/ Full archive

Open Access Success Story #2

BU research, open access, Publishing

Open Access 2015 blog banner 1

The Faculty of Science and Technology Open Access Lunch and Networking event will take place today at 12noon, Shelly Lecture Theatre, at Poole House ground floor in Talbot.

In conjunction with the International Open Access week, Dr. Zulfiqar Khan shares his experience of Open Access.

Dr Zulfiqar Khan has led the University Sustainable Design Research Centre (now cluster) since 2007. The centre has grown its research and professional practice portfolio with significant international collaborations.

SDRC received its REF14 Panel Feedback as, “Sustainable Design Research Group had the highest proportion of outputs judged to be internationally excellent”. He is current lead/champion of REF 2020 UoA 12.

SDRC currently has thirteen PGRs (3 to be recruited soon), two postdoctoral research assistants (one to be recruited soon), three visiting professors, five visiting fellows and twelve academic staff. Majority of research is externally funded/match funded. Some of major funders include Ministry of Defence, Schaeffler, Future Energy Source ltd, National University of Science & Technology, SKF and WIT etc. for more information please visit SDRC.

Dr Zulfiqar Khan has established a significant research portfolio in corrosion, corrosion condition monitoring & simulation in collaboration with The Tank Museum and Ministry of Defence.

Recent publications from current research have been published in open access. Open access provides an opportunity of making research findings available to a wider audience especially those who do not necessarily subscribe to the journal itself or the database which include (the) specific journal(s).

HEFCE sets out post 2014 REF open access policy as, that in order for certain research to be eligible for submission to REF, their outputs should be made open access. There are several identified routes, e.g. gold open access or uploading to institutional repository where the material should be freely available for downloading or reading for anyone with an internet access. The output should also be easily discoverable.

The open access also works as a PR vehicle for research activity. Dr Zulfiqar Khan and his PhD student (Hammad Nazir) recently published in the Journal of Adhesion Science & Technology, Taylor & Francis, an SCI indexed journal. Taylor & Francis publish a list of twenty most read articles. Majority of top twenty most read publications are available since 2012. A recent paper which was published through the open access route entitled “Modelling of metal-coating delamination incorporating variable environmental parameters” is now the top most read paper in the list with 1620 views/downloads. This paper was available since December 2014.

Similarly “Optimisation of interface roughness and coating thickness to maximise coating–substrate adhesion – a failure prediction and reliability assessment modelling” was available since April 2015, has made it to the top most read publications with 586 views/downloads and is placed 8th (dated 18/09/2015).

While a third, recently published paper “A unified mathematical modelling and simulation for cathodic blistering mechanism incorporating diffusion and fracture mechanics concepts” which was available from Mar 2015 is now the 12th (dated 18/09/2015) most read publication with 496 views/downloads.

Dr Zulfiqar Khan said, that open access is an efficient vehicle to make our research outputs more widely available to bring significant benefits in terms academic, industrial and societal impacts.

 

Realise your European ambitions with EUADS

BU Challenges, EU, Training

The EU Academic Development Scheme (EUADS) is a unique scheme developed to kick start your career in EU research; it’s open to all BU academic staff seeking to gain EU funding.  The EUADS will help you build up to submitting a proposal to any of the H2020 schemes by providing unlimited 1-2-1 support from an expert EU bid writer, group mentoring and unlimited assistance with writing your application over a 9 month period.
 
The scheme involves four separate development workshops over nine months starting in January 2016 and ongoing assistance and support in developing EU proposals during that period.   A useful budget of £1K  per participant (with additional funds up to £2,250 in total) is provided to fund activities supporting bid development, such as:
 

• Travel with the intent of networking
• Conference attendance with the intent of networking
• Pilot research work
• Fieldwork
• Attendance at external networking events leading to collaborative research proposals
• Meetings with external organisations to establish collaborations
• Preparation of specialist material or data
• Replacement teaching

The workshops will all take place in 2016 on 13th January, 27th April, 20th July and 28th September.  Application forms are available below and must include endorsement from your Faculty Deputy Dean for Research, who should be approached before beginning a submission.  Places are limited and applications may be reviewed internally to decide on the final cohort; please complete the form with enthusiasm and care.

We are seeking individual applications but applicants may collaborate within and across Faculties and pool their individual budgets, where appropriate – please indicate in your application if you would like to be considered as a ‘team’ along with other applicants.

