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It is always disappointing for an academic author to receive a rejection letter. Today I received yet another one from Midwifery (published by Elsevier). Sometimes I think academic publishing in good journal is not getting any easier over time. Neither does the experience of having over two hundred peer-reviewed academic papers make a rejection easier to deal with. This was my third paper in a row that got rejected by Midwifery. All three papers were rejected on resubmission, so a lot of extra work had gone into these papers after the initial peer review and the editor’s feedback. These three papers where led by three different postgraduate students (Sharma, Baral & Burton) as first authors, and in each case co-authored by myself and different BU academics and/or from other universities.
Midwifery is the journal in which I have published more papers than any other journal (see top blue piece of pie in ‘Documents by source’) as reported on SCOPUS today (26 April 2015). Moreover, I am co-author of one of the top five most downloaded papers in Midwifery for 2014 (see recent BU Research Blog), and this paper is also the most cited Midwifery paper since 2010! Still I manage to have three papers rejected in a row.
What is does show to me is that the journal’s peer review system is robust (i.e. blind and impartial) because I am also a member of Midwifery’s editorial committee. I think it is back to the drawing board and discuss with each set of authors what the next step should be for our papers. To be fair we had a paper published already this year in Midwifery, namely: Grylka-Baeschlin, S., van Teijlingen, E.R., Stoll, K., Gross, M.M. (2015) Translation and validation of the German version of the Mother-Generated Index and its application during the postnatal period. Midwifery 31(1): 47–53.
As an editorial board we try continuously to maintain a high quality of papers to be published in our journal, and we would like to encourage potential authors to keep submitting their papers to Midwifery.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Yesterday’s earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.9 on the Richter Scale, killed thousands of people. It is now 9 AM on Sunday morning and just had a report from friends in Nepal about a major after shock whilst the number of reported deaths is increasing by the hour. The number of causalities in rural areas will only become known over the next few weeks, because of the remoteness of some of the affected areas and the damage to infrastructure (roads, power cables, telephone, and internet links). We know from previous disasters in low-income countries like Nepal that help will be slower to reach rural areas.
The Government of Nepal has asked for international aid and the first aid arrived yesterday from neighbouring India. Yesterday the United States has made one million US$ available for the most immediate aid according to USAID, whilst the Belgian government activated its so-called B-Fast team (Belgian First Aid & Support Team). Like many countries, the UK has offered support. These big relief efforts are vital, especially for the immediate support in finding people under the rubble, and bringing in clean water, blankets, food, medicine and other supplies.
Only last month we published an editorial arguing that Nepal needs a greater focus on health protection to tackle emerging public health ha
zards.1 In this editorial we observed that “whilst Nepal has made some head way in disaster planning, much of this seems to be focused mainly around earthquake disaster planning only.” The coming weeks and months we teach us to what extent this earthquake disaster management has been effective.
Researchers at BU have been working in Nepal for over ten years and in that period, have come to know many people and made lots of friends. We are worried about those we know personally, friends across Nepal, especially in our field sites, former and current Green Tara Nepal staff, the shop keepers next door to the Green Tara office, former and current students, and so on. Like so many people our first reaction was that we need to do something, starting with collecting money for the people of Nepal. We have decided that unlike a general appeal for help, like many friends of Nepal will set up over the next few days across the globe, we would stick to what we are good at: (a) improving maternity care in rural Nepal; and (b) stimulating health promotion. The former because women will continue to become pregnant and babies will continue to be born, the latter because the risk is that any disaster relief will focus on the here and now. Moreover, we want our disaster relief to be based on the same principles as outlined in Table 1 as the rest of our work.2
Table 1: Underlying philosophy of the Green Tara programme
The desired intervention or programme needs to be:
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Donations can be made to Green Tara Trust (London) through the official donation web page:
This money will be used to implement sustainable low-cost, health intervention projects, working in close collaboration with local communities. There need to be projects on the ground now which are focusing immediately on the long-term preventative approach.
Please give generously!
