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UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO) – Free Webinar

Publishing, Research Integritiy

UKRIO LogoJoin UKRIO for their latest free webinar “Correcting the scholarly record, and dispelling myths around corrections” on Wednesday 20th September from 10:00 – 11:00 BST. 

A core part of publication ethics is the correction of published research affected by errors or misconduct.

This webinar aims to explain both the process of fixing errors and misconceptions about corrections, focusing on journal articles, and to answer the questions:

  • Who decides what needs to be corrected?
  • What are the responsibilities of editors, journals, research institutions, and authors?
  • How are corrections done and what form do they take?
  • How do readers know when work has been corrected?
  • What are the barriers to correcting the scholarly literature – and, hopefully, the solutions to these problems?

Lead by expert speakers, this session will draw on their experience in handling corrections and developing editorial policies.

SPEAKERS

  • Lauren Flintoft, Research Integrity Officer, IOP Publishing
  • Gráinne McNamara, Research Integrity/Publication Ethics Manager, Karger Publishers

As BU subscribes to UKRIO services, UKRIO webinars are free and open to anyone who may be interested in research integrity and ethics, good research practice and improving research culture and misconduct.

To register – please click here (takes you to external website).

Updated documentation for the BU Bridging Fund Scheme

In summer 2015, BU launched the BU Bridging Fund Scheme to HR excellence in research logoprovide ‘bridging funding’ for the continuation of employment of research staff for a short-term (usually up to three months, but up to six months can be considered in exceptional situations) between research grants. BU’s Bridging Fund Scheme is intended to permit the temporary employment, in certain circumstances, of researchers between fixed-term contracts at BU, for whom no other source of funding is available, in order to:

(a) encourage the retention of experienced and skilled staff, and sustain research teams and expertise;

(b) avoid the break in employment and career which might otherwise be faced by such staff;

(c) maximise the opportunity for such staff to produce high-quality outputs and/or research impact at the end of funded contracts/grants.

 

The scheme guidelines have been updated to include a figure demonstrating the application workflow (in Appendix 2 of the scheme guidelines).

 

The Bridging Fund Scheme is an action from our Athena Swan action plan (which aims to create a more gender inclusive culture at BU) and our HR Excellence in Research Award (which aims to increase BU’s alignment with the national Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers).

BU PhD candidate is the Winner of the British Computer Society (BCS) GreenIT 2023 Competition

Awarded & submitted bids, international, Women's Academic Network

BU Ph.D. candidate Assemgul Kozhabek from the SciTech Computing and Informatics department has won the HE Class  GreenIT 2023 competition run by the British Computer Society (BCS) – the chartered institute for IT.

The competition, open to students across the world, asked for suggestions for ‘How Computing can address the Energy Crisis.’ Assemgul’s winning entry was a poster that featured comics and anecdotes on urban traffic congestion as one of the main contributors to the energy crisis. It should be highlighted that she also focuses on congestion mitigation in her Ph.D. thesis.

Assemgul expressed her gratitude to Dr. Martyn Polkinghorne and Ph.D. supervisor Dr. Wei Koong Chai for their guidance and support.

Sociology journal seeks second book review editor

open access, Publishing, writing

The British Sociological Society’s (BSA) journal Sociological Research Online is seeking a new second book review editor.  All Editors, including the book review editor, have to be BSA members throughout their term of office and previous engagement with the BSA is desirable.  The term of office is three years with the possibility of an extension, starting mid-November 2023.  The deadline for applications is 11th October 2013.

Sociological Research Online is published by the international social science publishing house SAGE.  The editorial team has just been informed this week that the Impact Factor of the journal has increased to 1.6.

