Category / REF Subjects

Peer-reviewing ten years on

Guidance, international, Publishing, writing

The process of peer review is widely recognised as the key element of quality control in academic publishing and the scientific community more generally.  Peer review is the critical appraisal of one’s work by fellow scholars, who read and comment on your manuscript and offered a verdict on its quality, rigour, originality, style, completeness, etc. etc.

Peer reviewers are typically experts in your field, if not your topic, or who have expertise in the methods you applied or the population or are you studied.  They are also academics often with busy day jobs, who act as unpaid peer reviewers, and as journal editors for that matter.  Peer reviewers are with full-time jobs who give up their free time to review for academic journals.  A recent article by Aczel and colleagues (2021) reported that reviewers across the globe spent over 100 million hours on peer reviewing for free in 2020, the estimated value of this equated to nearly £300 million in the UK alone.  This quantifies in some of my feelings I wrote about a decade ago now in a BU Research Blog with the title ‘Peer review and bust academics’.

However, with the ever-growing number of health and social science journals the requests for reviewing seem to grow relentlessly.  This month alone (November 2021) I received twenty or 21 requests to review.  I have reviewed three manuscripts for Birth, Nepal Journal of Epidemiology, and The Journal of International Development, but I had to reject or ignore many more (see Table 1).  I usually do my reviews over the weekend.  One weekend this month I could not review because I had to prepare materials for the external auditor who came to visit Bournemouth University for a project recently completed, and this weekend I could not find the time because I’m proof-reading two PhD chapters (and writing this blog).

I leave you with some food for thought: academics spent time applying for research funding, then apply for the ethical approval, do the research, we write up the findings, and write blogs about the process!

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH)

 

Reference:

Aczel, B., Szaszi, B., Holcombe, A.O. (2021) A billion-dollar donation: estimating the cost of researchers’ time spent on peer review. Res Integr Peer Rev 6, 14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41073-021-00118-2.

Wessex REACH Initiative – Peer support grant

Funding opportunities, NHS

The Wessex REACH Initiative was formally launched in the summer and their first newsletter can be found here.

Wessex REACH are offering a small amount of funding to groups of researchers who wish to create a space for thinking, connecting and problem solving with their peers.  By coming together in face-to-face peer group meetings, research ideas and local problems can be discussed, common challenges and possible solutions can be shared and learn from one another. Whether you want to meet for afternoon tea away from the office a few times a year or fund a grant writing away day or any other creative solution that suits your group, they are interested in receiving your applications.

Who is eligible?
Anyone currently working in healthcare, social care or in healthcare-related research in Wessex.

How much is available?
Each group can apply for up to £500 to be used over a 1 year period.  They are aiming to fund up to 4 groups in the first round.  All applications will be reviewed by the Wessex REACH Steering Group and successful applicants notified early in 2022.

How to apply?
Send a short summary (up to 500 words) to info@wessexreach.org.uk by 10 December 2021.  This summary should include the following information, which will be used in the shortlisting process:

  • Contact details for your group or an expression of interest in being part of a group in your area
  • Your reasons for applying and how the award will help to build research capacity in your group
  • Your planned event(s)/activity
  • What your group is hoping to achieve and how it aligns with building research capacity in the Wessex region
  • What facilitation support, if any, you would like from the Wessex REACH Exec Committee (https://www.wessexreach.org.uk/meet-the-team  )
  • Requested total budget

Questions
If you would like to discuss your eligibility or plans prior to applying please contact Beth Stuart (bls1@soton.ac.uk)

This Sunday is a midwifery day

international, NHS

Today Sunday 21st November was a midwifery dominated day today.  This lunchtime a interdisciplinary team from CMMPH (Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health) at BU and the University of Exeter submitted a research proposal to the ICM (International Confederation of Midwives) on Midwife-Led Birthing Centres in Low- and Middle-Income  Countries.   As a personal observation: whoever thought that setting the submission deadline for a Sunday was a good idea has no respect for researchers’ work-life balance!