Karunamati (Green Tara Trust, UK)
Padma Dharini (Green Tara Trust, UK)
Padam Simkhada (Liverpool John Moores University & Green Tara Nepal)
Edwin van Teijlingen (Bournemouth University, UK)
References:
Last week FHSS PhD student Ms. Preeti Mahato and I attended the 13th Annual Conference of BNAC (Britian-Nepal Academic Council) in London. The conference venue was held at SOAS in central London. In total 28 papers on nine wid
e-ranging themes concerning Nepal and its global connections were presented and debated by a large number of participants ranging from post-graduate students to established professors and researchers from the UK, Nepal and some other EU countries. The conference was reported upon in Nepal on an online news website called eKantipur.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
BU Visiting Fellow Prof. Padam Simkhada (based at Liverpool John Moores University) and BU Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen will be presenting the paper ‘Health and Welfare of Nepali Female Returnees from Gulf Countries: A Mixed-Methods Study’ in collaboration with two Nepal-based co-authors at the latest BNAC conference. The paper is based on over 0ne thousand record
s of Nepali women who have returned from work in countries on the Arabian sub-continent. The records have been collected by a charity based in Kathmandu called Pourakhi that supports female migrant workers. The 13th Annual Nepal Study Days will be held at SOAS (University of London) on Thursday 16th April and Friday 17th April, and the programme can be found here.
Whilst new BU PhD student Ms. Preeti Mahato has been assigned Dr. Ben Campbell as ‘Study day tutor’ at this BNAC conference to help her focus her thesis research question and methods and any issues and queries she may have. We think this opportunity will be very helpful to her.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Faculty of Health & Social Sciences
Lunchtime Seminar with Peter Thomas, Wednesday 15th April 1-1.50pm, R303
Please come to listen to Professor Peter Thomas present on the impact that his research into fatigue in Multiple Sclerosis is having, noting the importance of research with strong potential for patient benefit, and the importance of the research funder.
Further information on this Seminar series can be found by clicking on the link below.
There is no need to book – just turn up. Contact Zoe on zsheppard@bournemouth.ac.uk for more information.
We look forward to seeing you there.
On Thursday I took the opportunity to attend a seminar at the Wilson Centre run by the Maternal Health initiative (MHI). The MHI seminar series promotes dialogue and understanding among practitioners, scholars, community leaders, and policymakers with the aim of facilitating creative interventions that can be integrated into policies and programs worldwide. This month’s topic focused on the neglected issue of Perinatal Common Mental Health Disorders (PCMDs) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). 
Mental health concerns have remained largely absent in large-scale global maternal health programs, and the first speaker Prof Jane Fisher (Jean Hailes Professor of Women’s Health and Director Jean Hailes Research Unit School of Public Health & Preventive Medicine, Monash University) provided the background to the problem. Jane highlighted the damage done by work in the 1980s that suggested that women in LMICs were protected from perinatal mental disorders because of the traditional care practices after birth. The result of this misinformation has been a dearth of research in LMICs and a failure to recognise the impact that PCMDs may have on both maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. Jane presented data on the prevalence and determinants of mental health disorders in LMICs that indicated that they are a very real issue for women in LMICs. She called for universal programmes for all pregnant women and for maternal mental health to be included as an indicator within the proposed Sustainable Development Goals.
Prof Ricardo Araya (Professor Global Mental Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) presented data to support the global burden posed by mental health disorders. He highlighted that a lack of specialist human resources and a lack of funding were the biggest barriers to addressing the issue. Presenting his extensive work in this area, he highlighted how task shifting has been shown to be an effective mechanism of providing support for women. However, he warned of the burden that this was placing on already over-worked frontline health workers and called for the maternal health community to provide greater attention and resources to address this neglected area of maternal health.
The discussion focused on the importance of raising the profile of mental health within the global maternal health community and on how health care providers can be supported to deliver interventions in LMICs. In the Centre for Midwifery Maternal & Perinatal Health we recognise the need for work in both these areas – researchers at CMMPH are currently working on mental health training for maternal care providers in Nepal. For further information contact Edwin van Teijlingen.
