/ Full archive

New paper by Dr. Caroline Ellis-Hill

Knowledge Exchange, NHS, Publishing, writing

Congratulations to Dr. Caroline Ellis-Hill on the publication of her article ‘We are not the same people we used to be: An exploration of family biographical narratives and identity change following traumatic brain injury’.  This paper was accepted for publication in 2017 and will now be finally published in its final format in the September issue of Neuropsychological Rehabilitation.

This scientific paper focuses recovery and rehabilitation following traumatic brain injury. Accumulation of subjective changes over time has led many to examine the question of “continuity of self” post-injury. Vacillation between feeling the same and different is common and often at odds with the medical narrative preparing families for permanent change. This position of ambiguity was examined in a qualitative narrative study. The aim of this paper is to describe the narrative structures used by uninjured members of a family to understand change. These changes relate primarily, to their perspective of whether and how the injured person had changed, but also secondarily to whether and why they themselves felt they had changed in the first year post-injury. Nine uninjured family members from three families took part in three unstructured interviews during the first twelve months post-injury.

In-depth narrative analysis showed family members used biographical attendance; biographical disruption; biographical continuity; and biographical reconstruction to understand change. Dr. Ellis-Hill and her co-authors argue that concentrating on a narrative of change is too limiting and that engaging in biographical narratives may help humanise care provided to injured individuals and their families. Implications for research and practice are discussed

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Migration & health research in Middle East & Malaysia

international, Publishing, writing

Yesterday the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health published the final version of Dr. Pratik Adhikary’s paper ‘Workplace Accidents Among Nepali Male Workers in the Middle East and Malaysia: A Qualitative Study’ [1].  This is the fourth paper originating from Pratik’s Ph.D. research conducted in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences, the first three papers appeared in the period 2011-2018 [2-4].

The paper highlights that many Nepali men work in the Middle East and Malaysia and media reports and anecdotal evidence suggests they are at a high risk of workplace-related accidents and injuries for male Nepali workers.   Pratik’s Ph.D. study used face-to-face interviews to explore the personal experiences of twenty male Nepali migrants of unintentional injuries at their place of work.  His study found that almost half of study participants experienced work-related accident abroad. The Participants suggested that the reasons behind this are not only health and safety at work but also poor communication, taking risks by workers themselves, and perceived work pressure. Some participants experienced serious incidents causing life-long disability, extreme and harrowing accounts of injury but received no support from their employer or host countries.

The paper concludes that Nepali migrant workers are at a high risk of occupational injuries owing to a number of interrelated factors poor health and safety at work, pressure of work, risk taking practices, language barriers, and their general work environment. Both the Government of Nepal and host countries need to be better policing   existing policies; introduce better legislation where necessary; ensure universal health (insurance) coverage for labour migrants; and improve preventive measures to minimize the number and severity of accidents and injuries among migrant workers.

 

References:

  1. Adhikary P, van Teijlingen E., Keen S. (2019) Workplace accidents among Nepali male workers in the Middle East and Malaysia: A qualitative study, Journal of Immigrant & Minority Health 21(5): 1115–1122. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10903-018-0801-y
  2. Adhikary P., Keen S., van Teijlingen E (2011) Health Issues among Nepalese migrant workers in Middle East. Health Science Journal 5: 169-75. www.hsj.gr/volume5/issue3/532.pdf
  3. Adhikary, P, Sheppard, Z., Keen, S., van Teijlingen, E. (2017) Risky work: accidents among Nepalese migrant workers in Malaysia, Qatar & Saudi Arabia, Health Prospect 16(2): 3-10.
  4. Adhikary P, Sheppard, Z., Keen S., van Teijlingen E. (2018) Health and well-being of Nepalese migrant workers abroad, International Journal of Migration, Health & Social Care 14(1): 96-105.  https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMHSC-12-2015-0052

 

New paper published : Yao, B., Qiu, R., Fan, D., Liu, A. and Buhalis, D. (2019), “Standing out from the crowd – an exploration of signal attributes of Airbnb listings”, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 32. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-02-2019-0106


New paper published : 

Yao, B., Qiu, R., Fan, D., Liu, A. and Buhalis, D. (2019), “Standing out from the crowd – an exploration of signal attributes of Airbnb listings“, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 32. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-02-2019-0106

 

