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Proofreading your article accepted for publication

BU research, Featured academics, international, open access, Publishing, Research news, Research Training, Uncategorized, writing

It is always a pleasure to see your own paper in print.  If all is properly organised at the publisher, the first time you see you paper as it will look in its final version when you receive the proof copy.  It is the authors’ task to proofread this final copy and pick up any mistakes you may have made or the journal has made putting your word file into the journal’s layout.  More and more journals now ask you to do the proofreading and editing online.  The first message here is that proofreading is exact business and most certainly time consuming.  Moreover, feeding back mistakes you may find in the proofs is not without its trials and tribulations.

Yesterday we received the proofs for a paper accepted by BMC Health Research Policy & Systems [1]. The BMC is part of the publisher Springer , and it uses an online proof system eProofing to which the authors get temporary access, to read and correct text.  This system looks good online, but beware the online version you get to edit does not look the same as the version that will appear in print.  The draft print version generated by eProofing has line numbers which don’t appear online when you are editing the proofs.  So we had to write on the online system separately that we found a set of quotes glued together, as the system does not allow authors to change the lay-out (for obvious reasons). In this case,  we had to write details like: “There needs to be a space after first quote line 421.”  What might look okay in the eProofing version didn’t do so  in the print version, where it was it is wrong.  This is illustrated in the example picture below.

 

Last month we battled with the proofs of another BU paper forthcoming in the journal Women and Birth [2], which is part of Elsevier.  Again, it has an online system for proofs.  This system does not allow the authors to correct mistakes in in the line spacing.  So we ended up writing to journal manager, not the editor, things like: “There is a very big gap between the end of section 3.7. and Overview of findings section – please could the text be rearranged to get rid of this big gap.”  We also asked for a summary section to be kept on one page, not having an orphan two words on the next page, but that appeared to be too difficult a request.  We think we a little flexibility, i.e. a human intervention the lay-out could have been improved.  See illustration below with text as it appears in the current online-first version.

We like to stress our advice to set plenty of time aside to read and edit the proofs, and to send details instructions to the journal manager or editor about what needs changing.  Changes include typos, grammar and style, but also lay-out of text and illustrations, boxes in the text, tables and figures.  “It is also important to check tables and figures during the proof-reading as the formatting can often go astray during the typesetting process” as we highlighted by Sheppard and colleagues [3].  Also double check correct spelling of names of co-authors and the final author order in the proofs.  Many years ago, I received the proof of pages of a midwifery article [4].

I dutifully read and edited  the proof of the actual text, but I never check the short introduction with the authors’ names which an editor had added to the final proofs.  When the paper came out in print to transpired that this editor has changed the author order, i.e. my name was first, probably because I had submitted the paper on behalf of my co-author.  This cause some problems with my co-author, made all the worse since I am married to her.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

References:

  1. Wasti, S.P., van Teijlingen, E., Rushton, S., Subedi, M., Simkhada, P., Balen, J., Nepal Federalisation of Health Team (2023)  Overcoming the challenges facing Nepal’s health system during federalisation: an analysis of health system building blocks. Journal of the Health Research Policy & Systems. (forthcoming).
  2. Arnold, R., Way, S., Mahato, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2023) “I might have cried in the changing room, but I still went to work”. Maternity staff managing roles, responsibilities, and emotions of work and home during COVID-19: an Appreciative Inquiry, Women & Birth (online first) 
  3. Sheppard, Z., Hundley, V., Dahal, N.P., Paudyal, P. (2022) Writing a quantitative paper, In: Wasti, S.P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Hundley, V. with Shreesh, K. (eds.) Writing and Publishing Academic Work, Kathmandu, Nepal: Himal Books, pp.78-87.
  4. van Teijlingen E., Ireland, J.C. (2014) Community midwives on the go. Midwives 1: 54-55.

Advertising BU’s Systematic Review Masterclass

BU research, Knowledge Exchange, research methods, Research Training, Training, Uncategorized

The Faculty of Health & Social Sciences shall be running the two-day ONLINE Masterclass ‘Introduction to conducting a systematic literature review’.  The aim is to provide participants with an understanding of how to collate and assess the best possible evidence in the form of a systematic literature review. This masterclass will examine the rationale for systematic literature reviews and take participants through the structured, rigorous, and objective approach used to provide a critical synthesis of the available evidence on a particular topic.