You can download the MHI presentations and watch the video here: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/integrating-mental-health-maternal-health-programs
Earlier this week Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen presented at Social Science Baha on the topic of research capacity building in Nepal. Together with many colleagues in Nepal and the UK Edwin has been working on a DFID and British Council funded project under the title PARI (which stands for ‘Partnership on improving Access to Research Literature for Higher Education Institutions in Nepal’). The invited presentation has been recorded by Social Science Baha and is now available online here.
The slides used on Monday are available too.
Presentation April 2015 Soc Sci Baha
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Lunchtime Seminar with Peter Thomas, Wednesday 15th April 1-1.50pm, R303
Please come to listen to Professor Peter Thomas present on the impact that his research into fatigue in Multiple Sclerosis is having, noting the importance of research with strong potential for patient benefit, and the importance of the research funder.
Further information on this Seminar series can be found by clicking on the link below.
There is no need to book – just turn up. Contact Zoe on zsheppard@bournemouth.ac.uk for more information.
We look forward to seeing you there.
We regularly conduct workshops and training sessions on academic writing at home and abroad. Yesterday afternoon I did one in Kathmandu for staff at Social Science Baha and Green Tara Nepal. There were the usual comments and queries about authorship, references, length of papers or sections of 
papers, how to target the ‘best’ journalfor my article, etc. One interesting question I had not been asked before was: “How did you feel when you had your first paper published?”, followed by the question: “Who did you tell about it?” I thought that was a very nice question, and also reminded me why we do these kind of workshops for those who haven’t had the pleasure yet of getting a paper in print.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
On 6th April, Easter Monday, professor Edwin van Teijlingen will present the process and selected findings of research capacity building work conducted in Nepal. The invited lecture at Social Science Baha in Kathmandu was originally planned for early January, but unfortunately had to be cancelled at the last moment due to a national strike in Nepal.
PARI (Partnership on improving Access to Research Literature for Higher Education Institutions in Nepal) refers to a project to support and enhance health research in Nepal; a partnership between Tribhuvan University, three UK universities (including Bournemouth University), and the Development Resource Centre (Nepal). The British Council and DFID (UK) funded PARI to help build research capacity over a three-year period.
Nepal has limited capacity in health research, which restricts ability to implement evidence-based health care. PARI aimed to move university lecturers away from textbook teaching and make them more critical of the academic literature available on the Internet.
PARI workshops delivered to Nepal universities introduce the foundations of evidence-based practice and outline key electronic databases of health care and health service literature available to Nepalese academics. These workshops were informed by: (1) a curriculum review of all health-related courses at the major universities in Nepal; and (2) a needs assessment with lecturers, librarians and students of the major universities.
Key message included that We need to move away from textbook teaching in health care and teach health-care discipline students how to find the most appropriate evidence-based treatment for each patient.
The PARI team:
Ram Sharan Pathak,Tribhuvan University,Nepal
Padam Simkhada, Liverpool John Moores University, UK.
Bhimsen Devkota, Development ResourceCentre,Nepal
Edwin van Teijlingen,Bournemouth University,UK
Julie Bruce,University of Warwick, UK
Pramod Regmi, Development Resource Centre, Nepal
Amudha Poobalan, University of Aberdeen, UK
Trilochan Pokharel, Nepal Administrative Staff College, Kathmandu Nepal
The work has resulted in two academic publications:
Earlier this year our book ‘The Dynamics of Health in Nepal’ was published by Himal Books for Social Science Baha in Kathmandu.1It is an edited collection covering a range of current health topics in Nepal, including issues such as maternal health, HIV/AIDS, sexual health, road traffic accidents, non-communicable diseases and the role of the media and migration.
One of us had published several books, with for example international publishers such as Elsevier, Routledge (part of Taylor Francis) and Oxford University Press.2-4 All editors authors are UK PhD graduates from the universities of Aberdeen (van Teijlingen), Southampton (Simkhada) and Sheffield (Wasti) respectively. All three of us were based in the UK at the time of conception of the book. Padam Simkhada was Senior Lecturer in International Health at the University of Sheffield, Edwin van Teijlingen still is professor at Bournemouth University and Sharada Prasad Wasti was a PhD student at ScHARR (University of Sheffield). So it made sense to talk to publishers in the UK, which is what we did. However, it rapidly became clear that we could get a deal for an expensive hardback book, a book which would sell way above what the average academic in Nepal could afford. After some soul searching we decided to look into getting the book published in Nepal.
