Category / Guidance

Introduction to Patient and Public Involvement

This half day course is an introduction to PPI and will:
1. Define PPI and why it matters
2. Explore the links between PPI and health equity
3. Explain how to deliver PPI and support those involved

It will be an interactive session, including input from someone with lived experience, talking about their involvement in research.

It will be delivered by Sue Bickler from the Involving People team at Help and Care, an organisation that ‘helps people and communities live the lives they choose’.

Sue has worked in the voluntary sector, local authorities, and health, and has substantial experience engaging with people and communities to ensure that services meet their needs.  Her current role brings together the four Healthwatch in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (HIOW), ensuring that patient voice is central to decision making in the HIOW Integrated Care System and that people are equipped to support effective Patient and Public Involvement (PPI).

The session is funded by Clinical Research Network Wessex and is open to all health and care researchers working in Wessex including public contributors and community organisations.

Book your place here.  A link to the online training will then be sent to you.

Improving information for people taking part in clinical research

The Health Research Authority (HRA) has launched new Quality Standards to improve information given to people who are invited to take part in research. The Quality Standards have been launched alongside Design and Review Principles, which show researchers and Research Ethics Committees (REC) what the important ethical considerations are for participant information.

  • The new HRA Participant Information Quality Standards will help research organisations to understand what good participant information looks like, and will make clear to researchers what the Research Ethics Committees will consider as part of the ethics review, including the review of participant information. The REC will support researchers to create information that meets the Quality Standards.
  • The aim of the Quality Standards and Design and Review Principles is to make participant information better, and to make the way that RECs review that information more consistent. The documents set out the basic criteria that all participant information must meet, and covers language, accessibility, and mandatory content.

Next steps

The Quality Standards and Design and Review Principles will be phased in from autumn 2023. As study materials are prepared in advance, REC reviews of participant information will initially be presented to research organisations as recommendations as opposed to actions required for approval.

From December 2023, the Quality Standards and Design and Review principles will become mandatory and will be applied to all research applications submitted for review.

Changes to participant information are currently the most likely reason for ethics committees to give a provisional opinion. Using this guidance will increase the possibility of receiving a favourable opinion.

Available templates

Remember that BU has Participant Information Sheet templates that provide much of the required wording to ensure your participants are making a fully informed decision before agreeing to participate.

It is vital that when compiling your information sheets that you remember to include the HRA GDPR transparency wording.

Questions or concerns?

If you have any questions regarding these new standards or about clinical research in general, please email Suzy Wignall, Clinical Governance Advisor – swignall@bournemouth.ac.uk or clinicalresearch@bournemouth.ac.uk

NIHR Be Part of Research platform

The NIHR Be Part of Research platform is an online service that makes it easy for research participants to find and take part in health and social care research. Participants may search for trials and studies taking place looking at certain health conditions and in locations accessible to them.

Clinical researchers may also make use of the service to extend their recruitment and widen their recruitment methods, as the platform has been designed to make it easier for researchers and potential study participants to find each other.

Using Be Part of Research to recruit participants

To use the service for your recruitment, the study must meet the following requirements:

  • Be funded or supported by the NIHR. This includes studies on the NIHR Clinical Research Network Portfolio.
  • Have Research Ethics Committee approval to use the service as a recruitment tool.
  • Have a dedicated point of contact such as a pre-screener or website for interested volunteers to engage with your research team.

Getting your study onto the Be Part of Research platform

Once your study has been registered on either ISRCTNClinicalTrials.gov, or on the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) Central Portfolio Management System (CPMS), your project will then appear on Be Part of Research. Given those visiting the site are mostly patients and members of the public, medical and scientific terminology should be omitted when writing your study summary, with plain English used to ensure the information is accessible to a broad audience. In order to do this, you should:
  • Keep it short – but don’t oversimplify it. The reader must understand what the study is trying to achieve.
  • Imagine you are talking to the reader.
  • Take out any jargon.
  • Make sure you cover the what, why, when, where and how so they have the basics of your study.

Additionally, to make sure that participants contact the appropriate person, the contact details provided on ISRCTN or ClinicalTrials.gov should be up to date and accurate. In general, the registry record should be monitored continuously so that any changes are reflected on Be Part of Research as soon as possible.

