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Open access for books tool

There has been a lot of attention given to open access for longform research outputs so far this year, following the implementation of UKRI’s open access policy for monographs, edited collections and book chapters as well as the proposal for longform outputs to be in scope for the REF2029 open access policy.

To help authors and institutions comply with open access requirements, Jisc have launched a new ‘OA for books’ tool, to give a simple overview of a number of publisher open access policies regarding longform outputs.

The tool launched initially with 20 publishers in February 2024, so whilst the list is not exhaustive, there are plans for more publishers to be added in the near future following user feedback and further refinement.

If you are interested in publishing a longform output open access, this tool could be a useful starting point when identifying and selecting a publisher.

For UKRI funded authors

UKRI has introduced a dedicated fund to support open access costs for long-form publications within scope of their open access policy.

If you are funded by UKRI or any of its councils (or have held an award in recent years), and are planning to publish an in-scope longform output, please contact openaccess@bournemouth.ac.uk as early as possible, if you wish to apply to the UKRI fund.

Student numbers in the next decade

In contrast to recent student numbers intake across the country FT has published an article stating that, undergraduate numbers will see a rise in England in the next decade. [APRIL 7 2024. Looming rise in student numbers sparks calls for skills reform in England. Peter Foster and Anna Gross. © The Financial Times Limited 2013. All Rights Reserved].

Total numbers have a direct relation to several factors including but not limited to overseas students, and both financial and planning challenges faced by international students. Various geographical regions for example South and Southeast Asia are conventionally more leaning towards traditional degrees for example engineering and medicine. Particular interest in these degrees is stemmed by primary and secondary education systems, national skill gaps and more widely societal impacts. Despite, a brief decline in the numbers of international students a pattern in terms of various disciplines varies according to available data. In order to attract and sustain international student numbers core engineering and medical/ medicine degrees will remain significant centripetal force.

FT also reported that, this year universities will make a loss on each domestic student unless there is a change in fees policy [APRIL 7 2024. Looming rise in student numbers sparks calls for skills reform in England. Peter Foster and Anna Gross. © The Financial Times Limited 2013. All Rights Reserved]. In addition, a more diverse repositioning in terms of educational provisions is needed, such as strategic priorities for engineering & technology degrees, innovation in delivery models and methods of gradually but completely decoupling from textbooks taught system to a more flexible intuitive, research informed and practice-based education in partnership with industry which is fit for solving real world impact bearing problems. In turn safeguarding graduates’ future, placing their learning experience at the heart of education-research interface to guarantee higher levels of employability and job satisfaction.

HEIs are also facing a challenge in terms of financial sustainability as reported, the sector is struggling to recruit the higher-paying foreign students it relies on to subsidise lossmaking domestic places [FT 07 April 24]. A two-pronged approach would be needed to address these challenges. Firstly, repositioning in terms of facilities and resources to introduce, apply and integrate more state-of-the-art modelling and simulation techniques for practice, practical and experimental elements of teaching in engineering and technology degrees and initiating a phased transition from dependency on conventional hardware tools e.g. expensive machines to realise releasing economies of scale. Secondly, more robust, simpler and well understood parallels and transitioning pathways between HEIs and primary to higher secondary education are needed.

FT added that, “At the same time, government spending on skills will be 23 per cent below 2009—10 levels, according to analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank.” [APRIL 7 2024. Looming rise in student numbers sparks calls for skills reform in England. Peter Foster and Anna Gross. © The Financial Times Limited 2013. All Rights Reserved]. Collaborating closely with industrial partners and stakeholders’ skills gaps can be strategically prioritised for medium to long term needs, and educational provisions would need reshaping to integrate with research portfolio, UNSDGs, socio-economic, environmental impacts and relevant REF Unit of Assessment (UoA).

