This morning ResearchGate alerted us that our paper published two decades ago ‘The Importance of Pilot Studies’ has now been cited one thousand times [1]. This methods paper in the Nursing Standard is very often used by authors quoting a paper in their research methods section when they have done pilot or feasibility study for a larger-scale study. This paper is also our second top cited paper with 1,982 citations on Google Scholar and, interestingly enough, on SCOPUS it is not listed at all.
Pilot studies are a crucial element of a good study design. Conducting a pilot study does not guarantee success in the main study, but it does increase the likelihood of success. Pilot studies fulfill a range of important functions and can provide valuable insights for other researchers. There is a need for more discussion among researchers of both the process and outcomes of pilot studies.
This paper is one of several methods paper focusing on pilot studies we have published over the past 22 years [2-8].
van Teijlingen E, Rennie, AM., Hundley, V, Graham, W. (2001) The importance of conducting & reporting pilot studies: example of Scottish Births Survey, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 34: 289-95.
van Teijlingen E, Hundley, V. (2001) The importance of pilot studies, Social Research Update Issue 35, (Editor N. Gilbert), Guildford: University of Surrey. Web: http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/sru/SRU35.html
Hundley, V., van Teijlingen E.
van Teijlingen E, Hundley, V. (2005) Pilot studies in family planning & reproductive health care, Journal of Family Planning & Reproductive Health Care 31(3): 219-21.
(2002) The role of pilot studies in midwifery research RCM MidwivesJournal 5(11): 372-74.
van Teijlingen E, Hundley, V. (2003) Pilot study, In: Encyclopaedia of Social Science Research Methods, Vol. 2, Lewis-Beck, M., Bryman, A. & Liao, T. (eds.), Orego, Sage: 823-24.
The Missing Persons Indicator Project, initiated several years ago by Professor Melanie Klinkner and Andreas Kleiser from the ICMP, has recently been enhanced by a visit to the ICMP, aimed at optimising knowledge exchange. Its goal is to showcase each state’s relationship with missing persons through comprehensive data analysis. This initiative began as a collaborative effort, with data gathering undertaken by undergraduate students at Bournemouth University, engaging students in real-world research and ensuring the project’s sustainability by welcoming new students each September.
Since its inception, the project has been fortunate to work with many enthusiastic students who have completed the first round of Structural Indicator 1. This indicator demonstrates the commitment of states to international legal instruments. The table below outlines the current indicators involved in our data collection process:
Context Indicator
A qualitative assessment as to whether the state has experienced extraordinary events that may be correlated to a rise in missing persons cases.
Structural Indicator 1
The commitment shown by states to international legal instruments is an indicator of their duties and obligation in relation to missing persons.
Structural Indicator 2
Domestic legislation by states as an indicator of their duties and obligation in relation to missing persons.
Structural Indicator 3
Institutional framework(s) established by states as an indicator of their duties, obligation, and enactment of legislation in relation to missing persons.
Thanks to HEIF funding, the Missing Persons Indicator Project recently had the opportunity to employ four student volunteers over the past two weeks. Their task was to accelerate the data collation for these indicators. By working through each indicator on a state-by-state basis, they developed a comprehensive understanding of each state’s unique situation. This method also allowed them to recognise and utilise specific details that might recur across the different indicators.
Every day, a designated “data-checker” reviewed previously inputted data to identify and correct any anomalies. This rigorous review process ensures the data’s accuracy, ethical integrity, and suitability for international dissemination.
Throughout this process, the students have been deeply engaged, asking insightful questions that challenged our perspectives and prompted us to consider aspects we might have overlooked. The atmosphere has been a hub of activity and intellectual growth.
We are extremely grateful for the hard work and dedication of our student researchers. Their contributions have demonstrated that a student ‘data-lab’ is an excellent model for conducting research and achieving meaningful results.
As this term draws to a close, we are keen to alert teaching staff to the potential for their students to join the Missing Person Indicator project in September as we recruit a new cohort for the new academic year. To learn more about the project please visit our website!
We weren’t the first to lay eyes on the engraving since it was carved into the hillside any number of centuries or millennia ago, not by a long shot. The Venezuelan archaeologist José Maria Cruxent even recorded it in his diaries in the 1940s – and there were certainly visitors before him.
The site of Cerro Pintado (Painted Hill), in the Venezuelan state of Amazonas, is a local landmark and a well-known fixture on the itinerary of those travelling on the Middle Orinoco River.