One of the advantages of publishing Nepal is the same most outsourcing to low income-countries, namely it keeps the production costs down. Rather than increasing our profit margins by keeping the low production costs, as it the typical case in the global market, we used this to keep the retail price low. The book retails for 800NR (about £5.50) in Nepal which means it is affordable to academics and postgraduate students in Nepal. Similar books from international publishers sell for at least £20!
We had some trepidation about the potentially quality of the book before we signed the contract with Social Science Baha. These low expectations were based on the quality of printed text books we had seen for sale on small stalls outside the Kittipur Campus of Tribhuvan University. One of these shoddy looking books was based on lecturers given by our Nepalese colleague Prof. Dr. Bhimsen Devkota. When we passed one of these stalls many years ago he pointed at a particular book and said: “See that book, a student who had attended my lectures two years in a row, copied all I said, and the materials I handed out, all of it word for word. That student then got it published as a book.”
However, our expectations were wrong. From the outset the publishing process was impressive. Social Science Baha employed a very professional proof-reader/copy-editor who picked up a lot of minor style and language issues even after we had most of the chapters professionally proof-read in the UK. The classic example of the thoroughness of his checking was the name of one for the chapter contributors ‘Sally Woodes Rogers’, he came back to us and said, “But her name on the web pages of the University of Aberdeen is ‘Sarah’ not ‘Sally’, are you sure?” At which point we had to assure him that ‘Sarah’ was her correct birth name but that she wanted herself to be known as ‘Sally’.
The final version of our book looks very good. The cover is beautifully printed; the font, chapter lay-out and overall style are of a very high quality. Our book has the feel of a typical academic book published in Europe or North America. There is really nothing about it that says this book is published in a low-income country.
The book has been well received at its launch in Kathmandu in January 2015. The first published book review was also very complementary.5 Last but not least, having produced a great looking book, for us the final feel-good factor is that we agreed to donate all profits from the sale of the book to the charity Green Tara Nepal.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Prof. Padam Simkhada
Dr. Sharada P. Wasti
References:
Today my colleagues at the University of Aberdeen’s Health Economics Research Unit (HERU) published their latest HERU Policy Brief on ‘Gaining pounds by losing pounds: research finds financial incentives could help reduce obesity’. The policy brief is now available on line. These policy briefs are concise summaries of the findings of research projects, presented with a focus on policy implications. Linking research findings to possible policy improvements increase the chance that our research has an impact on the wider society. Furthermore, that our research has an impact in REF terms.
This latest policy brie
f ‘Gaining pounds by losing pounds: research finds financial incentives could help reduce obesity’ is part of a larger project called PROGRESS (Prevent Obesity GRowing Economic Synthesis Study), funded by the National Preventative Research Initiative (NPRI) and the Universities of Aberdeen and Melbourne. The project started when I was still at the University of Aberdeen, before I came down to Bournemouth more than five years ago now. Our research highlights that despite evidence that dietary interventions are the most effective way to lose weight, respondents preferred lifestyle interventions involving physical activity. Also that behaviour-change support improves effectiveness of interventions, but its value to participants was limited. A general preference to maintain current lifestyles, together with the sensitivity of take-up to financial costs, suggests financial incentives could be used to help maximise up-take of healthy lifestyle interventions. Finally, men required more compensation to take up healthier lifestyles.
Full details on methods and results are available in the health economics paper due to be published later this year, currently ‘published ahead of print’ (Ryan et al. 2014).
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Faculty of Health & Social Sciences
Reference:
Ryan, M., Yi, D., Avenell, A., Douglas, F., Aucott, L., van Teijlingen, E. & Vale, L. (2014) Gaining pounds by losing pounds: preferences for lifestyle interventions to reduce obesity, Health Economics, Policy & Law, [Epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1017/s1744133114000413.
Today academic publisher Elsevier sent round an email with the top five most downloaded articles from the international journal Midwifery.