FT reported that, “The apprenticeship levy introduced in 2017 has also failed to deliver the expected boost to training, according to London Economics.” [APRIL 7 2024. Looming rise in student numbers sparks calls for skills reform in England. Peter Foster and Anna Gross. © The Financial Times Limited 2013. All Rights Reserved]. This is an important pathway for filling the skill shortages and also bridging the gap between theory and practice. A steady rise in flexible learning engineering degree students’ numbers, have been observed. These students are industry professionals who join these degrees at L5/6 level for a BEng/MEng flexible learning program. In addition to academic benefits these professionals achieve academic benchmark qualifications for professional registrations with professional institutions. This is one of the best available models to address skill shortages with a flexible high-quality delivery and academic provisions underpinned by research.

A stronger and broader engineering sector in collaboration with industry partners and professional institutions to develop futuristic engineering degrees to contribute to economic growth and its sustainability with an upward trajectory to address real concerns that, “tackling (of) the UK’s entrenched skills shortages and low economic productivity.” [APRIL 7 2024. Looming rise in student numbers sparks calls for skills reform in England. Peter Foster and Anna Gross. © The Financial Times Limited 2013. All Rights Reserved] is important.

Telescopic Electrochemical Cell (TEC) for Non-Destructive Corrosion Testing of Coated Substrate. Patent number GB2018/053368

FT also mentioned in its latest article that, “Policymakers should also remove the cap on FE college places in order to “level up” education, (Lord Jo Johnson), added, providing more opportunities.” [APRIL 7 2024. Looming rise in student numbers sparks calls for skills reform in England. Peter Foster and Anna Gross. © The Financial Times Limited 2013. All Rights Reserved]. This can be looked into within the context of above-mentioned points in terms of establishing more defined parallels between HEIs and from primary to higher secondary education. A rethink to consider schools’ post code model for HEIs entry will help in levelling up.

Keywords: education, numbers, overseas students, engineering, skills, industry, professions.

 

Zulfiqar A Khan

Professor of Design, Engineering & Computing

NanoCorr, Energy & Modelling Research Group Lead

Email: zkhan@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

Paperback published!

It’s with great pleasure that I can announce the publication in paperback of my book Analysing the History of British Social Welfare. This book represents the result of many years of scholarship and learning and teaching in this area. It charts the development of welfare as an integral ingredient within the human condition as evidenced by the prehistorical record, but also as a means of coercion and control that the powerful exert over others. This power operates through the unspoken discourses underlying society, in the daily practices of individuals, organisations and State resulting in the demonisation of people reliant on benefits and the self-justification of those not reliant on welfare assistance. The book negotiates a difficult path through the central need for compassion and care for fellow human beings and the socio-political control stemming from the construction of tropes demarcating people as deserving or undeserving.

Article Processing Charges

Keywords: APC, Open access, REF, Repositories, Journals, Outputs.

APC and subscription-based models have their specific yet intersecting merits. Here in the UK, several aspects of publications have been repositioned during the last REF2021 census period. Lord Stern review led to several key changes, especially in terms of reporting research. Although the costs of APCs are high, HEIs have ringfenced QR funding to support outputs in quartile two and above through an internal review process. Similarly, publishers have institutional partnerships where partial or full waivers are offered. Several reputable publishers have introduced incentives to waive or partially waive APCs, for example, by contributing to the review process, participating as editors, and recommending high-quality manuscripts in terms of originality, significance, and academic depth.

APC route, for example, Creative Commons CC BY, offers many benefits to researchers, academics, and especially early career researchers in terms of flexibility of literature use as compared to traditional publication processes, such as the complexity and costs associated with permission to use or reuse infographics, including authors’ own results and images where copyright transfer has occurred. On the other hand, APCs provide an opportunity for wider availability of research to be read, used, and applied within research contexts where funding for subscription-based models is not generous or sometimes limited. Making preprint peer-reviewed and accepted author version manuscripts available on institutional repositories is a better alternative to APCs.