Airbnb signal attributes and competitiveness

Abstract

Due to product diversity, traditional quality signals in the hotel industry such as star ratings and brand affiliation do not work well in the accommodation booking process on the sharing economy platform. From a suppliers’ perspective, this study aims to apply the signaling theory to the booking of Airbnb listings and explore the influence of quality signals on the odds of an Airbnb listing being booked. A binomial logistic model is used to describe the influences of different attributes on the market demand. Because of the large sample size, sequential Bayesian updating method is utilized in hospitality and tourism field for the first attempt. Results show that, in addition to host-specific information such as “Superhost” and identity verification, attributes including price, extra charges, region competitiveness and house rules are all effective signals in Airbnb. The signaling impact is more effective for the listings without any review comments. This study contributes to the literature by incorporating the signaling theory in the analysis of booking probability of Airbnb accommodation. The research findings are valuable to hosts in improving their booking rates and revenue. In addition, government and industrial management organizations can have more efficient strategy and policy planning.

BU REF 2021 Code of Practice – staff feedback exercise – deadline Tuesday 10 September

Research assessment

The deadline to provide feedback on the BU REF 2021 draft code of practice is 5pm on Tuesday.

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the system for assessing research in UK higher education institutions HEIs.

Institutions making a submission to the REF 2021 are required to develop, document and apply a code of practice on identifying staff with significant responsibility for research, determining who is an independent researcher and the selection of outputs in their REF submissions.

BU held a comprehensive staff engagement exercise in April 2019 and received agreement from staff representative groups for the Code of Practice submitted in June 2019. UKRI have since asked us to revise and resubmit our REF Code of Practice. In light of these changes, staff are invited to read and comment upon the revised BU REF 2021 draft code of practice, prior to the final revised draft being submitted to UKRI for approval.

The revised draft code of practice, a briefing paper (including equality analysis), a feedback form are available from the BU Staff Intranet:

https://staffintranet.bournemouth.ac.uk/news/news/thismonth/buref2021codeofpractice-stafffeedbackexercise.php

The exercise is open for feedback until Tuesday 10 September 5pm.

The importance of preservation and sustainability of digital data in the arts

Fusion themes

The AHRC research project, ArtoP: The Visual Articulations of Politics in Nigeria sets out to collect and archive visual material that is produced by artists, animators, filmmakers, photographers in Nigeria around and following the elections in February 2019. As part of the project outputs, the research will culminate in a digital archive that will serve two purposes i) to preserve this collection over a period of 10 years and ii) to disseminate parts of the collection with a wider public through a web-based platform. These outputs present a number of challenges that highlight the importance of planning for digital archiving and ensuring its sustainability given the rapidity with which digital traces are created, disseminated and in turn disappear (Ernst, 2013). This post forms part of a longer paper in development that seeks to focus upon changes in archival practice in the arts, especially where contexts of contemporary image making practices tend to be based in the digital and circulate in virtual spaces. Additionally, the variances in technological landscapes across different geographies also present separate sets of challenges that a researcher may face – who has access to this data; which voices are included and excluded; how does one curate for fair access?  

Collecting Digital Images

In 2018, the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston) ran an exhibition on ‘Art in the Age of the Internet’, that examined how ‘the internet has radically changed the field of art, especially in its production, distribution, and reception’ (Respini, 2018). This exhibition is connected to a wider ongoing discourse within the arts on digital media (Gere, 2004, 2006) and the impact this is having upon museums and galleries. Therefore it is not surprising to see that in recent years there has been a growing recognition of the urgent need to actively collect and preserve digital art and digital graphics – material which is inherently ephemeral.  Archives have been tempted to wait until a top down collections management system is developed. This has resulted in gaps in collections.There is a consensus emerging that researchers and archivists urgently need to take a DIY, active approach to collecting digital content as near to the time of its publication as possible. Unlike physical collections, there is less chance of acquiring large collections of digital content at a later date, long after the material was created. This is because material on digital platforms are fleeting, with people entrusting storage of their digital creations to third-party proprietorial platforms whose commitment to the long term preservation of material is uncertain:     

“Digital works increasingly operate within a culture that replaces ownership with access. The idea that anything is accessible anytime online changes the motivation to collect and archive within the personal sphere. Personal cultural material is now embedded in proprietary software and third party platforms where responsibility for its longevity in a fast changing technological environment is ambiguous. Certainly, the ability to capture the online object within the context which makes it meaningful recedes as time passes […] digital collecting is best approached as a process of rapid response.” (CCDP 2018) 