We were pleased to see that the fifth paper on that list is a BU paper jointly written with Dr. Helen Bryers, Consultant Midwife in Scotland.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Last night (March 16th 2015) Bournemouth University Professor Edwin van Teijlingen attended a reception and panel discussion on Midwives as agents for change organised in London by the Ambassador of Sweden Ms. Nicola Clase. Earlier this year the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched midwives4all, which an initiative to spread the knowledge about the benefits of evidence-based midwifery, working closely with contributors to The Lancet’s series on midwifery.1
With the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) coming to an end in 2015, it is clear that despite great improvements many countries have not reached two key targets: MDG4 to ‘reduce child mortality’ and MDG 5 to ‘improve maternal health’.2 Too many women today still die in childbirth, most of these deaths occur in low-income countries and most of these deaths are avoidable. In 2013 alone, 289 000 women died from childbirth complications. Nearly 3 million newborns die in the first month of life and 2.6 million newborns are stillborn each year.
The aim of midwives4all is to use a coordinated and innovative communication approach to highlight the need to implement universal practice of midwifery globally in order to improve maternal health and empower women. Midwives4all highlights that only 22 per cent of countries have potentially enough midwives to provide life-saving interventions to meet the needs of women and newborns, which leaves most countries with severe shortages of proper maternity care. The vast majority of women and children lose their lives due to complications and illnesses that could have been prevented. Scaling up the midwifery workforce could prevent about two-thirds of maternal and newborn deaths, saving millions of lives every year.
For some countries the first step is to ensure that midwifery is properly recognised in law. In Nepal, one of the country in which we conduct research, midwifery is not yet officially recognised as an independent profession.3 Together with the president of MIDSON and Swedish colleagues we have long argued that we urgently need to convince the Government of Nepal and other the relevant stakeholders that ‘Nepal needs midwifery’.4
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
References:
Lunchtime Seminar on Wednesday 18th March in R207, 1 – 1.50pm
Research should make a difference, and as the Faculty’s strapline is ‘helping to make people’s lives better’, it is of relevance to us all. Our forthcoming Seminar series will showcase some of the excellent work of the Faculty to inspire other academics and PhD students.
No need to book, just turn up. Contact Zoe on zsheppard@bournemouth.ac.uk for more information.
Future Impact Seminar dates can be found by clicking on the link below.
We look forward to seeing you there.
BU Senior Lecturer in Midwifery Dr. Jenny Hall published her interesting piece on Nursing Times.net under the title ‘Time-wasters in A&E: time to shake the label’. Jenny uses quite a sociological argument highlighting that “However, labels such as time waster are unhelpful and inappropriate. Instead we have a duty to provide a service that is caring, compassionate and welcoming – no matter the pressures. “
The second CMMPH paper this week is by Professor Emeritus Paul Lewis and BU Visiting Faculty Jillian Ireland in collaboration with Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust midwife Danielle Freemantle. Their paper ‘The loss of midwifery supervision: to mourn or rejoice?’ in the March edition of The Practising Midwife reflects on and discusses some of the possible consequences of the NMC’s decision to end statutory supervision of midwives in the UK.
Congratulations to all!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH)
Faculty of Health & Social Sciences
FHSS staff and students published their latest article ‘Would a student midwife run postnatal clinic make a valuable addition to midwifery education in the UK? — A systematic review’ now out on line in Nurse Education Today 35 : 480-486. The paper is written by Wendy Marsh, Dana M. Colbourne, Susan Way & Vanora Hundley.
We are pleased to inform you that the final version of your article with full bibliographic details is now available online. The publishers are providing the following personal article link, which will provide free access to this article, and is valid for 50 days, until April 17, 2015: http://authors.elsevier.com/a/1QcG5xHa50bEa
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
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Postgraduate Research Showcase & Celebration
Writing for The Conversation – upcoming training opportunities
Thinking about interdisciplinary research
Cancer Awareness Event at BU
BU Professor has been invited to a series of plenary and invited lectures.
An Interview of BU-lead EU H2020 FIRST project published in “Horizon”, the EU Research & Innovation Magazine
Update on Horizon Europe Guarantee
Research Information Network