Traditional and legacy practices could benefit from dialogue and consideration; publishers’ subscription models could be diversified for greater inclusivity by offering variations in subscription fees based on certain metrics such as a country’s GDP or RPI. Revenues generated from both subscription and APCs should be more transparent, with figures available to public and open to stakeholders feedback. Profits should be reinvested in discounted subscription fees for HEIs, funding research through RC UK initiatives and similar programmes, and supporting early and mid-career researchers.

Another aspect which is not usually discussed is that traditionally, journals editorial teams, especially editors and chief editors, serve in their roles for prolonged periods. Although unintended, this inadvertently limits opportunities for diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunities for a diverse community of researchers worldwide. New thinking is needed to change the structure of publishers’ journal editorial teams to meet twenty-first-century needs. Some initial measures could include: (i) open calls for expressions of interest in editorial team roles, including editors and chief editors, (ii) transparent recruitment based on person specifications, and (iii) a maximum two-year tenure in the role. Subscription fees and APC revenue, combined with alternative grants from research councils and charities, could be used to incentivise engagement with the publishing process, from editorial board participation to contributing to the review process.

Zulfiqar A Khan
Professor of Design, Engineering & Computing
NanoCorr, Energy & Modelling (NCEM) Research Group Lead
Email: zkhan@bournemouth.ac.uk

New book: Money and Inflation: A New Approach to Monetary Analysis for the 21st Century

Dr Mehdi Chowdhury of Bournemouth University Business School has published a book titled “Money and Inflation: A New Approach to Monetary Analysis for the 21st Century”. The publisher is Palgrave Macmillan.

A short summary:

The book aimed to develop a new scholarship on money and inflation on the background of the cost of living crisis faced by many countries of the world, and the inability of nation states to address monetary matters like inflation and the debt crisis.

Accordingly, the book proposes to go beyond the usual view of money expressed by monetary units like dollars, pounds, gold coins, bitcoins, bank money etc. and demonstrates that money is better identified as the ability of a person/party to obtain goods and services from another person/party. Such ability can originate via the possession of the money in usual sense, but also due to force, coercion, altruism, trust and human biological characteristics.

Money therefore encompasses all human activities and always in existence irrespective of forms or representation. Money, i.e., the ability to obtain originates due individual and social idiosyncrasies; and appears or disappear when those change. Inflation, instead of the usual measures expressed via the price indices, is identified as the increased need to utilise human body and mind to obtain goods and services from others. Hence inflation is connected with the availability of money, i.e. the ability to obtain of different segments of an economy. The causes of inflation are identified in the balance of triangle comprising non-market factors, the stored ability and the borrowed ability.

The current inflation can be explained by the increased desire to consume observed in modern societies, as well as the distortionary policies of governments favouring one section of the economy over another; both inducing individuals and sections to employ more body and mind to create money, i.e., the ability to obtain goods and services.

The book did not aim to provide a comprehensive analysis of economic policies, but the UK housing market has been studied to demonstrate how the policies taken during Covid-19 may have caused the inflation in the UK housing market through distortion.

The book suggests that the policies of the apex institutions like governments or central banks should on principle aim not to disrupt the balance of this triangle and to avoid distortion. This recommendation is equally applicable for the Third World countries; however, those countries should also aim to design economic policies to shield themselves from distortions caused by actions of international economic actors.

Individuals can also shield themselves from inflation i.e., the need to utilise more body and mind, by containing the desire to consume more that characterises modern societies.

Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) 2024


Have your say

PRES will launch on Monday 15 April 2024 for postgraduate research (PGR) students to complete.

Look out for an email from the University containing your unique link to the survey.


We are keen to make sure our PGRs have the best possible experience while studying with us. To do this, we need to know what you think works well and what as a University we could do better. This is your chance to tell us about your experience as a PGR at Bournemouth University. We also kindly ask that all supervisors encourage their PGRs to participate in the survey.

Thank you to all PGRs who completed the 2023 PRES survey – we listened to you and your feedback has helped us to enhance your PGR experience in a range of areas.