One only needs to think of the demise of Myspace, a once-popular social media platform and a medium for sharing artwork and music, which recently lost all content uploaded by users before 2016, to recognise how transient and vulnerable our individual and collective digital heritage is. (Hern  2019)

Capturing Context and Circulation

Another challenge in collecting and archiving digital images and artworks is capturing the contexts and the patterns of circulation which make the images meaningful. Simply saving a digital graphic as an individual image file severs the image from its context. One challenge has been in capturing the interactive web environments in which digital graphics are published, republished and commented upon by users of Web 2.0. The sharing and modification of images online by a variety of actors is increasingly rapid and dynamic. For example, people can change the meaning of an image by reposting it on social media with a different caption, presenting new opportunities for engaged political citizenship and satire (Agbo 2018). This, along with the growing availability of digital editing tools, which are often embedded within the interface of social media platforms themselves, also allow users to easily edit the visual content of images, leaving them ripe for subversion and parody. Social media users quickly respond to each other in a humorous, conversational form, in ways which reframe images, reference earlier posts and trade ‘in-jokes’. In such exchanges users demonstrate their visual literacy and quick textual wit (Dike 2018). As both the content and context of digital images is endlessly mutating, it doesn’t make sense to archive once instance of an image, or even to think in terms of individual images. A recent report by the Collecting and Curating Digital Posters (CCDP) project recommends thinking in terms of “graphic events” rather than discrete images in order to reflect the ongoing social practices in which images are referenced, negotiated and transformed.  We should capture many iterations of the same image, the way in which they have migrated, the online environments in which they are encountered, and the ways audiences have interacted and commented on the images. The CCDP project recommends using the open-source tool Web-Recorder, in which collectors ‘record’ a web session, allowing them to capture their experience of browsing a website, trace the circulation of images online and record the ways in which it was possible to interact with digital graphics within native software and social media environments. These ‘sessions’ can be saved and played back by future users of the archive using the open source Web Recorder Player.  

There are problems in capturing such phenomenon in retrospect.  The rapidly changing appearance and technological environment of social media platforms introduces temporal distortion when searching social media platforms for, say, memes produced in response to a particular political controversy in 2014. We need to capture such phenomena as soon as possible. This requires us to be active and embedded users of the web in order to spot emerging visual trends as they occur.      

‘The archival infrastructure in the case of the Internet is only ever temporary, in response to its permanent dynamic rewriting. Ultimate knowledge (the old encyclopedia model) gives way to the principle of permanent rewriting or addition. ‘ (Ernst, 2013:85)

Storage and Access: Open Source Solutions.

‘Our obsession with memory functions as a reaction formation against the accelerating technical processes that our transforming our Lebenswelt (lifeworld) in quite distinct ways. [Memory] represents the attempt to slow down information processing, to resist the dissolution of time in the synchronicity of the archive, to recover a mode of contemplation outside the universe of simulation, and fast-speed information and cable networks, to claim some anchoring space in a world of puzzling and often threatening heterogeneity, non-synchronicity, and information overload’. (Husseyn, 1994)

Any discussion of a digital archive necessitates an active engagement with technological apparatus in order to consider the relationship between a technological environment and the production of (and obsession with) memory (Husseyn 1994). Storage and preservation are key aspects to any discussion on digital archiving, and as digital technologies accelerate their pace of change, paradoxically, so must a digital archive respond to this by mitigating against it. 

Storage and preservation

A question we faced in designing the ArtoP project was which software we should use for digital preservation and storage. Digital preservation can be difficult as the file formats we may take for granted now can become obsolescent in future – the software which opens them can disappear, rendering the contents of a file irretrievable. We therefore wanted to ensure that material was packaged in stable file formats, adhered to widely agreed-upon archival standards, and was stored securely. We identified Archivematica as the ideal software for our purposes. 

Archivematica is an open source, web-based digital preservation system that is used by a variety of institutions. The fact that the software is open access and free to install and operate actually ensures greater longevity. Proprietary software, tied to the variable fortunes of individual companies, are more liable to disappear than open source projects, which enjoy the support of an active community of users and developers. 