This afternoon many of us attended the  March with Midwives vigils which were held nationwide in the UK to highlight issues with midwifery staffing and working conditions.  The March with Midwives vigil took place in 50 towns and cities, as a vigil to make the general public and politicians aware about the maternity crisis.  In Poole Park it attracted over fifty people.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH

Free training sessions for dementia researchers

conferences, international, Knowledge Exchange, Training

Bournemouth University is involved in a wider collaboration which organises the Advanced Dementia Research Conference (ADRC 2021).  The conference is delivered online today and tomorrow (19th-20th November).  ADRC 2021 is led by Dr. Brijesh Sathian, BU Visiting Faculty, based in the Geriatric Medicine Department, Rumailah Hospital, in Doha, Qatar.  Saturday morning Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen will be delivering a session on qualitative research, preceded by a session on mixed-methods research from Prof. Padam Simkhada, also BU Visiting Faculty, from the University of Huddersfield.

The programme shown is for Day 2 tomorrow.   All sessions today and tomorrow are free to attend!  You can register here! Please, note that advertised times a Qatar times which three hours ahead of the UK at the moment.  

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH (Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health)

 

BU Sonic Arts concert Thursday 18 Nov 5.30pm

Fusion

 

 

 

 

 

Our first concert of 2021 takes place on Thursday 18th November. You are invited to come and experience the magic of immersive spatial music and sound!

This concert features both multichannel and diffused (spatialised) electroacoustic music by composers from BU – Dr Panos Amelides and Dr Ambrose Seddon.
Venue: Screening Room PG217, Poole Gateway Building, Talbot Campus, Bournemouth University, BH12 5BB

Date/Time: Thursday 18th November 2021 at 5.30pm
Duration: 1 hour (approx)

Admission is free but please register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/207104664627

All events is organised by members of EMERGE, Creative Technology and University Music.

Please share with anyone you feel may be interested. Looking forward to seeing you there!

@BU_Sonic_Arts

Bournemouth research cited in The Sunday Times

international, Publishing, writing

Today Bournemouth University’s research on Nepali migrant workers and kidney problems was cited in The Sunday Times. In the preparation for the Qatar 2022 men’s football world cup The Sunday Times published an article under the title ‘Dying for the World Cup‘.

Dr. Pramod Regmi and Dr. Nirmal Aryal were awarded funding from GCRF (The Global Challenges Research Fund) and Bournemouth University’s QR fund.  This work resulted in an editorial highlighting that low-skilled migrant workers in the Middle Wast and Malaysia are at a disproportionately higher risk of kidney problems. The working conditions are often Dirty, Dangerous and Difficult (referred at as the 3Ds) include physically demanding work, exposure to a hot environment, dehydration, chemical exposures, excessive use of pain killers, and lifestyle factors (such as restricted water intake and a high intake of alcohol/sugary drinks) which may precipitate them to acute kidney injuries and subsequent chronic kidney disease [1].  And recently, a national survey of nephrologists (kidney specialists) on their perceptions of the size of the problem of kidney health in Nepali migrant workers [2].

 

 

References:

  1. Aryal, N., Regmi, P.R., Sedhain, A., KC, R.K., Martinez Faller, E., Rijal, A., van Teijlingen, E. (2021). Kidney health risk of migrant workers: An issue we can no longer overlook. Health Prospect 21(1): 15-17.
  2. Aryal, N., Sedhain, A., Regmi, P., KC, R. K., van Teijlingen, E. (2021). Risk of kidney health among returnee Nepali migrant workers: A survey of nephrologists. Asian Journal of Medical Sciences 12(12), 126–132.

 

Not going in!

international, Publishing, writing

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the online workshop ‘500 Years of Childbirth’ together with by CMMPH (Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health) colleges Dr. Juliet Wood and Dr. Laura Iannuzzi. The session ‘500 Years of Childbirth’ was part of Being Human Festival, the UK’s national festival of the humanities which runs 11–20 November 2021.  History has always been a passion of me, and the presenters, Julia Martins and Carly Lokrheim, linked early modern history with childbirth in the 21st century. 