This year the survey will open on Monday 15 April 2024 and close on Thursday 16 May 2024. Upon completing the survey, PGRs will automatically entered into a free prize draw. Four winners will be able to claim a £50 shopping voucher. Terms and conditions apply.

In addition, we will be making a £1 donation for every survey completed to the student mental health wellbeing charity, Student Minds.

Once you have completed the survey, you are entitled to claim a coffee voucher worth £3.20, from the Doctoral College to use at any BU Chartwells outlet. Please come to the Doctoral College (DLG08, Talbot Campus) to collect your voucher. You will need to show a screen shot of the final page of the survey in order to claim your voucher.

How do I take part?

PGRs will receive an email from the University on Monday 15 April 2024 containing a unique link which will allow you to access and complete the survey. If you can’t find this email, contact PRES@bournemouth.ac.uk and we’ll help you to get access.

What will I be asked?

The survey will take around 15 minutes to complete. Your response is confidential, and any reporting will be entirely anonymous. The survey is your chance to tell us about your experience as a PGR at BU. It will ask you to share your views on supervision, resources, research community, progress and assessment, skills and professional development and wellbeing.

Why should I take part?

Your feedback is important. The Postgraduate Research Experience Survey is the only national survey of PGRs and so is the only way for us to compare how we are doing with other institutions and to make changes that will improve your experience in the future.

More information

If you would like to know more about the survey, please visit: PRES 2024.

We hope you take the opportunity to get involved this year and help us make improvements to your experience.

Best wishes,

The Doctoral College

For any PRES related queries, please email: PRES@bournemouth.ac.uk

The Month in Research: March 2024

A cartoon image of black and white hands clapping on a yellow background

The Month in Research

The Month in Research is our monthly round-up sharing research and knowledge exchange successes from across the previous month, showcasing the amazing work taking place across BU.

Your achievements

Thank you to everyone who has put forward their achievements, or those of colleagues, this month.

Funding

 Congratulations to all those who have had funding for research and knowledge exchange projects and activities awarded in January. Highlights include:

  • Dr Catherine Talbot (Faculty of Science and Technology) has been awarded c.£25,000 from the ESRC for their project EquaDem Network Plus: A national network on addressing inequalities in dementia diagnosis and care and building capacity, in partnership with Liverpool University (lead institution).
  • Dr Suelen Carls (Faculty of Media and Communication) has been awarded c.£25,000 by the Leverhulme Trust for their project International Business and Intellectual Property Rights in the Latin American Institutional Perspective
  • Professor Carol Clark (Faculty of Health and Social Sciences) has been awarded c.£2.6 million by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) for their project INSIGHT-BU, in partnership with University of the West of England (lead institution).
  • Several BU researchers have received c.£10,000 from the BA/Leverhulme Trust Small Grants scheme:

Dr Anna Metzger (Faculty of Science and Technology) for their project Haptic Virtual Materials

–  Dr Hyun-Joo Lim (Faculty of Health and Social Sciences) for their project How effective are menopause policies at universities in England

–  Dr Andrew M’Manga (Faculty of Science and Technology) for their project Investigating Security and Privacy Awareness Requirements for UK International Students New to Contactless Payments

–  Dr Matteo Toscani (Faculty of Science and Technology) for their project Modelling peripheral vision in natural scenes

–  Dr Alejandro Estudillo for their project Maximising the impact of “Achieving Best Evidence” interviews on face composite construction.

Publications

Congratulations to all those who have had work published across the last month. Below is a selection of publications from throughout March:

Content for The Month in Research has been collected using the research and knowledge exchange database (RED), the Bournemouth University Research Online (BURO) repository and submissions via The Month in Research online form. It is by no means intended to be an exhaustive list. All information is correct as of 28.3.24.

Please use The Month in Research online form to share your highlights and achievements, or those of colleagues, for the next monthly round-up.

RKEDF April digest – training opportunities for YOU!