Yet viewing the gigantic snake, carved high up on the hillside, immediately ignited both our sense of wonder and our scientific curiosity. Why a snake? Why did its creators climb a towering granite hill to place it there, just so? What about all the other engravings orbiting it – what do they mean?
All these questions and more swirled around our little group as we stood, sticky and mosquito-bitten, in the savanna at the foot of the hill. Its singular status made it all the more intriguing.
While there are other examples of giant prehistoric rock art in other parts of the world, these appear to be the largest. While, as mentioned, some were already known to archaeologists, our team documented others, including over the border in Colombia.
The results reveal a high concentration of these monumental engravings in the region. The subjects of these symbolic works include snakes, humans and centipedes. The animals probably played an important role in the mythologies of the people who made them. The results have been published in the journal Antiquity.
New sites to survey
On our visit to Cerro Pintado in 2015, we supposed that the enormous 42-metre-long snake engraving (probably representing a boa or anaconda, native to the region) stood in splendid isolation. Prior scholars observed that many rock shelters in the surrounding savanna hosted prehistoric paintings, and we had already seen plenty of engravings near our dig sites.
Although often numerous or quite large, none of these sites shared the truly monumental scale of the Cerro Pintado engravings. Its apparent uniqueness led us to dutifully return with a drone to secure better images of the highly inaccessible panel. Already during the first stint in the field, however, we suspected that there was more to be uncovered about the rock art of the region.
Our guide, Juan Carlos García, a local educator and photographer, was well travelled around the area, and had plenty of insights to share. While surveying the islands that separate the calm middle course of the Orinoco River from its turbulent upper reaches, he pointed to the Colombian bank and forthrightly informed us: “Do you see that hill? Over there, behind it, is another snake, as big as Pintado.”
The possibility of another snake was beyond tantalising to us. Did it also have a set of accompanying motifs? Was it truly as big and as visible from far away? For lack of scientific permits in Colombia, or the time to search for a new site even if we had permits, these questions were left unanswered. After four campaigns in Venezuela, our fieldwork funding ended in 2017 and Cerro Pintado remained, as far as archaeology was concerned, a one-and-only location.
Luckily, the project’s principal investigator, José Oliver, at the UCL Institute of Archaeology, secured the means to return to survey the Colombian side in 2018. The results of careful systematic surveys were shared between the team in a flurry of excited text messages and emails, confirming that there was not just one more snake, but several. They were also comparable in size to Pintado and clearly related, yet each with their own twist.
The project’s doctoral candidate, Natalia Lozada Mendieta, from the Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia, now an assistant professor, also returned in 2021 and 2022 to find more snakes. Finally, the entire original team reunited in the field in 2023. Collectively, and with help from local guides, we amassed a database of 13 vast rock art sites with upwards of 150 individual engravings between them.
Striking motifs
To us, the snakes were the most striking motifs, although giant centipedes, humans dancing or playing instruments, and mysterious geometric shapes of unknown intent did not fail to impress. Although not unique, as previously thought, Cerro Pintado is now accompanied by a constellation of related sites – a genuine monumental rock art tradition.
Very large prehistoric petroglyphs, the scientific term for rock engravings, are not unknown. Whales and elk are depicted in the Stone Age art of Norway, and virtually life-size giraffes and camels are known from Niger and Saudi Arabia, respectively.
Highly visible or salient rock art such as this is often presumed to communicate ideas or concepts of importance. While their exact meaning is lost, their impact can be felt through their physicality, meaning their size and placement.
In our cases, we are fortunate to note repeating themes across the indigenous cosmologies of northern South America that allude to gigantic snakes as the creators and protectors of rivers – including the great “river” in the sky, the Milky Way. Yet they are also menacing, predatory and lethal.
This information enriches our understanding of the archaeological record. The snakes were intended to be seen from some distance, reflecting a shared understanding of the world and its inhabitants. What marks the Middle Orinoco out as a unique hotspot, we argue, is the sheer concentration of these enormous works of pre-Columbian art.
They appear to be the largest in the world, and speak to a contested, yet openly communicative cultural landscape during the pre-Columbian period that we are only just beginning to understand.
More importantly, as regional tourism expands year on year, the sites are
increasingly in need of protection, an activity in which indigenous people should have a leading voice. Undoubtedly, there are dozens more sites in this unique monumental tradition to encounter, record and, hopefully, preserve.
