resources for people writing letters of recommendation and award nomination at the undergraduate level and above,
2) Provide resources for people wishing to learn about different implicit biases and lessen their manifestation, and
3) Provide reviews of recommendation and nomination letters, with the goal of lessening implicit bias in these letters.

At the moment, we are seeking volunteers to participate as reviewers in the letter submission system. This system will function similarly to double-blind journal article reviews, with the ELSP executive director acting as editor. If you have more questions or would like to participate, please contact us at: equitable.space.letters@gmail.com.

You can also learn more about our mission and find both letter writing and implicit bias resources at the ELSP website: https://equitableletterssp.github.io/ELSP/.