The Masterclass is facilitated by (1) Vanora Hundley, Professor in Midwifery with experience of conducting systematic reviews of health care interventions in both low-and-high-income countries; (2) Edwin van Teijlingen, a medical sociologist with extensive experience in conducting systematic reviews. He has run similar workshops reviews internationally and has published on the importance of systematic reviews; and (3) Caspian Dugdale is Research Librarian with considerable experience in running health information literacy workshops for students, academics and postgraduate researchers.

The masterclass is suitable for anyone who wishes to explore the basic principles involved in conducting a systematic literature review. No previous knowledge is required. Attendees include health and social care practitioners, postgraduate students, and academics.  There will be two online days – 8th and 15th November – which will focus on:

  • Designing a review protocol
  • Formulating a question
  • Identifying and selecting relevant studies
  • Systematic data extraction and collection
  • Synthesis and analysis of the data
  • Writing up and reporting systematic reviews.

Booking Information:

The fee of £400 includes two full days with the course facilitators. We are happy to announce that NHS partner organisations are eligible for a reduced fee £200.

You are now able to book on line for our masterclass: https://www.applycpd.com/BU/courses/116678

The application deadline is 11th October 2023.

For more information contact:
Tel: 01202  962184 or email HSSRKEAdministrator@bournemouth.ac.uk

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

BU research, Doctoral College, Uncategorized

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

 

 

NERC Pushing the Frontiers Call – internal competition launched

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NERC Pushing the Frontiers Call – internal competition launched

NERC introduced demand management measures in 2012. These were revised in 2015 to reduce the number and size of applications from research organisations for NERC’s discovery science standard grant scheme. As the standard grant scheme has been superseded, demand management measures will be applied to the Pushing the Frontiers scheme only. Full details can be found in the BU policy document for NERC demand management measures.

BU has been capped at one application per Pushing the Frontiers round. An application counts towards an organisation, where the organisation is applying as the grant holding organisation (of the lead or component grant). This will be the organisation of the Principal Investigator of the lead or component grant.

BU process

BU has a process for determining which application will be submitted to each NERC Pushing the Frontiers round. This takes the form of an internal competition, which will include peer review. The next available round is estimated to be in January 2024. The deadline for internal Expressions of Interest (EoI) which will be used to determine which application will be submitted is 29 September 2023.  The EoI form, BU policy for NERC Demand Management Measures and process for selecting an application can be found here: I:\RDS\Public\NERC Demand Management\NERC Demand Management 2024.

Following the internal competition, the Principal Investigator will have access to support from RDS and will work closely with Research Facilitators and Funding Development Officers to develop the application. Applicants will be expected to make use of External Application Reviewers.

RDS Contacts

Please contact Kate Percival, RDS Research Facilitator – kpercival@bournemouth.ac.uk if you wish to submit an expression of interest.

Transfer of Administrative Tasks from RDS to Faculty F&R Teams

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Over the past three years, the Transformation Team (OVC) and RDS have worked collaboratively to improve BU’s post-award service. This has included extensive staff engagement on how service can be improved.   

This has provided insight that our academic and research staff community wish to reduce bureaucracy in the administration of their externally funded RKE projects.  In particular, for many administrative tasks, it is evidently confusing to follow separate processes depending on whether a project is internally or externally funded.

Furthermore, exploration of good practice across the sector, demonstrates that BU is an outlier in the sector as in almost every other institution nationally, external RKE project funding is administered locally (i.e. within a Faculty/department) and not centrally.  

Therefore, administrative tasks associated with RKE projects will move to Faculties as of 4th September, removing the additional need for approval by RDS. Decentralising the administrative support will bring the benefit of reducing research bureaucracy and adds clarity as to roles and responsibilities for RKE delivery at BU.  