Archivematica is not a single piece of software but rather an ecosystem containing a number of tools, components and specifications which run the ‘microservices’ necessary to preserve digital content. For example, one of the microservices performed by Archivematica is called ‘normalisation’. During normalisation the files you upload are converted into preservation-friendly formats, using an active list of stable and accessible file formats compiled and updated by the UK National Archives. This provides some insurance against the rapid cycles of change and obsolescence which characterise the life of file formats. 

Archivematica’s core functions are as follows: 

  • User submits data to Archivematica in the form of Submission Information Packages (SIPs)
  • From the SIPs, Archivematica creates Archival Information Packages (AIPs) for the long term preservation of data.
  • Archivematica stores (and backs up) AIPs
  • Archivematica creates Dissemination Information Packages (DIPs) to export content to populate an archival access system, such as Access to Memory (AtoM), Archive Space, Figleaf etc.

Ensuring Access

As mentioned earlier, another priority of the project was to make a selected range of images from the archive available for public consumption through a public archive hosted on a web-based platform. Increasingly users of archives wish to be able to actively interact with collections and desire wider access (Fossati 2009), challenges which digital access and display offers potential solutions to.  For this process we are opting for the web-based access platform Access to Memory (AtoM).  

Like Archivematica, AtoM is open source – it is free to use, free to share and free to develop. All documentation is freely available online. This is complemented by a supportive community of users, who communicate and solve problems using a google mailing list, as well as by congregating in person at the UK User Group’s meetings, which are attended by a number of archivists and librarians from prestigious UK universities.

AtoM supports the use of a choice of widely agreed-upon archival standards for describing archival objects. This enables digital images to be presented along with explanatory context, or metadata, crucial to its understanding. Using archival descriptive standards also means there is the potential for us to link the material to larger aggregators of archival holdings, and material on our access page could be discovered by people using archival search portals such as Archives Hub.

Crucially, AtoM is also integrated into Archivematica – the two systems were developed by the same company and are configured to ‘speak’ to one another.  Archivematica produces Dissemination Information Packages (DIPs) that can populate AtoM with images, video and metadata. 

We also liked how AtoM can be customised according to the diverse needs of different organisations and audiences. We aim to hold workshops in Lagos to ask for feedback from Nigerians as to how they think material should be described and presented to the public, and we will attempt to customise our AtoM page accordingly. Rather than projecting our own assumptions on the material by presenting it in certain ways, we are eager to have this determined by local knowledge and needs, as well as local technological landscapes (see below). Moreover, Atom features multi-lingual support, with the potential to add translations, making the material relevant to different audiences. Our aspiration is for the public side of the archive to be a resource for Nigerian citizens, artists and researchers. 

We are inspired by the wide range of institutions that have used and customised AtoM in creative and innovative ways to present visual context, ranging from the Glasgow School of Arts to The Chinese Canadian Artefacts Project. We are currently exploring and brainstorming ways of customising AtoM. 

Local technological landscapes 

One of the considerations we need to bear in mind when customising our web-based access system is the local technological landscapes used by our primary audience: Nigerians. Digital technology has been harnessed by Nigerian artists and citizens to make political critiques, and has afforded Nigerians with new strategic opportunities to produce and circulate indigenous knowledge within global flows of information. Many Nigerians primarily access the internet using smartphones. Thus we need to consider designing our web-based access system in ways which are suitable for mobile browsers.  Additionally, to align with the UN Sustainability Development Goals, we are keen to ensure that access to this archive for educational purposes is designed for Nigerian users and their specific technological landscape, in order for it to have the greatest impact in Nigeria (and other African countries). Therefore, we also need to ensure that our website is accessible to users whose bandwidth may be limited and for whom mobile data is a significant expense. This might involve customising file normalisation in Archivematica in order to produce lower resolution image and video files for access purposes, which will load much quicker for users with slower internet connections or limited data. 

We are still in a development phase and will be researching the local technological landscape in Nigeria further, as well as soliciting advice from Nigerians as to the form our access system should take. 

In the meantime we wanted to take this opportunity to share our experiences, and hope to forge new relations with academics that may also be considering approaches to digital archiving. We hope to see our research extending to considering a range of formats and elements that may contribute to the generation of digital still or moving images and that sit within a more complex pipelines such as those in CGI for example, and the implications of this to archival practices.