This wonderful session reminded me of my draft chapter I wrote for my PhD thesis three decades ago.  My thesis A social or medical model of childbirth? : comparing the arguments in Grampian (Scotland) and the Netherlands at the University of Aberdeen was supervised by Dr. Peter McCaffery.  Peter wisely said to me: “You really needed to write this chapter to make sense of the history of midwifery in your head, but it does not really fit the thesis.”  He added: “You have too many words already.  You know that it is not going in?” The material of this history chapter was not lost as I used loads of text from it it in the introduction section for a textbook [1].  The section ‘History of Midwifery: Introduction’ became part of our edited volume Midwifery and the Medicalization of Childbirth: Comparative Perspectives (Nova Science Publishers, Inc., Huntington, New York, USA) [2].

It is a message I occasionally repeat to my own PhD students.  Under the circumstances I may fing myself saying things like “This is something you had to get of your chest, or you had to write it to make sense of it, but as it stands do you think it fits your argument?”  Or more subtly in a supervision meeting, tell us: “What does this section add to your overall story in the thesis?”

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

 

References:

  1. van Teijlingen, E. (2004) History of Midwifery: Introduction, In: van Teijlingen, E. Lowis, G., et al. (eds.), Midwifery & the Medicalization of Childbirth, NY: Nova Sci., pages: 43-52.
  2. van Teijlingen , E., Lowis, G., McCaffery, P. & Porter, M. (eds.) (2004) Midwifery and the Medicalization of Childbirth: Comparative Perspectives, New York: Nova Science. [Paperback ISBN: 1-59454-0314].

BrainTrainUK’s visit to Bournemouth EEG Lab

It has been such a long time since we came under lockdown in March 2020. This term has seen teaching and research activities gradually coming back to normal!

Today, our long-time partner, BrainTrainUK, visited the Bournemouth EEG Lab to discuss progress on an EEG project (neurofeedback of inter-brain synchrony for social anxiety intervention) and future plans. This is the first time they visited us since Feburary 2020.

Our collaborator and friend, Stuart Black, wrote a short piece of news on the BrainTrainUK website. Please feel free to have a relaxing read by clicking this link. Below is the photo Stuart took today in one of our EEG labs. From our facial expressions, you know we were having fun!

From left to right in the photo: Hayley Clarke and Stuart Black from BrainTrainUK, Xun He (Head of Bournemouth EEG Lab, Psychology), Marcia Saul (CDE EngD student), Fred Charles (Creative Technology).

NIHR Bulletin

Funding opportunities, NHS, writing

RDS NEWS

New RDS event: Virtual Grant Development & Writing Workshop
We’re pleased to announce that we’ve just opened registration for the new Virtual Grant Development & Writing Workshop which will take place on the 23rd and 24th November 2021.

This is a 2-day workshop that we’re hosting in partnership with the RDS North East and North Cumbria. The 2-day workshop will provide a great opportunity to help researchers to make progress in developing their NIHR research proposal into a competitive application. Find out more.

NIHR News

NIHR welcomes Government investment in health R&D

eBulletins and Newsletters

NIHR News and Research: October 2021

NHS England and NHS Improvement: In Touch

PenARC Matters – October 2021

Events

NIHR Research for Social Care (RfSC) Call Seminar: 25th November 2021, 1.30pm – 3.00pm

An event specifically for social care researchers, practitioners and users to introduce the latest call from the NIHR’s RfSC programme. Speakers include the RfSC Programme Team, the RfSC committee chair, and others including Dr Mark Wilberforce (a successful candidate), Autistica, and a public involvement expert. The remit of the call, requirements and applications processes will be covered. Find out more

Funding Opportunities

Public Health Research (PHR) Programme

21/568 Suicide prevention in high risk groups
21/569 Effectiveness of interventions aimed at preventing domestic abuse
21/570 What are the health and health inequality impacts of being outdoors for children and young people?
21/571 Digital health inclusion and inequalities
21/572 Increasing uptake of vaccinations in populations where there is low uptake

 

Your local branch of the NIHR RDS (Research Design Service) is based within the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) should you need help with your application. We advise on all aspects of developing an application and can review application drafts as well as put them to a mock funding panel (run by RDS South West) known as Project Review Committee, which is a fantastic opportunity for researchers to obtain a critical review of a proposed grant application before this is sent to a funding body.

Contact us as early as possible to benefit fully from the advice

Feel free to call us on 01202 961939 or send us an email.

