BU Research Blog

This journal paper, ‘“Is it realistic?” the portrayal of pregnancy and childbirth in the media‘, was published in 2016 in the Open Access journal BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth [1].  This interdisciplinary and cross-faculty BU paper was initially rejected by two media journals that didn’t seem to value systematic reviews as a method in their discipline.  In 2016 BU funded the cost of Open Access publishing in BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth.  The paper has since been cited 50 times in SCOPUS (measured 11 May 2021); it has been submitted to REF 2021 in two different Units of Assessment – Allied Health Professions, Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy and Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management.

Being Open Access, the paper has reached scholars outside the health field, as it has been cited not only in many health journals but also in media journals such as Discourse & Communication, International Journal of Sport Communication or Critical Studies in Media Communication as well as in Feminist journals such as  Feminism & Psychology or more Anthropological journals such a European Journal of Cultural Studies .

ResearchGate, the professional network for over 20 million scientists and researchers from all over the world, informed the authors last month (27 April 2021) that ‘“Is it realistic?” the portrayal of pregnancy and childbirth in the media‘ has been read 1,000 times.

Professor van Teijlingen believes that the success of Open Access publishing is often in the longer-term.  Between a paper getting published and being cited by fellow academics can easily take some years.  Funding Open Access publications is a long-term investment by BU.

Reference:

Luce, A., Cash, M., Hundley, V. et al. “Is it realistic?” the portrayal of pregnancy and childbirth in the media. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth 16, 40 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-016-0827-x

If you have any Open Access success stories that you would like to share, please do get in touch with pphatch@bournemouth.ac.uk