Therefore, any feedback from readers of this blogpost is of course welcome – please contact 

PI Dr. Paula Callus – pcallus@bournemouth.ac.uk

CoI Dr. Charles Gore – cg2@soas.ac.uk

RA Dr. Malcolm Corrigall – mcorrigall@bournemouth.ac.uk

Bibliography

Agbo, George Emeka, (2018).  “The Struggle Complex: Facebook, Visual Critique and the tussle for Political Power in Nigeria” Cariers D’étude Africaines 230, pp.469-89.

CCDP, (2018). Collecting and Curating Digital Posters Handbook, https://ccdgp.co.uk/index.html.  

Dike, Deborah N. (2018), “Countering Political Narratives through Nairaland Meme Pictures” Cahiers D’étude Africaines 230: pp.493–512

Ernst, W. (2013), Digital Memory and the Archive, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.

Gere, C. (2006), Art, Time and Technology, Oxford: Berg Publishers.

Fossati, G. (2009), From Grain to Pixel, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

Hern, A. (2019) “Myspace loses all content uploaded before 2016”, The Guardian, March 18.  https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/18/myspace-loses-all-content-uploaded-before-2016 

Haskins, E. (2007), ‘Between Archive and Participation: Public Memory in a Digital Age’, in Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Vol.37, pp. 401-422.

Huyssen A. (1994), Twilight Memories: Marking Time in a Culture of Amnesia, London p.253.

 

Call for Presenters and Registration: Third Annual FMC Postgraduate Conference – Nov. 13th, 2019

conferences, PG research

We are excited to announce that the Third Annual FMC postgraduate conference will be hosted on 13th November 2019 at the Share Lecture Theatre in the Fusion Building on Talbot Campus. This will be a fantastic opportunity for all postgraduate researchers to showcase their excellent research to the faculty, as well as providing a great experience to present in a conference setting. There will be a chance for staff and student conducting postgraduate research to receive feedback from staff and peers.

 

We are happy to receive the following submissions from all FMC PGRs:

– 15 minute presentation

– 30 minute workshop

 

Additionally, first year postgraduate researchers have the option to present a 3- minute thesis, a shorter presentation with just one slide, to introduce their research topic to the faculty. This year there is also the option for postgraduates based elsewhere to present virtually (please be aware that you will be asked to make a back up recorded presentation in case of technical difficulties). We want the conference to be inclusive of all FMC postgraduates.

 

If you would like to present, please submit your abstract of no more than 250 words, presentation title, presentation format, and no more than 75 word bio to byang@bournemouth.ac.uk by 17 October 2019. You will be notified within one week of the deadline as to whether your presentation has been accepted.

 

If you are interested in attending the conference free registration can be completed here: https://fmcpgconference.eventbrite.co.uk

 

We look forward to receiving your abstracts and registration!

Alex, Bing, Evgeniya, Jo and Mel

Conference Organisers Postgraduate Researchers

Faculty for Media and Communication

 

Submission Checklist

O Presentation Title

O c. 250 word abstract

O Presentation Format

O c. 75 word biography

British Academy Small Grants – Internal Deadlines

Funding opportunities

The call for the next round of BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants will open on 4 September and close at 5.00 pm on 6 November 2019.

We welcome Intention to Bid (ITB) forms from Early Career Researchers and/or for bids that deliver pump priming / seed corn funding purposes.

Due to the volume of bids that are received by RDS in every round, the internal deadlines will be strictly applied to ensure that the pre-award team can provide all interested academics with optimal support in a timely manner.

Where ITB forms are received after 18 September 2019, they will be moved automatically to the next round.

The British Academy will be visiting BU on 10 September from 11.00 am to 2.00 pm – this has been organised in place of a workshop; it is highly recommended that you attend this to hear them and ask any questions.

The British Academy has provided guidance and FAQs.They have stipulated that all applicants must read the documentation carefully before starting their application.

Timeline

The call closes at 5.00 pm on 6 November 2019.

Date Action
4 September Call opens – start reading guidance and FAQs.
10 September British Academy’s visit to BU.
18 September Intention to Bid forms to be submitted to your Faculty Funding Development Officer.

 

At this date, advise your referee that you will be sending them your completed application on FlexiGrant and they will need to provide their supporting statement by 22 October.

 
25 September If you are Grade 8 or below and you wish to use the support of an External Application Reviewer (EAR), you must submit a first draft of the application to RDS by this date.

 

An EAR will not be allocated to you if you send a draft to RDS after this date.