Interested candidates should submit a pro forma application of no more than 2 pages and a short CV. To receive a pro forma application, please contact Selina Hisir, BSA
Publications Coordinator, at email:  sro.journal@britsoc.org.uk

As current book review editor I am very happy to talk to interested sociologists informally.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

Email:   evteijlingen@bournemouth.ac.uk

BU Professor’s research contributes to House of Commons report

NHS

Written evidence provided to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee by Prof. Ann Luce, FMC, has been cited in the “Progress in improving NHS mental health services” report released today. Luce’s research around suicide risk to NHS mental health staff and the impact that has on care, served as the underpinning evidence for one of six recommendations the committee has made.

The Public Accounts Committee heard concerning evidence of increasing pressures on NHS mental health staff at a time of spiking demand. In the report published today, it warns that increased workload is leading to burnout for remaining staff, which contributes to a higher rate of staff turnover and a resulting vicious cycle of more staff shortages.

17,000 staff (12%) left the NHS mental health workforce in 2021-22, up from pre-pandemic levels of around 14,000 a year. Those citing work-life balance reasons for leaving increased from 4% in 2012-13 to 14% in 2021-22, and the percentage of days lost from the workforce due to psychiatric reasons doubled in a decade. NHS England told the PAC that, in common with all NHS staff, mental health problems are one of the biggest drivers of sickness among staff.

Staff shortages are holding back NHS mental health services as a whole from improving and expanding. The PAC calls on the NHS to address the fact that staff increases are being outpaced by the rise in demand for services. The NHS mental health workforce increased by 22% overall between 2016-17 and 2021-22, while referrals to these services increased by 44% over the same period. The PAC’s inquiry found that staff vacancy rates in acute inpatient mental health services are at approximately 20% or more.

Good data and information is necessary to manage and improve NHS services, as well as to deliver them impactfully and cost-effectively. The Government and NHS England (NHSE) acknowledged to the PAC that mental health services are lagging behind physical services in this area to a particularly concerning degree. Of 29 integrated care boards surveyed by the National Audit Office, only four said they had all or most of the data they needed to assess patient and user experiences, and none of them felt this in relation to patient outcomes.

Another area of particular concern for the PAC is a continuing lack of progress in the area of treating mental health services with equal priority as physical services – or ‘parity of esteem’. Despite the Government setting this ambition in 2011, and the PAC itself calling four years ago for a clear definition of how to measure progress to get there – a recommendation accepted at the time by the Government – there is still no such clear definition.

Dame Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Committee, said: “The findings of our inquiry must serve as a warning to the Government that mental health is still in danger of not being treated with the same urgent priority as physical health. NHS mental health staff deal with some of the most challenging care needs there are. Staff in this space deserve not just our heartfelt gratitude for the job they do, but concrete support and training to work as part of well-staffed workplaces. Our report warns of a vicious cycle, in which staff shortages and morale both worsen in self-reinforcing parallel.

“The short-term actions being taken by the Government and NHS England to tackle ongoing pressure are welcome. But these numbers are still going in the wrong direction, as demand for care well outpaces the supply of staff to provide it. The Government must act to pull services out of this doom loop. Invaluable care for some of our most vulnerable cannot and must not be provided at the expense of the welfare of the workforce carrying it out.”

NHS England and the Government now have six months to respond.

________________________________________

If you are interested in submitting written evidence based on your research to a Parliamentary Inquiry, please reach out to impact@bournemouth.ac.uk who can help you with putting together your submission. Contributions to inquires are a good pathway to impact for impact case studies for the REF, and can lead to policy change and influence.

BU case study included in knowledge exchange repository shared by Knowledge Exchange Concordat

Knowledge Exchange

The Knowledge Exchange Concordat (KEC) Advisory and Operational group has produced a repository of resources to support higher education providers improve their knowledge exchange (KE) practices.

The repository has been created in partnership with the National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB) and features good and innovative practice in knowledge exchange across eight different KE principles, including a set of toolkits and guides available for use by HE institutions.

BU’s IP Policy, Research Intellectual Property Strategy and Evaluation Committee (RIPSEC), and the IP commercialisation management framework are among the case studies being shared. Our approach was chosen specifically as an example of good practice and innovation in the sector.