Midwifery paper co-produced with BU students

NHS, student research, writing

Congratulations to Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS) staff and students on their latest publication in the international journal Midwifery (published by Elsevier).   FHSS Professors Carol Clark and Vanora Hundley, undergraduate student researcher Guste Kalanaviciute and CMMPH PhD student Vanessa Bartholomew and Professor Helen Cheyne from the University of Stirling recently had the following paper accepted: ‘Exploring pain characteristics in nulliparous women; a precursor to developing support for women in the latent phase of labour’ [1].

 

Reference:

Clark C, Kalanaviciute G, Bartholomew V, Cheyne H, Hundley VA (2021) Exploring pain characteristics in nulliparous women; a precursor to developing support for women in the latent phase of labour. Midwifery (in press) 

Two scholarships in one month for PhD student

Awarded & submitted bids, international, PG research, Publishing, student research, Women's Academic Network, writing

Congratulations to PhD student Abier Hamidi on winning two scholarships within weeks.  Earlier this month Abier was awarded a scholarship from the BHIVA (British HIV Association) to pay the registration fee for BHIVA Autumn Conference.  This week she was also successful in getting a scholarship covering registration for the ‘Arab Health Summit: Advancing Health Equity for Women’ to be held on October 19-21.  The Arab Health Summit serves as a platform for researchers in the USA to connect with their global counterparts, including in the MENA (Middle Eastern and North African) region.  This summit offers a unique opportunity for Abier to exchange ideas and develop research relationships that may support her PhD study.

Abier is conducting a PhD on: ‘Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Health Education Strategies in Reducing Harm from HIV in Libyan Married Women’.  Recently, she had her first PhD paper “HIV epidemic in Libya: Identifying gaps” accepted for publication by the Journal of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (JIAPAC) published by SAGE [1].  Abier’s PhD project is supervised by Dr. Pramod Regmi (Senior Lecturer in International Health) and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH).

 

Reference:

  1. Hamidi, A., Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E. HIV epidemic in Libya: Identifying gaps, Journal of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (JIAPAC) (forthcoming)

 

Return of the Science, Health, and Data Communications Research Series

Fusion

logo - science, health, and data communications research groupThe Science, Health, and Data Communications Research Group invites you to our Autumn-Winter 2021 research series. These talks are open to the public, and encompass topics on representations of women scientists in the media, health inequalities and COVID-19, how comics are used for health messages, and how politics drives decisions around health and science.

Register for events on EventBrite.

SHDC-RG is an emerging interdisciplinary, cross-faculty group seeking to explore the ways in which specialised knowledge and information is communicated to the public, including policy-makers and front-line workers, and how mass communication (such as journalism and entertainment media) conveys and represents these areas to audiences.

 

 

Covid Comics & Public Health Messaging on Instagram

Date: Wednesday, 13 October 2021, 12-1pm UK time
Speaker: Prof. Anna Feigenbaum (with Ozlem Demirkol Tonnesen, Shannon McDavitt, Jonathan Sexton, Kufre Okon, Jose Blazquez), Bournemouth University
Further details and registration.

Healthcare Workers and Online Shaming During COVID-19

Date: Wednesday, 27 October 2021, 12-1pm UK time
Speaker: Dr. Luna Dolezal, University of Exeter
Further details and registration.

Generic visuals of Covid-19 in the news: invoking banal belonging through symbolic reiteration

Date: Wednesday, 10 November 2021, 12-1pm UK time
Speaker: Prof. Helen Kennedy, University of Sheffield
Further details and registration.

TBC

Date: Wednesday, 24 November 2021, 12-1pm UK time
Speaker: Dr. Tanya Le Roux, Bournemouth University
Further details and registration.

The Making of Collective Politics through Feminist Media

Date: Wednesday, 1 December 2021, 2-3pm UK time
Speaker: Dr. Rachel Kuo, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Further details and registration.

Humanising Public Health & Challenging Infodemics: The potential of web-comics

Date: Wednesday, 8 December 2021, 2-4pm UK time
Speaker: Dr. Emmy Waldman (Harvard), Dr. Laura Happio-Kirk (UCL), Dr. Ernesto Priego (City University), Monique Jackson (Artist)
Further details and registration.

TBC

Date: Wednesday, 15 December 2021
Speaker: Prof. Julian McDougall, Bournemouth University
Further details and registration.