The call for applications for Being Human Festival 2024 has been extended
BeingHumanistheUK‘snationalfestivalofthehumanities. To enable as many people as possible to participate in this year’s festival, they have extended the deadline for the Festival Event (unfunded) pathway to Thursday 18 July, 5pm
Every year, researchers, staff from universities, and research organisations are invited to take part in this national festival by organising a public engagement event or activity, rooted in humanities research.
Any organisation with a connection to humanities research is eligible to organise a festival event via this pathway, including museums, galleries, archives, libraries, publishers, community organisations and more – but all events must involve an eligible researcher in their planning and delivery.
This year’s festival will take place 7–16 November, with the theme ‘Landmarks’, honouring the their 10th anniversary. They will be looking back on landmark events in their history, while imagining landmarks they might yet create. Researchers are invited to think about physical or metaphorical landmarks and how they shape our world.
Further details on how to apply, and answers to some frequently asked questions, are available here
Alternatively, if you would like advice on developing ideas or submitting an application, please contact the Public Engagement with Research Team: publicengagement@bournemouth.ac.uk
BU’s team of Drosophila scientists were delighted to host a visit from Dr Tony Cammarato, Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Tony (a visiting fellow at BU) met and gave a fantastic talk to colleagues and undergraduates, detailing work spanning three decades that has defined how heart muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) regulate force during contraction.
(L to R) Dr Tony Cammarato, Ms Jess Whalley, Dr Paul Hartley, Dr Yutaka Matsubayashi
By identifying the specific amino acids that control how muscle troponin proteins interact with the cell’s contractile myosin and actin ‘scaffold’ his research group is explaining how cardiomyopathies develop in humans. The work, which consistently features in the field’s leading journals, is highly significant not only for its rigour and ingenuity but also because it is laying the foundation for medical interventions that correct the cardiomyopathies.
It is well worth noting that this research relies heavily on genetically defined Fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster), a very powerful and tractable tool with which to model the molecular mechanisms underpinning human cardiomyocyte function.
At BU we use Drosophila to model the effects of ageing, metabolism and environmental pollutants on heart and kidney function. It has become very clear that insect and human cardiovascular systems are affected in the same way by the same problems. So, by working with scientists such as Tony, we can develop experimental approaches that generate findings of relevance to many species, including humans.
At BU we promote and celebrate the work done to engage public audiences with our research.
The Public Engagement with Research team in Research Development and Support can help promote your event to relevant audiences through our monthly newsletters and via our social media channels.
To be considered for inclusion, your event or activity must be;
Intended for and open to non-academic audiences
Focused on BU research, either solely or as part of a wider programme. Events or activities that do not involve BU research, such as marketing or recruitment events, will not be accepted.
Submitted, at the latest, in the first two weeks of the month preceding the event. For example, an event taking place in June should be submitted via the form any time before 14 May.
Event descriptions may be edited for consistency in style with other content.
This event is open to all BU staff, students and anyone with an interest in Parkinson’s disease, including researchers, those working in practice and members of the public, please help spread the word about this upcoming event.
Lunch and refreshments will be provided. For further information contact: adrc@bournemouth.ac.uk
To book your place visit: www.bournemouth.ac.uk/parkinsons-disease
This event is supported by funding from British Society of Gerontoloqy’s (BSG) Small Events fund.
For more information about the BSG, visit https://www.britishqerontology.org/
The Ageing & Dementia Research Centre are delighted to be hosting “Ageing well together” an event bringing together members of the public, community organisations and researchers for an interactive day to share knowledge and showcase various projects and activities. The event will be in BGB on the Thursday 13th June 10.00- 15.00.
This month we welcome Sandra, CEO of Christchurch Community Partnership
Christchurch Community Partnership’s vision is to see social isolation and loneliness eradicated in Christchurch. Although working with the whole adult population, the CCP mainly delivers services and projects to older residents, given that Christchurch has the highest proportion of 65-90 years old in Dorset.
Their objective is to reconnect isolated folk back into community through Lunch Clubs, Coffee Connections and many other activities, where they can build social networks, to improve their quality of life. CCP’s other focus is to bring organisations and groups together to work collaboratively so the community benefits from a wider range of support.
Community voices is a collaboration between BU PIER partnership and Centre for Seldom Heard Voices to provide a platform and a voice to local community activists.
Today, Sunday 9th June, our paper ‘Health and well-being of Nepalese migrant workers abroad was highlighted by ResearchGate as being widely read. This scientific paper which was part of Dr. Pratik Adhikary’s PhD study in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences has been read 1,000 times.