We’re excited to share some great RKEDF training opportunities coming up in April 2024.  

Click on the titles to find further details and book your place. Details of an ECRN Funding call can also be found at the end…… 

 Online RSA Drop-In meeting 

Wednesday 3rd April, 10:30-11:00, Online 

Meet your RSA reps, hear updates on how BU is implementing the Research Concordat and give feedback or raise concerns that will help to develop and support the research community at BU. 

 Principal Investigation                                                                    

Wednesday 10th April, 14:00-15:00 at Talbot Campus 

This session is aimed at any researcher who is, who plans to be, a Principal Investigator for an externally funded research or knowledge exchange project. 

Introduction to RED – The Research & Enterprise Database 

Thursday 11th April, 10:00-10:30 Online 

An overview of the Research & Enterprise Database and how to use RED to identify your supporting pre and post award officers. 

Engaging with Schools & young people 

Tuesday 16th April, 10:00-11:00, online 

Engaging young people with the world of research can be a worthwhile and enjoyable experience for everyone involved. You can benefit from the opportunity to develop and put into practice your skills, build confidence and widen your research horizons. 

 RDS Academic & Researcher Induction 

Wednesday 24th April, 09:30-11:00 Online 

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. 

 Impress the Press: How to talk to Journalists 

Wednesday 24th April, 14:00 – 16:00 at Talbot Campus 

A practical session covering tips and techniques for speaking with broadcast media (TV and radio) followed by the chance to put it into practice through mock interviews.  No previous experience is necessary. 

 Introduction to BRIAN 

Monday 29th April, 10.00-11.00 at Talbot Campus 

This interactive workshop is an introductory session to BRIAN (Bournemouth Research Information And Networking), BU’s publication management system.  It is aimed at those who are new to BU or have not updated their staff profile for a while.  Attendees will need to bring their laptop. 

 Research Council Development Scheme (RCDS) 

RDS is continuing with the RCDS through April 2024 

The RCDS is a coordinated, targeted set of activities designed to inspire and equip BU researchers to achieve greater success with Research Council funding. Attendees have been nominated by their Head of Department 

 ECRN Funding Call NOW OPEN 

The RKEDF and BU ECRN are delighted to offer funding (up to £500) to organise an event, roundtable, meeting, training, or workshop in support of research at BU. 

This funding supports BU Early Career Researcher Network members to organise and facilitate an event that can be thematic, subject/discipline based, foster community engagement, knowledge exchange or networking and does the following; 

–             Brings ECRs and others together to share ideas, knowledge and learning. 

–             Provides a space for intellectual discussion. 

–             Helps to facilitate collaboration and future opportunities. 

–             Enables an opportunity for networking. 

For all the details, click on the title above – deadline for submission is Friday 26th April 2024 

 For any further information, please contact RKEDF@bournemouth.ac.uk 

Please, help us to avoid any waste of resources; make sure you can attend or cancel your booking ahead of the session. 

RKEDF Workshop: Impress the Press: How to talk to Journalists – Wednesday 24 April 2-4pm

A practical session covering tips and techniques for speaking with broadcast media (TV and radio) followed by the chance to put it into practice through mock interviews.

This session is open to all academic staff with an interest in engaging with the media. No previous experience is necessary.

By the end of the session, attendees will:

  • Have a better understanding of communicating their work with the media
  • Understand the difference between TV and radio interviews and what is required
  • Feel confident in undertaking media interviews and dealing with difficult questions

Facilitated by: Emma Matthews – Research Communications Adviser & Stephen Bates – Senior Press Officer

Wednesday 24 April, 2-4pm

Talbot Campus

Book your place here under ‘Impress the Press: How to talk to Journalists – 16/04/2024’ in the drop-down menu

RKEDF Workshop: Engaging with Schools & young people – Tuesday 16 April 10-11am

Book your place here – under “Impact Essentials: Engaging with Schools and young people – 16/04/2024” in the drop-down menu