Further support/contact

If you have any questions regarding the platform or regarding clinical research in general, please email Suzy Wignall, Clinical Governance Advisor: swignall@bournemouth.ac.uk or clinicalresearch@bournemouth.ac.uk

Femoral arterial waveform- is it a reliable technique to measure HRV? A New Publication from an MSPH Researcher

This week PlOS One published a journal article titled: Reliability of carotid-femoral arterial waveforms for the derivation of ultra-short term heart rate variability in injured British servicemen: An inter-rater reliability study.

 

This article has been authored by a third-year PhD student – Rabeea Maqsood- and co-authored by her supervisors at Bournemouth University (Prof. Ahmed Khattab and Prof. Christopher Boos) and collaborator at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre (Prof. Alexander N Bennett).

 

In this paper, Rabeea et al. explored the reliability of carotid-femoral arterial waveforms to measurement HRV. The findings suggest that femoral waveforms offer great reliability to measure HRV- this is especially important in events where access to ECG is limited e.g. military triage.

The full article can be read open access at: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0290618

 

 

Physical function- an important mediator of HRV-combat trauma relationship: latest research from an MSPH researcher

Rabeea is a 3rd year PhD student whose research explores the complex relationship between HRV and combat injury in British military veterans and personnel, in collaboration with the ADVANCE study, UK.

As a part of her PhD, this paper investigated the mediating effect of mental and physical health factors in the ADVANCE military cohort. Of all factors, physical function (the 6-minute walk test) was found to be a significant mediator of the HRV-combat injury relationship via the structural equation modelling approach.  The article is published in Military Medicine and can be read open access here:

The co-authors on this paper (in no specific order) are Rabeea’ supervisors: Prof. Ahmed Khattab (MSPH, BU), Prof. Christopher Boos (Department of Cardiology, UHD) and collaborators from the ADVANCE study: Prof. Alex N Bennett (DMRC, Stanford Hall), Prof. Nicola Dear (King’s College London), Prof. Anthony Bull (Imperial College London), Prof. Paul Cullinan (Imperial College London) and Miss Susie Schofield (Imperial College London) and Prof. Carol Clark from Bournemouth University.

Free workshop – Data management basics: Ethical and legal issues in data sharing

Data management is essential to make sure that well-organised, well-documented, high quality and shareable research data can be produced from our research projects.

The free introductory workshops on data management basics are intended for researchers and anyone who wants to learn about research data management.

The first session, scheduled for 4th May 10am – 11.30am: Introduction to data management and sharing, provides an overview of how to manage, document and store research data. This second session focuses on the ethical and legal aspects of data management.

In this free 90-minute online workshop, participants will learn about the relevant legislation, such as data protection legislation and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Participants will also learn about strategies that enable them to share research data. This includes carrying out an assessment of disclosure risk, obtaining informed consent, anonymising data and regulating access to enable data to be shared.

There will be time at the end for questions and discussion.

This event is part of our UK Data Service introductory training series: Spring 2023.

Register for this workshop here.

BU signs up to Jisc agreement with the American Psychological Association

BU authors can now publish OA for free in select journals with American Psychological Association. Read on to find out more!

Authors affiliated with UK institutions participating in APA’s Jisc agreement may publish open access in hybrid journals published by APA at no cost to the author, provided that:

  • The article’s corresponding author is affiliated with a participating institution’s UK campus.
  • The article is accepted after August 1, 2022.
  • The article is an original peer-reviewed research article or review article.

All articles under this agreement will be published under the CC-BY copyright license. Upon publication, articles will be made immediately open access.

You can find further information on how to submit an article for consideration and other key information, such as maximum number of articles, here.

As a reminder, BU holds a number of agreements with key publishers, many of which allow you to publish open access for free. You can read more about them here.

If you have any queries, please contact the Open Access team.