The repository, which includes a set of knowledge exchange toolkits and guides available for use by higher education institutions, will be launched at the KEC Repository of Good Practice Launch event tomorrow (20th July 2023).

The event will be hosted on Zoom between 10am-11:15am. Lesley Hutchins, Research Commercialisation Manager at BU, will be a guest speaker at the event. You can register for the event on the Knowledge Exchange Concordat website.

Read the BU case study – Research and Intellectual Property (IP) Policy

Broadening horizons: Network Science at Utrecht Summer School

Women's Academic Network

We are thrilled to announce that Assemgul Kozhabek, one of our  PhD candidates, recently had the opportunity to participate in the Utrecht Summer School on “Data Science: Network Science” from July 10-14, 2023. Assemgul’s research, under the guidance of Dr. Wei Koong Chai, is centered around understanding and optimizing urban road networks. By attending this course, she was able to gain a deeper understanding of network science and its relevance to her research goals. The course covered various topics, including network modeling, analysis techniques, and practical application of network science in real-world scenarios.
The Utrecht Summer School provided Assemgul with a unique learning experience. Through interactive lectures, hands-on workshops, and networking opportunities with experts in the field, she was able to broaden her knowledge and enhance her skills in analyzing urban road networks. She expresses her gratitude to Dr. Wei Koong Chai for his support and guidance throughout this journey. Assemgul also immensely grateful for the OpenBright Award that made this opportunity possible.
Assemgul’s participation in the Utrecht Summer School on “Data Science: Network Science” has undoubtedly equipped her with valuable insights and tools that will contribute to her ongoing research. Stay tuned for exciting updates on her research journey!

Grant of international patent for invention at BU

Industry collaboration, innovation, international

It comes as a great news for both BU and academic staff that a major international patent has been granted by China National Intellectual Property Administration who have confirmed that it will record the grant of the patent right in the Patent Register, issue the patent certificate for invention, and announce the grant. The patent right shall take effect from the date of announcement, July 4, 2023.

This is a predictive and prognostic invention as a remote probing system to monitor corrosion of conductive or nonconductive coatings and subsurface degradation.

The EIS measurement is resistant to interference and has a high corrosion resolution which produces stable and reliable results. Protective properties of a coating can be learned from an impedance spectroscopy obtained via the measurement that reflects changes in the coating and at the interface of coating-substrate system.

Project lead Professor Zulfiqar Khan has congratulated their co-inventors Dr Mian Hammad Nazir and Dr Adil Saeed for their hard work, dedication and passion over the years. This is the result of years of collective work spanning over several research programmes, Professor Khan added.

This invention will enable, a diverse portfolio of industry sectors and applications in aerospace, automotive industry, shipyards, petrochemical, process, infrastructures, high value assets including Reinforced Concrete (RC) elements of marine structures such as piled jetties, marine installation, gas pipelines, motorways structures and mobile assets such as large vehicles, to monitor, predict and prognose a complex failure initiation and propagation mechanism in real time. This will result in significant cost savings, reducing downtime, enhancing reliability and service life.

Further details and media coverage with a short video about the background of work is available here.

Keywords: Condition monitoring, corrosion, coating, sensor, impedance, electrochemical, spectroscopy, materials, composites.

Deadline for submissions: Science, Technology & Health Research Ethics Panel

Research Ethics

Please note that the deadline for submission (ethics checklist and supporting documents) for consideration at the next Science, Technology & Health July Panel is end of Tuesday 11th July, not the 19th July as originally posted.

Please ensure your paperwork is submitted on time as submissions are sent to Panel members 5 working days ahead of each Panel meeting for review.  Late submissions will be deferred to the next panel.  PGRs – please note that submissions are sent to your Supervisor in the first instance, so please allow sufficient time before the Panel’s closing date for applications.

REMEMBER: Panel meetings are not held in August.