Greetings, fellow explorers! 😊 As you may recall, I recently had the incredible opportunity to become a Community on Food Consumer Science (COMFOCUS) research fellow and embarked on a research visit to Slovakia. (I’ve just returned to the UK a week ago). Today, I’m excited to share with you my Guljira-lonely planet style story of this fascinating research journey, which also included delightful detours in Budapest and Vienna. So buckle up, because it’s going to be a delicious ride!
Before diving into the details, let me give you a quick overview of how this adventure came to be. It all started at a conference in Prague last year, where I presented my findings from the ACORN research project. Fast forward to now, and I’m preparing to attend the same conference again in a week, but this time in Tromso, Norway, where I’ll present the findings from my first-ever grant project funded by the British Academy Small Grant Leverhulme. Some of you may remember me as the orange/carrot girl with a trolley during the weeks in Feb-March – yup, that’s me.
After seizing the COMFOCUS opportunity, developing my research project and methodology, and choosing the host, I received the exciting news in October last year – and thus began the preparation for my extravagant research journey in Nitra, Slovakia, in late April-May 2024. Here’s a sneak peek into my little research adventure in Slovakia.
The journey began with multiple flights and fun train rides. Armed with my travel buddy Google Translate, I finally arrived in Nitra, a small city in Slovakia, where I was based for three weeks. I was hosted at the Slovak University of Agriculture under the supervision of Prof. Elena Horská and Assoc. Prof. Jakub Bercik.
For the first week, I focused on familiarising myself with the city, grocery shops, and the lab that I would use for my experiment. Observing how people shopped and how they laid out their fresh produce in the stores was fascinating. Who doesn’t love a bit of people-watching? Designing the questionnaire and preparing the stimuli was a particularly fun part. How so?
Let me share an experience I like to call Apple Hunting. We went on a spontaneous wild apple hunt to gather samples for our study. It felt like I was on a game show! When my supervisor said, “pick whatever you like,” and I chose something, she insisted I get double. 🍎😂 It was a good reminder; otherwise, we would have needed another apple hunting trip.
My lab life was far from lonely – I was lucky to have a lab buddy! Irena – another fellow from Kraków Poland and I got to play with some cool gadgets, like an aromatic capsule that tests how different scents make you hungry. Imagine being in a cube surrounded by delicious smells! For my part, I tested how messages framed fresh produce choices, focusing on eye fixation. We stayed up until midnight, and the next day my lab session started at 7:30 am and ended at 4 pm. After this, I had TWO bento boxes and went straight to bed at 7 pm, missing the entire Aurora highlights. 😅.
This trip was a perfect mix of serious research and fun experiments. Big shoutout to my Nitra crew and the COMFOCUS grant for making it all happen! Nitra may be small, but its surprises are endless.
In the end, my journey to Slovakia wasn’t just about research – it was about embracing the joy of discovery, indulging in new experiences, and savouring every moment along the way. Here’s to many more adventures to come! 🥂 Apart from visiting Slovakia, I had the opportunity to travel to their neighbouring countries – Hungary and Austria. In Budapest, a foodie and designer heaven, I immersed in the world of architecture and design, captivated by its beauty and functionality. After my research journey in Slovakia, I continued my journey with a pit stop in Vienna. Surrounded by stunning architecture and rich history once again. I couldn’t resist sampling some Viennese delicacies – because hey, a researcher’s gotta eat, right?
So what’s next? Armed with a treasure trove of insights and findings from my trip, I’m ready to take on the world of food marketing. With a sprinkle of creativity and a dash of neuroscience, who knows what delicious discoveries await?
Now let’s take a moment to simply appreciate the beauty and diversity of the places I’ve visited. Here are some snippets of photographs capturing the essence of my journey.
We have a small number of places available on our Building a Policy Influencing Strategy workshops on Friday 12th and Thursday 18th July.
What you will learn
These sessions are suitable for you if you have already made steps to engage with policymakers, and/or you have attended previous policy training workshops. Public affairs consultant and trainer Carys Davis will deliver both sessions, and they will enable you to:
develop key messages, supporting narratives and evidence for policymakers
identify and map your audience
gain insight into the channels available for influencing.
The sessions will be delivered via Zoom, from 9.30-4.30pm with 15-minute breaks in the morning and afternoon, and an hour away from screens for lunch from 12.30-1.30pm.