A New Publication by MSPH researcher on Combat Trauma and Heart Rate Variability in a UK Military Cohort

Rabeea Maqsood is a 2nd year PhD student based in the department of Medical Sciences and Public Health. As a part of her PhD, Rabeea’s original research has been published in BMJ Military Health. Read it #OpenAccess here:

https://militaryhealth.bmj.com/content/early/2023/03/28/military-2022-002316.citation-tools

This is the first study- to the authors’ knowledge- to have comprehensively explored the association between combat trauma (status, severity and mechanism) and ultra-short term HRV in a large sample of 862 participants.
 The co-authors on this paper (in no specific order) are Rabeea’ supervisors: Prof. Ahmed Khattab (MSPH, BU), Prof. Christopher Boos (Department of Cardiology, UHD) and collaborators from the ADVANCE study: Prof. Alex N Bennett (DMRC, Stanford Hall), Prof. Nicola Dear (King’s College London), Prof. Anthony Bull (Imperial College London), Prof. Paul Cullinan (Imperial College London) and Miss Susie Schofield (Imperial College London).

Updated Intention to Bid form – March 2023

Since the introduction of the new electronic ITB form on 24 January 2022, there have been incremental updates and the current e-ITB form is now available.

The e-ITB form continues to give a better user experience, creates a more efficient administrative control process for Research Development and Support (RDS) and provides accurate reporting outcomes for management.

 

Updated ITB form: The  Intention to Bid (ITB) form and the updated Research Costings Request Sheet are both available now in the Policies & Procedures/Research/Pre-award section of the intranet under Research > Pre-award. Please complete the Research Costings Request Sheet and attach it to the e-ITB form for completion. PDF copies of all submissions can be printed or saved but there are limitations to editing a form once it has been submitted.

Please send RDS the completed e-ITB form and Costing Request Sheet by the latest 4 weeks before the deadline.

 

Bid Enquiry Process: If you have more than 4 weeks to the submission deadline and need advice or support regarding a bid, please access the same form link and select ‘Enquiry/Advice on Bidding’. This ensures that the pre-award team will see your Enquiry, rather than emailing a sole officer who may not be available at the time.

 

As a service, RDS is committed to delivering service excellence to enable BU’s academic community to deliver and grow world-leading research for societal benefit. The program of work continues to look at processes to enhance the user experience.

 

Changes include improvements to the pre- and post-award support being offered. Building on the delivery of a new Principal Investigator report which is currently in the final stages of being rolled out, and continuing our collaboration with the Transformation Team.

Association between Traumatic Injuries and Heart Rate Variability- Systematic Review Published in PloS One by an MSPH PhD Student

Rabeea is a 2nd year PhD student who is based in the Department of Medical Sciences and Public Health. As a part of her PhD, her systematic review on the association between traumatic Injuries and HRV has recently been published as an open access research in PloS One.

It is the first systematic review to provide evidence on the relationship between non-acute traumatic injuries and Heart Rate Variability  (RMSSD, SDNN and LF/HF) ratio. This also highlights paucity of evidence and calls for further research in the field, especially in the Military research- the focus of Rabeea’s PhD.

The co-authors on this paper are Rabeea’ supervisors: Prof. Ahmed Khattab (MSPH, BU), Prof. Christopher Boos (Department of Cardiology, UHD), and Prof. Alex N Bennett (DMRC, Stanford Hall).

Funding Development Briefing 01/02/23 Spotlight on: KTPs – with Business Engagement and Knowledge Exchange Managers_re-scheduled!

What are Funding Development Briefings?

Each session will cover the latest major funding opportunities, followed by a brief Q&A session. Sessions will also include a spotlight on a particular funding opportunity of strategic importance to BU. Sessions will be on Wednesdays, from 12 pm for half-an-hour. The same link can be used each week to join here.
Next Weds 01 February 12:00-12:30, we will cover the Knowledge Exchange Partnerships (KTP) and we will have the pleasure of having the Business Engagement and Knowledge Exchange Managers along to talk to us about the KTP process and tips about getting partnerships together.
Sessions will be recorded and made available after the session for those who cannot attend.

RDS Academic and Researcher Induction 2023

This event provides an overview of all the practical information staff need to begin developing their research plans at BU, using both internal and external networks; to develop and disseminate research outcomes; and maximising the available funding opportunities.