To increase the F&R team’s capacity to undertake externally funded RKE administration, resources will be transferred to the Faculties from RDS. From the 4th September, the following administrative tasks will be transferred from RDS to the Faculty F&R teams:

  • Expense Claim & Cash Advances 
  • Travel Request 
  • Conference Request 
  • Recruitment requests (PTHP, Tier 4 and overtime timesheet submission) 
  • Purchase Order or Credit Card payment request 
  • Payment of Invoice (Against Existing Purchase Order) 
  • Vehicle Hire Request 
  • Other Payment Requests (incl. participant Voucher, Catering) 
  • Support for all non-accredited short course activity

This means that the RDS admin tool will be decommissioned at 5pm on the 1st September. From Monday 4th September, PIs will need to contact their Faculty F&R teams, who for internally funded activities (such as departmental funds) are already completing these types of processes.

The Post-Award Programme Manager Alex Morrison will be available to answer any specific questions as part of his weekly drop-in sessions for PIs every Thursday.

You can contact your Faculty F&R team via email:

BUBS: BUBSResources@bournemouth.ac.uk

HSS: HSSRKEadministrator@bournemouth.ac.uk

FMC: FMCTravel@bournemouth.ac.uk for travel and FMCFOps@bournemouth.ac.uk for all other enquiries

FST: FSTFandR@bournemouth.ac.uk

This flowchart provides an overview of the change in process.

An Appreciate Inquiry into NHS Maternity Services

BU research, Featured academics, NHS, Research communication, research methods, Research news, Uncategorized, writing

 

 

Congratulation to Dr. Rachel Arnold and her Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health research team on the publication yesterday of their paper ‘I might have cried in the changing room, but I still went to work’. Maternity staff balancing roles, responsibilities, and emotions of work and home during COVID-19: An appreciative inquiry [1].   This paper focuses on how to support staff and enhance their well-being in a small UK maternity service.  The underpinning methodological approach is appreciative inquiry using interviews with 39 maternity staff and four group discussions exploring meaningful experiences, values and factors that helped their well-being.

The key findings are that maternity staff members were highly motivated, managing a complex melee of emotions and responsibilities including challenges to professional confidence, mental health, family situation, and conflict between work-life roles. Despite staff shortages, a demanding workload, professional and personal turmoil, and the pandemic participants still found meaning in their work and relationships.  The authors go on to argue for a ‘whole person’ approach, since this approach provided insight into the multiple stressors and emotional demands staff faced. It also revealed staff resourcefulness in managing their professional and personal roles. They invested in relationships with women but were also aware of their limits – the need to be self-caring, employ strategies to switch-off, set boundaries or keep a protective distance.  Overall, the paper concludes hat staff’s well-being initiatives, and research into well-being, would benefit from adopting a holistic approach that incorporates home and family with work. Research on emotion regulation strategies could provide insights into managing roles, responsibilities, and the emotional demands of working in maternity services. Emotion regulation strategies could be included in midwifery and obstetric training.

This paper was proceeded by a more methodological paper on the application of Appreciative Inquiry in this study [2].

 

References:

  1. Arnold, R., Way, S., Mahato, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2023) “I might have cried in the changing room, but I still went to work”. Maternity staff managing roles, responsibilities, and emotions of work and home during COVID-19: an Appreciative Inquiry, Women & Birth (online first) 
  2. Arnold, R., Gordon, C., Way, S., Mahato, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2022) Why use Appreciative Inquiry? Lessons learned during COVID-19 in a UK maternity service, European Journal of Midwifery 6 (May): 1-7.

The Journal of Asian Midwives’ 10th anniversary

Featured academics, international, open access, Publishing, Uncategorized, writing

This week the Journal of Asian Midwives published its latest issue.  Celebrating a decade of publishing, this is the first issue of volume 10.  The journal is Open Access and freely available online for anybody who wants to read it (click here!).  In the editorial of this new issue the editors highlighted online events around the International Day of the Midwife, the ICM (International Confederation of Midwives) Triennial Congress in Bali, Indonesia in June, and the acceptance of the Journal of Asian Midwives by SCOPUS [1].  The editorial finishes by highlighting new additions to the journal, including the opportunity to submit short research proposals, or proposals for improvement in service or practice, blogs and from the next issue onwards, short view point articles.

 

Reference:

  1. van Teijlingen, E., Jan, R., Mubeen, K., Musaddique, A. (2023) Editorial – summer 2023. Journal of Asian Midwives, 10(1): 1–3.

Sarah Clark, BU MSc Student gives a presentation at The Ehlers-Danlos Society Global Learning Conference in Dublin on 3rd August, presenting her May 2021 BMJ paper “Help me trust you after my misdiagnosis”.