The deadline for applications is Monday, 30th November 2015.  Applications and any questions should be submitted to the Funding Development Co-ordinator, Dianne Goodman, dgoodman@bournemouth.ac.uk

EUADS Policy 2016

EUADS-Application-Form

 

Look our for further posts on EUADS in the coming weeks

 

Open Access Success Story #1

BU research, open access, Publishing

Open Access 2015 blog banner 1

The Faculty of Management Open Access Lunch and Networking event will take place today at 12noon, EB708, at the Executive Business Centre in Lansdowne.

Dr. Fabian Homberg will share with the audience his experience of Open Access especially in dealing with various publishers, his personal thoughts on advantages of open access and the long term sustainability of open access publishing.

 

I am back – Kaska Musial-Gabrys

BU research, Uncategorized

K Musial-GabrysOver a month has passed since I re-joined Bournemouth University. As some of you may remember, I first joined BU in 2010 but then went to King’s College London for almost four years. Now I am back in my new role of Principal Academic in Computing (what a mystery that job title is!). Living at the sea side cannot be overrated!

Main areas of my research are complex networked systems, and analysis of their dynamics and evolution, as well as predictive, adaptive modelling of networked systems. I have recently started research in a new direction – the application of machine learning approaches to networked, dynamical systems. So, if you have some data for analysis, please keep in touch.

As for my experience, I received my MSc in Computer Science from Wroclaw University of Technology (WrUT), Poland, and an MSc in Software Engineering from the Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden, both in 2006. I was awarded my PhD in November 2009 from WrUT, and in the same year I was appointed a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at Bournemouth University (BU), where from 2010 I was a Lecturer in Informatics. I joined King’s College London in November 2011 as a Lecturer in Computer Science and I worked there till the end of August 2015. At Bournemouth I work in the Faculty of Science and Technology and together with my colleagues we try to develop Data Science Institute that is a cross-disciplinary initiative at BU.

I hope that I will be able to meet you in the future, maybe over a cup of coffee? Please do let me know if you think that my research work may be relevant to what you do.

Best,
Kaska

Conference on Citizenship and Education – 3 November

BU research, international, Research communication

In association with the British Sociological Association, BU is hosting the conference “Citizenship and Education“. The event will take place in Bournemouth House on the 3rd of November, and is organized by the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences.

The program includes a Policy and Politics: Citizenship and Neo-Liberalism panel, and sessions on Comparative Contexts, “Britishness” and Faith, Faith and “Cohesion” and Policy Processes and Relations where experts from around the world will present and discuss their most recent results. Dr Bridget Byrne and Professor David James will open and conclude the event with keynote speeches.

The complete program is available here.

For more information or to book to attend the conference, please visit the British Sociological Association website.

02/11/15 Reminder for our next- European IPR Helpdesk Webinar

BU research, EU, Funding opportunities, Info Days, Research Training

European IPR webinarsThe European IPR Helpdesk is running a number of webinars over the next few months and RKEO are promoting those relevant to EU Horizon 2020 activities. Coming up we are holding the following webinar events:

02/11/15 IP Management in H2020 – with a special focus on MSCA Casterbridge – Talbot Campus

02/12/15 Impact and Innovation in H2020 – a Guide for Proposers The Octagon – Talbot Campus

16/12/15 Maximising the impact of H2020 projects B325 – Bournemouth House – Lansdowne Campus

Please arrive at 9:15am for a prompt 9:30 start with the webinar duration being one hour (45 minutes presentation with 15 minutes for questions). We have the room booked for a longer time so that we can have a post-webinar discussion afterwards, if appropriate. Please only register on the European IPR Helpdesk link if you will be joining the webinar(s) from your own desk rather than joining us. You can also check the European IPR Helpdesk Calendar for all their events.

If you would like to attend any of these, please email Dianne Goodman stating which webinars you will attend. If they prove very popular, we may need to change the room, so pre-booking is essential.

BU International Open Access Week : 19 – 25 October 2015

BU research, Info Days, open access, Publishing

Open Access 2015 blog banner 1

Open Access Week, a global event now entering its eighth year, is an opportunity for the academic and research community to continue to learn about the potential benefits of Open Access, to share what they’ve learned with colleagues, and to help inspire wider participation in helping to make Open Access a new norm in scholarship and research.

WHAT IS IT?       Open access is free, unrestricted access to peer-reviewed scholarly research literature and data.