 
21 October Latest date for you to fully complete your application on FlexiGrant, so it is ready for your referee to complete the supporting statement via FlexiGrant.

 

Note that the earlier you complete you application on FlexiGrant, the more time the referee will have to review your bid and provide the supporting statement by 22 October.

 
22 October Latest date for referee to complete the supporting statement via FlexiGrant.

 
23 October Click ‘submit’ and the form will be sent to BU’s account for RDS checks.

 
23 October – 5 November Institutional checking process – RDS will work with you to ensure compliance with all funder’s requirements.

 
6 November Submission deadline – latest date to formally submit on FlexiGrant.

 

 

If you have any queries, please contact your Research Facilitator or Funding Development Officer.

Assistive Technology Symposium 2019

conferences

Dr Huseyin Dogan and Dr Paul Whittington from the BU Human Computing Interaction Research Group, hosted the second Assistive Technology Symposium at Talbot Campus in support of the BU2025 Strategic Investment Area of Assistive Technology. The Symposium was a fusion of research domains, including digital health, education technologies and user experience.

The Symposium was opened by a keynote presentation by Steve Tyler, Assistive Technology Director at Leonard Cheshire, who discussed the current developments in Assistive Technologies and the potential challenges. Steve also described the Leonard Cheshire projects, including MySense, a Predictive Health Analytics system that non-intrusively monitors to provide a holistic view of the person.

Other presentations during the day included the current BU research projects of SmartAbility and FACETS, as well as by the BU Additional Learning Support department, who discussed learning strategies through metacognition. We also welcomed speakers from the Dorset Integrated Care System, London Grid for Learning and Diversity and Ability. The Symposium was concluded by a panel discussion with the speakers, to discuss the developments and challenges of assistive technology.

The Symposium delegates have expressed positive feedback from the event, including “a number of very useful and insightful presentations”, “the Symposium was beneficial because it was an opportunity to meet like-minded people” and “good to know what is going on at BU”.

BUHCI would like to thank all of the speakers and delegates for a successful Assistive Technology Symposium and we will host the third Symposium in 2020.

The presentations from the Symposium can be downloaded here.

Call for BU Global Visiting Fellowship Scheme panel members – Profs/Assoc.Profs

BU recently launched the Global Visiting Fellowship (GVF) Scheme, which will enable academics from our international priority partner institutes to contribute to the internationalisation of BU in the SIA areas.  The scheme allows for a small research grant over a three year period to work on research related activities with BU. Applications are submitted by a member of BU academic staff who will nominate the GVF.

In line with other internal funding panels, we recently sought expressions of interest (EoIs) from staff to be members of the GVF Funding Panel.  We have successfully appointed a Chair and Deputy Chair, as well as most other roles. However, we have been unable to appoint two other Professors / Associate Professors and so are now seeking expressions of interest for these roles.

The terms of reference and criteria for selecting panel members can be found here:

Terms of Reference

Criteria for selecting panel members

In line with our organisational value of inclusivity, we particularly welcome female applicants and those from an ethnic minority, as they are often under-represented within BU management committees.

EoIs from Professors/Associate Professors should consist of a CV and short case (maximum length of half a page) outlining suitability for the role. These should be submitted to the mailbox researchfellowships@bournemouth.ac.uk  by the deadline of 5pm on 20 September 2019. EoIs will be reviewed against the selection criteria by the Panel Chair and Deputy Chair plus a member of the RPMC no later than one month from the closing date.

Open Access stories – BU theses

open access

This month we are highlighting the impact of open theses.

EThOS is the British Library’s collection of theses from UK universities, most of which are Open Access. All of BU theses are now available on EThOs. This generates additional impact for BU doctoral researchers that can see their theses being downloaded by people around the world.

Our statistics tell us that BU theses have been downloaded 1579 times from EThOS since September 2018.

However, that’s not the whole picture because many people might download a thesis directly from BURO, rather than EThOS. Data from BURO reveals that there have been a staggering 156205 downloads from the same period, with the most popular thesis being The use of social media and its impacts on consumer behaviour: the context of holiday travel with 20564 downloads!.

This just demonstrates the value of open knowledge and its impact.

For any questions about BURO or Open Access please contact BURO@bournemouth.ac.uk or your faculty library team.