Objectives 

  • The primary aim of this event is to raise participants’ awareness of how to get started in research at BU or, for more established staff, how to take their research to the next level
  • To provide participants with essential, practical information and orientation in key stages and processes of research and knowledge exchange at BU

Indicative content

As the inductions are currently online, a series of videos will be sent to attendees three weeks’ beforehand for viewing. The induction day will be more interactive and give you the opportunity to meet your faculty-facing RDS support, as well as those responsible for strategy, outputs, ethics, impact, public engagement and knowledge exchange. The videos will provide:

  • An overview of research at BU and how RDS can help/support academic staff
  • The importance of horizon-scanning, signposting relevant internal and external funding opportunities and clarifying the applications process
  • How to manage an awarded project and the BU processes
  • How to develop internal and external research networks
  • Key points on research ethics and developing research outputs

 

For more information about the event, please see the following link:

http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/research-lifecycle/developing-your-proposal/

If you are new to academia, then it would be helpful for you to meet with your faculty mentor to guide your familiarisation of research at BU and expectations of an early career researcher before attending this induction.

You can also join the Early Career researcher (ECR) Network, and look at the Research Application timeline‘ for an overview of processes at BU.  The latter will also be useful for those who are familiar with academia but new to BU.

 

The inductions for 2023 will be held on:

Workshop Date Time  Location
RDS Academic & Researcher Induction Wednesday 1st February 13:00 – 14.30 Talbot Campus
RDS Academic & Researcher Induction Wednesday 7th June 09:30 – 11.00 Lansdowne Campus

To book a place for this session please complete the Booking Form

 

For any queries, please contact Organisational Development.

We hope you can make it and look forward to seeing you.

 

Regards,

The RDS Team

NEW Jisc Transformative Journals Guide

Cambridge University Press Elsevier logoSAGE Logo

Jisc have recently published a guide for researchers on publishing in transformative journals. All peer-reviewed research articles (including reviews and conference papers) submitted after 1 April 2022 acknowledging funding from UKRI or one of its constituent councils must be published open access immediately, without embargo, under a CC-BY licence (or other licence permitted by UKRI).

Similar policies have been adopted by other funders such as the Wellcome Trust and NIHR, with further details on their websites. Jisc’s guide can be found here, and should prove useful when wishing to make your research openly available.

Transformative journals are subscription/hybrid journals that commit to transitioning to full open access journals. Jisc-approved transformative journals can be checked on Sherpa, with other useful resources below:

  • Use the Journal Checker Tool to find out whether a title is a transformative journal or compliant via another route. Remember that if you’re funded by UKRI and intend to use UKRI open access funds for an article processing charge in a transformative journal, you’ll need to ensure that the journal is listed as Jisc-approved on Sherpa.
  • Think. Check. Submit. helps researchers to identify trusted journals.
  • Sherpa lists funder policies from over 150 funders around the world.

You can read up on the transformative deals BU holds with a number of publishers such as Elsevier, Wiley and Taylor & Francis.

If you have any queries, please contact Open Access.

Researcher Roadshow – Exploring Health Data Science

Researcher Roadshow
Exploring Health Data Science

March 1st, 2023. 10:00 – 12:00

The NIHR Research Design Service, Health Data Research UK (HDR UK), the MRC Regulatory Support Centre and NHS Digital are pleased to offer the opportunity to attend the sixth in a series of virtual researcher roadshows.

This free to attend event is aimed at researchers and others working with health and social care datasets who would like to increase their understanding of roles of health data scientists and value of health data science.

The event will bring together health data scientists from the NHS, academia, and industry and provide insights and perspectives on the important work they do.

This event will include presentations on different roles and careers in health data science and different methods and approaches used by health data scientists.

Speakers will be confirmed in the New Year. 

Provisional registration is at: https://ukri.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GntzbzTITLmw0ghBRadQKQ


Recordings of previous Researcher Roadshows can be viewed here – Research Advisory Group (RAG) researcher roadshows – NHS Digital


Queries: If you have any questions about this event, please contact: rsc@mrc.ukri.org

Introduction to Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) for Researchers – free event

Introduction to Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) for Researchers

Date: Tuesday 10 January 2023
Time: 10:30 – 12:30

This event is aimed at people who are new to PPI or setting up their first PPI project, and is free for students and staff from the NIHR, NHS, UK universities, public sector institutions and registered charities based in the UK.

It will help them to discover the support available to plan, deliver and build PPI into their research, and highlight how PPI improves research for patients, services users and carers.