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Sarah Clark, BU MSc Student gives a presentation at The Ehlers-Danlos Society Global Learning Conference in Dublin on 3rd August, presenting her May 2021 BMJ paper “Help me trust you after my misdiagnosis”.  

https://www.ehlers-danlos.com/events/2023-global-learning-conference/

Sarah, who has hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, is a Masters student at BU studying Clinical and Developmental Neuropsychology.  Sarah sits as a patient expert in the EDS International Consortium, Psychiatric and Psychological Aspects Working Group: https://www.ehlers-danlos.com/international-consortium-working-groups/#psychiatric

Sarah has personal interests in “the diagnostic journey”, ‘harm from the medical system” and “medically-induced PTSD”, having previously been under a community mental health team for 15 years and misdiagnosed with the highly stigmatising label of EUPD.  Raising awareness of the harm caused by misdiagnosis is of huge importance to Sarah.   In fact, Sarah was diagnosed last May with Autism Spectrum Condition, a realisation she only made thanks to attending the autism lectures on her MSc course here at BU!  For her MSc Research Project she is researching “What are the daily experiences of autistic people living with hEDS?”

Sarah is studying part-time at BU due to the amount of time managing several complex medical conditions takes each day, but alongside managing her wellbeing, Sarah regularly engages in public awareness work, volunteering and charity fundraising work. She is also a keen photographer, writer and yogi and was featured in Hotpod Yoga’s Move with Purpose Campaign recently where she talked about her late-autism diagnosis: https://hotpodyoga.com/move-with-purpose/

Welcome to the Bournemouth University Research Staff Association (RSA)

BU research, Research communication, research staff, RKE development framework, Uncategorized

Welcome to the Bournemouth University Research Staff Association (RSA)

 

 

What is it?

An association run by BU researchers from all faculties who want to make BU a great place to work and do research. We aim to ensure that researchers are supported to realise their full potential and to develop and produce research of the highest quality. (There are Research Staff Associations throughout UK universities and one of our BU RSA representatives is also a member of the UK RSA).

 

Who is it for?

Almost everyone! Postdoctoral researchers, research fellows, research assistants as well as anyone else who is actively engaged in research (or planning to be): postgraduate researchers; staff on teaching and research, or teaching contracts; clinicians; professional support staff; technicians.

 

What are our aims?

To help make BU a great place for researchers to work and progress in their careers.

 

To support BU researchers to produce excellent research by enabling them to thrive, personally and professionally through informal peer support / friendship with other researchers and encouraging BU to provide

      • a well-designed induction
      • a caring and helpful mentor
      • support to develop research and professional skills
      • increased job security
      • a university culture of inclusion, kindness, care, and support
      • opportunities to network, collaborate, share, and learn

 

How do we do that?

We support researchers through:

 

  1. Signposting you to the BU teams or individuals who can help you with issues such as: employment and contracts, work conditions, fairness and equity, discrimination, unions, professional development, careers advice, support for mental health and well-being.

 

  1. Offering peer support – opportunities to meet, socialise, network, share ideas, and collaborate with researchers from different faculties. We run informal online get-togethers and coffee mornings in faculties. We are also developing a series of university-wide events (in partnership with the Early Career Network) on topics such as career progression, funding, wellbeing.

 

  1. Representing you – raising concerns, lobbying, and advocating for researchers at the:
    • Research Concordat Steering Group. This group is responsible for helping BU translate the ideals of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers into improved researcher career development and effective policies.  The steering group can then highlight responsibilities across university departments from line managers and HR to the Vice Chancellor and the Executive Team.

 

    • Faculty Research & Professional Practice Committees (FRPPC) – where we can highlight specific initiatives and the vital role that line managers and senior academics play in facilitating the development of researchers in their department.

 

    • University Research & Professional Practice Committee (URPPC) where we can share the combined voice and experiences of research staff to shape the development of University wide research-based policy and procedures.

 

What do we need to succeed? 

You!  We need to know what the important issues, concerns, challenges, and aspirations of BU researchers are. We can then try to provide informative sessions which address the issues that are important to you, advocate for change – as well as letting BU know when they are getting it right! We would also like to get to know you and learn from your experiences – doing research can be lonely and being in contact with other researchers enriches our day.