About the trainer
Carys Davis has 18 years’ experience in politics and public affairs. She has worked as a parliamentary researcher for two frontbench MPs, a policy adviser on the environment, food and rural affairs portfolio for a UK political party and was also the public affairs manager for the Financial Conduct Authority.
Please note these workshops are not intended as an introduction. If you are not sure whether they are suitable for you, please contact the impact team, who can advise. We can also offer 121 bespoke sessions with Carys up until 20 July 2024, which you can book via impact@bournemouth.ac.uk.
The applications are now open for the September 2024 Earthwatch Science Camp.
These unique residential learning events give early career environmental researchers the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in how to engage communities in their research. The training is also ideal for those who want to explore how research, citizen science and science communications can benefit the communities they are working with.
The deadline for applications for the September camp is 23rd June 2024
Rejection is a key part of an academic’s life. Typically, your scientific paper gets rejected at least one before getting accepted for publication. Whilst it is common knowledge among academics is that your average grant application has a chance of about one in eight, and Innovate UK Smart grants have a “public” success rate of just 5%. As academics we all have to learn to live with ‘failure’ . However, when we received a rejection this week to be part of the ESRC (Economic & Social Research Council) Festival of Social Science 2024 for our research project Preventing drowning of children under two in Bangladesh: An interdisciplinary approach, it was a first!
We thought we had a decent chance as (1) our interdisciplinary team includes an anthropologist, an economist and a sociologist. (2) This year the call for Festival of Social Science was for a joint Bournemouth University and the University of Southampton programme, and our NIHR (National Institute for Health Research)-funded Sonamoni project is an international joint project between Bournemouth University and the University of Southampton, working with the University of the West of England, the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institute), CIPRB in Bangladesh and Design Without Borders in Uganda. (3) We had included an element of Virtual reality as this year’s festival theme will be ‘Our Digital Lives’. Finally, (4) I have been successful before in the past applying for inclusion into the ESRC Festival of Learning, for example highlight our research in Nepal and India in 2018or our Breastfeeding Debate in the 2017 Festival of Learning. Obviously past success is no guarantee for future success! Hopefully, we have better luck next year when we have more results to present in a knowledge exchange event like this.
I’m looking for participants to interview for a pilot study I’m undertaking as part of my Ed D. As an academic with an ADHD diagnosis, my research explores the lived experiences of university faculty who have the disorder and how it impacts their professional lives.
My work aims to:
Create a more comprehensive portrait of the challenges that academics with ADHD encounter on the job
Highlight and promote strengths and abilities academics with ADHD bring to the HE workplace
Illuminate how the HE work environment can be made more open, accepting and accessible for academics with the disorder.
Eligibility criteria:
You are academic Grade 7 or above
In possession of an ADHD diagnosis (any subtype)
When:
First two weeks of June 2024
Where:
Offline in a venue affording the level of privacy you require, or online if preferred
If interested in participating and/or finding out more, please contact:
An invitation for those who have project ideas and or would like to supervise research projects.
Inspiring graduates and early career professionals into research. The NIHR INSIGHT programme South West Central Collaboration – offers opportunities for research engagement. This is a collaboration led by UWE and co-hosted by BU with collaborators and stakeholders across the region.
We are expecting applications to come in shortly for full and part time MRes students as part of the INSIGHT programme starting in September 2024.
Would you like to be a supervisor for an MRes student and or would you like to be part of a supervisory team?
Do you have a research idea that could be undertaken by an MRes student. This might include a literature review + either of the following -(service valuation, audit, analysis of existing data, quality improvement) + Public and Patient involvement and engagement.
The fully funded Mres studentships are available to early career colleagues (within 3 years of registration/work) in health and social care settings (nursing, midwifery, AHP, Social work, public health, pharmacy, chiropractic, osteopath and health care scientists).
For further information please contact:
Assoc Prof Les Gelling – Programme lead BU INSIGHT
Assoc Prof Theo Akudjedu – Innovation and Engagement lead BU INSIGHT
We have a small number of places available on our Building a Policy Influencing Strategy workshops on Friday 12th and Thursday 18th July.
New weight change BU paper
One week to go! | The 16th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference
Geography and Environmental Studies academics – would you like to get more involved in preparing our next REF submission?
Congratulations to three former BU staff
MSCA Staff Exchanges 2024 Call – internal deadline
Applications are now open for 2025 ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowships!
Horizon Europe – ERC CoG and MSCA SE webinars
MaGMap: Mass Grave Mapping
ERC grants – series of webinars