José

HSS Faculty Librarian

Update to HRA’s data transparency wording for Participant Information Sheets

Guidance, NHS, Research Ethics

Following the implementation of GDPR in May of this year, the Health Research Authority released transparency wording for use in Participant Information Sheets.

The recommended wording for data transparency has been updated following consultation with various stakeholders and public involvement and feedback on the initial published wording to provide a clearer more layered approach.

The user group developed a short summary text for the Participant Information Sheet which is supplemented by a generic leaflet. The text for both is now live on the HRA website.

What information should be used in my PI Sheet?

The HRA website section is here. Click on ‘Transparency wording for all sponsors’ – this will take you to this page which contains the information to be used.

To access the text to be used in preparing the leaflet to accompany your PI Sheet, click here. If you are on the HRA website section, the text appears once you click the heading ‘Template wording for generic information document’.

What does the revision in text mean for me?

  • If you have already updated your information sheets with the previous wording, you do not need to do anything.
  • The revised wording can be uses for new studies, but the HRA will accept the previous wording if you have already submitted your application or prepared your information sheet for submission.
  • If you do wish to change your wording to the new text, please email Research Ethics so that your participating sites can be contacted.

 

If you have any queries or concerns please email Research Ethics.

Photo of the week: ‘A place of meeting and reflection’

Telling a story of research through photography

The ‘photo of the week’ is a weekly series featuring photographs taken by BU academics and students for our Research Photography Competition which took place earlier this year.

These provide a snapshot into some of the incredible research taking place across the BU community. 

This week’s photo of the week was taken by Catherine Guttman and is titled;

‘A place of meeting and reflection’

This drone image of the confluence is the meeting place of the River Teme and River Severn, an area I worked across during my PhD at BU. I tagged freshwater fish, barbel, and followed their movements up and down these two rivers using hydro acoustic transmitters and receivers. Now that I’ve graduated from my PhD I take a moment to reflect upon how the research will help to inform management and conservation. I have disseminated the findings to the environmental charity, environmental regulator and the stakeholders, the barbel fishing clubs over the last few months.

We are lucky that we have another PhD student now following up this work, looking at how movements may change once some of the river barriers are removed. The image shows the water from the two rivers mixing together as they run alongside each other, but despite their differences in temperature, turbidity and flow, the barbel were able to regularly move between these two rivers, potentially to exploit different feeding or refuge habitats.

If you have any questions about the photo of the week series or the competition please email research@bournemouth.ac.uk

BU REF 2021 Code of Practice – staff feedback exercise

REF Subjects, Research assessment

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the system for assessing research in UK higher education institutions HEIs.

Institutions making a submission to the REF 2021 are required to develop, document and apply a code of practice on identifying staff with significant responsibility for research, determining who is an independent researcher and the selection of outputs in their REF submissions.

BU held a comprehensive staff engagement exercise in April 2019 and received agreement from staff representative groups for the Code of Practice submitted in June 2019. UKRI have since asked us to revise and resubmit our REF Code of Practice. In light of these changes, staff are invited to read and comment upon the revised BU REF 2021 draft code of practice, prior to the final revised draft being submitted to UKRI for approval.

The revised draft code of practice, a briefing paper (including equality analysis) amd feedback form are available from the BU Staff Intranet:

https://staffintranet.bournemouth.ac.uk/news/news/thismonth/buref2021codeofpractice-stafffeedbackexercise.php 

The exercise is open for feedback until Tuesday 10 September 5pm.

WINNER of the 2019 CN Award for Nutrition Resource of the Year

The Ageing and Dementia Research Centre is proud to announce that we are the winner of the 2019 Complete Nutrition Award for Resource of the Year.

This is for the Nutrition and Dementia Care: A toolkit for health and care staff. This is made up of four resources:
1) Eating and Drinking Well: Supporting People Living with Dementia workbook
2) Eating and Drinking Well Training Video
3) Eating and Drinking Well Nutritional leaflet
and the
4) Eating and Drinking Well with Dementia: A Guide for Care Staff
The toolkit is available to download for free on our specific ADRC training page, please visit: https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/centres-institutes/ageing-dementia-research-centre/eating-drinking-well-dementia-toolkit
From this work we have developed an Eating and Drinking Well with Dementia: A Guide for Family Carers and Friends which will be launched this month.