WHY DO IT?       Publicly-funded research should be made freely available to the community who support it

BENEFITS

To the members of public

  • Allows access to journal articles without restrictions of costs and time delay
  • Reveals the latest medical discoveries and breakthroughs (which may save your life)
  • Gives crucial information  freely to medical professionals, students and nurses in developing countries so saving thousands of lives
  • Enriches the educational experience of millions of students and teachers around the world (who otherwise cannot afford subscriptions to prestigious journals)

To the academics

  • Removes  barriers  to networking and sharing research
  • Increases exposure and use of publications
  • Facilitates interdisciplinary collaboration and new discoveries
  • Increase usage, citations and impact

Please visit the links below to hear from our academics about some of the Open Access research that is available to you:

Celebrate Open Access at BU and join us at these exciting events.

oa

NB: Please email Charmain Lyons (clyons@bournemouth.ac.uk) if you wish to join the Faculty Open Access Lunch so that lunch can be ordered for you.

For more information about

  • The International Open Access Week and how you can get involved or help out;
  • Open access in general;
  • how to publish your article open access

Please get in touch with Pengpeng Hatch (pphatch@bournemouth.ac.uk, tel: 01202 963154).
All logo and colour scheme attributed to : www.openaccessweek.org

HE Policy Update

Uncategorized

Monday

Europe

Organisations representing universities and students have joined the campaign for the UK to remain in the European Union, while a group of pro-EU scientists has also set out its arguments. NUS and UUK join EU ‘in’ campaign. (THE).  

Tuesday

Oxford University

A Freedom of Information request has revealed there are just 13 women paid more than £140,000 a year, compared with 145 men at Oxford University. Oxford University criticised for gender gap among top earners (BBC News).

Wednesday

TEF

Sajid Javid, the Business Secretary has been questioned by the BIS select committee on the TEF. When questioned on the timescale of the TEF, Mr Javid said that introducing the TEF for 2017 is workable but concerns for universities around it being rushed were understandable, he went on to say that his priority is to ensure they get the TEF right.  Sajid Javid: priority for TEF is to ‘get it right’ (THE).

HEFCE

A piece in the Guardian looks at the future of HEFCE, including how likely it is to continue to exist as well as the importance of it to the higher education sector.  Has Hefce had its chips? (The Guardian HE network).

Thursday

Green Paper

The likely inclusion of widening participation metrics in the teaching excellence framework is being shaped by ministers’ drive to meet targets set by David Cameron and a fear of dropout rates rising after the scrapping of student number controls. Cameron access targets ‘a major factor’ in higher education Green Paper (THE).

General Election

According to a report by HEPI, students had less impact on the outcome of this year’s UK general election than expected. HEPI reveal that one of the reasons for this could be the lack of enthusiasm for Labour’s £6K fees policy. Student voters had ‘less impact than expected’ on general election (THE).

Friday

Student loans

GuildHE has criticised the Chancellor’s plan to freeze loan repayment thresholds for all post-2012 students and graduates in England, calling the move an ‘unfair retrospective change’ that would prompt doubts among future students about whether to go to university.

Osborne plan to force current students pay more for loans ‘unfair’ (THE).

PG Researcher Development Workshops – A new programme for 2015-16

PG research

Organised by the Graduate School, a new programme of workshops is now available to all Postgraduate Researchers.

Coming up in October:

  • SPSS Workshop 2: Managing and Manipulating data in SPSS
  • Time Management AM – Limited Places available
  • How to Manage your Research Project – PM – Limited Places available
  • How to Conduct a Literature Review
  • SPSS Workshop 3: Normality testing and t-tests in SPSS

A full programme of workshops is available – see PGR Workshops – 2015-16 Timetable for further information.  If any are of interest to you, booking is via myBU Graduate School PGR Community (don’t forget to log on with your student username and password).

Supervisors – information on how you can support your PGRs in their personal and professional development can be found on the Graduate School Intranet.

AHRC report measures value of public investment in culture

Funding opportunities

ahrcA new report, published today, addresses the challenge that cultural institutes face when trying to capture the full value of their work to individuals in society.  Commissioned by the AHRC’s Cultural Value Project and using two of the UK premier cultural institutions, the Natural History Museum (NHM) and Tate Liverpool (TL), the report explores alternative approaches and practical evaluation techniques to measuring the value of culture.

The report addresses an evidence gap as far as cultural policy is concerned and has the potential to bring quantitative economic techniques to policy debates which, say the authors of the report, have been “fragmented and curiously ungrounded in empirical evidence”.

View the AHRC press release and link to the report here and find out more.