 

When does the RSA meet?

The RSA meets regularly throughout the year. Everyone is welcome to attend or share issues that you would like raised with your faculty rep

 

How do I get involved/get in touch with the RSA representative for my faculty?

 

Your current reps are:

 

Faculty of Health & Social Science                         Sophia Amenyah samenyah@bournemouth.ac.uk

                                                                                             Gladys Yinusa yinusagg@bournemouth.ac.uk

 Faculty of Science & Technology                           Kimberley Davies daviesk@bournemouth.ac.uk

                                                                                            Sarah Elliott  selliott@bournemouth.ac.uk 

Faculty of Media & Communications                   No representative at present.

BU Business School:                                                   No representative at present.

 

 

 

Institutional Reps:                                                      Chaoguang Wang   wangc@bournemouth.ac.uk

                                                                                            Anastasia Vayona   avayona@bournemouth.ac.uk

                                                                                           Rejoice Chipuriro          rchipuriro@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

Academic Reps:                                                           BUBS-Rafaelle Nicholson rnicholson@bournemouth.ac.uk

                                                                                           BUBS-Julia Hibbert jhibbert@bournemouth.ac.uk

                                                                                           FST-Derek Pitman dpitman@bournemouth.ac.uk

                                                                                           FST-Michelle Heward mheward@bournemouth.ac.uk

                                                                                          FST-Ruijie Wang rwang3@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

 

No one should be alone with cancer….

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BU Early Stage Researcher Mavis Bengtsson – My secondment at Kraftenshus, Boras Sweden this picture shows Prof Andreas, BU ESR Mavis Bengtsson and Dr Erik at Kraftenshus

As an Early-Stage Researcher (ESR) from INNOVATEDIGNITY Project, based at Bournemouth University, England, I did my secondment while doing my PhD in Kraftenshus in Boras, Sweden and was under the mentorship of Professor Andreas Hellström and Dr Erik Eriksson. They have been instrumental in initiating Kraftenshus through research and evaluation that informed decisions in Kraftenshus. Kraftenshus is based in Boras, and it is the first support centre in Sweden designed by and for people affected by cancer, including patients, family, friends, staff members and local community representatives. The founder of Kraftenshus experienced that after being diagnosed with cancer and getting her chemotherapy, she lacked support in the community, where she experienced loneliness. However, starting this organisation to help other cancer patients improved her well-being. The organisation started in 2017 in Boras, Sweden and has recently expanded to 2 more cities.
The impact of cancer on individuals is profound, and diagnosis means emotional turmoil for most people, as it affects all aspects of health(Mohlin et al. 2020). Cancer patients often desire emotional support after a cancer diagnosis (Ray et al. 2019). These people who want support might not always receive it, even though emotional support can come from a range of people in their social networks (Ray et al. 2019). The complexities of cancer increase once people are back in the community because it affects the whole family. Most patients feel lonely, and Kraftenshus helps patients to meet other patients.
The organisation’s core focus is on emotional and social support for people with cancer. The design of the venue was based on the action research results.
The meeting place is designed as a home to give people a homely feeling when they discuss their issues. The organisation and activities are a patient-led and voluntary organisation. They received funding from the government in 2017. Kraften hus use a participation and co-creation model and a service design approach. They have considered a sustainable business model to establish how the project would survive over the years. One of the areas was creating a shared vision with the politicians and other stakeholders. With resources from the Universities, they have evaluated the organisation.
Members volunteer and lead activities or teachings. They collaborate with various stakeholders, do knitting, have creative painting rooms, do walks, have a gym membership, and get referrals from the hospital. Kraftenshus has a long collaboration with the Regional Cancer Centre, which drives the implementation of a cancer strategy launched in 2010 due to increased cancer cases and challenges of the healthcare system in Sweden. Kraftenhus worked closely with Regional Cancer Centre to design an integrated and patient-oriented cancer care model in the community.
One of the areas that we explored with Prof Andreas Hellström and Dr Erik Eriksson was to do research at Kraftenshus together.
https://cancercentrum.se/vast/patient-och-narstaende/kraftens-hus/
Kraftenshus is a great community organisation contributing to cancer patients’ emotional healing and with the motto: “No one should be alone with cancer.”