 

The CN Awards* provide the chance for all readers, advertisers and contributors of CN
Magazines to come together to recognise the achievements of those whose great work
has made a significant difference within the nutrition industry – whether an individual,
group or organisation. For further information about the CN Awards, visit:
nutrition2me.com/cn-awards
*The annual CN Awards were launched in 2010 by Complete Media & Marketing Ltd. (CM2) – the publishers of Complete Nutrition (CN)
Magazines. CM2 do not endorse any particular individual’s, group’s, organisation’s or company’s products, services, resources, views or
opinions. For further details on the CN Awards, visit: nutrition2me.com/cn-awards

Last chance to book – GCRF Best Practice Workshop

Funding opportunities

The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Panel invites academics involved, or wishing to be involved, in Official Development Assistance (ODA) related research projects to a one–day workshop on Thursday 12th September 2019 from 09:30 – 16:30 on the Talbot Campus.

You must book by 16:00 on Monday, 9th September to secure your place. Please book via this link.

The workshop will review best practice, identify future synergies and will highlight common issues and challenges confronting GCRF projects at the University.

At present, BU staff are leading and/or contributing to a wide range of GCRF eligible projects at various stages of development. Since there are many notable issues and challenges associated with acquiring and delivering the distinctive nature of GCRF related projects, the proposed workshop will bring together existing GCRF participants at the University to share conceptual designs, best practice, common implementation issues and solutions as well as notable work arounds. The workshops will thus enable participants:

  • To discuss the challenges in designing effective GCRF related projects that must maintain Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and GCRF eligibility;
  • To explore possibilities for existing and future synergies between GCRF projects at the University;
  • To identify common implementation challenges presented in transforming a GCRF project into reality;
  • To share best practice in dealing with local and/or international partners and/or partnerships;
  • To discuss issues relating to maximising deliverables and impact;
  • To inform existing and future monitoring and reporting processes of the projects and the University in relation to the GCRF;
  • To provide insights into effective ways that the University can further enhance effective support for GCRF related projects;
  • To identify potential future ‘quick wins’ and ‘take away’ that can inform and improve ongoing GCRF projects;
  • To provide a foundation for future activities of the GCRF panel including a future workshop looking at future bidding for projects beyond the GCRF.

 

Book your British Academy 1-1 now!

The British Academy / Leverhulme Small Grant scheme opens on Thursday, 4th September. If you are planning on submitting an application, don’t miss this opportunity!

Senior staff members from the British Academy are visiting on 10th September, 11:00 – 14:00.

They will provide an overview of the British Academy and its remit, the type of funding offered, their grant-awarding processes, and some key considerations. Then a selection of BU award-holders will give short presentations on their experience of the application and project management processes. There will be opportunities for questions and discussion. The event will be followed by a networking lunch. See the intranet page for more information and how to book.

During the lunch period, 8 one-to-one sessions will be available to be booked with the British Academy staff. If you are interested in booking one of these slots, please contact the RKEDF team with details of the particular scheme you wish to apply for or topic you wish to discuss.

 

 

NERC standard grants (January 2020 deadline) – internal competition launched

Funding opportunities

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. Full details can be found in the BU policy document for NERC demand management measures available here.

As at January 2019, BU has been capped at one application per standard grant round. The measures only apply to NERC standard grants (including new investigators). 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

As a result, BU has introduced a process for determining which application will be submitted to each NERC Standard Grant round. This will take the form of an internal competition, which will include peer review. The next available standard grant round is 14th January 2020. The deadline for internal Expressions of Interest (EoI) which will be used to determine which application will be submitted is 27th September 2019.  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 2020.

NERC have advised that where a research organisation submits more applications to any round than allowed under the cap, NERC will office-reject any excess applications, based purely on the time of submission through the Je-S system (last submitted = first rejected). However, as RDS submit applications through Je-S on behalf of applicants, RDS will not submit any applications that do not have prior agreement from the internal competition.

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. Access to external bid writers will also be available.

Appeals process

If an EoI is not selected to be submitted as an application, the Principal Investigator can appeal to Professor Tim McIntyre-Bhatty, Deputy Vice-Chancellor. Any appeals must be submitted within ten working days of the original decision. All appeals will be considered within ten working days of receipt.

RDS Contacts

Please contact Lisa Andrews, RDS Research Facilitator – andrewsl@bournemouth.ac.uk or Jo Garrad, RDS Funding Development Manager – jgarrad@bournemouth.ac.uk if you wish to submit an expression of interest.