Category / Doctoral College

There will be no Doctoral College PGR Conference this academic year, but worry not…

BU research, Doctoral College, Events, Featured, Knowledge Exchange, PG research, Research communication, Student Engagement

The Postgraduate Research Live Exhibition is your opportunity to showcase your research this academic year.

Calling all PGRs (MRes, PhD, Professional Doctorates alike)! Exhibit your research or research journey at this PGR Live Exhibition on Wednesday 5 December, followed by a free festive social for PGRs and Supervisors.

This is your opportunity to display your research to all of BU in creative and innovative ways during this open live exhibition.

Only 1 week left to apply.

Follow this link for full details on how to submit, joint submissions are accepted.

Please contact Natalie Stewart if you have any questions.

Please contact your student representatives about faculty run PGR conferences which may be scheduled for this academic year.

BU PGR Aishah Selamat won IoD’s Student of the Year Award 2018

BU research, Doctoral College, PG research, Research communication, Research news

18th October 2018 was a night to remember for BU PGR Aishah Selamat as she bagged this years’ Institute of Director (IoD) Student of the Year Award across the United Kingdom. The Student of the Year Award is dedicated to recognising the student who has shown director qualities in a project they have worked on in business, employment or academic capacity.

IoD Student of the Year Award 2018 – BU PGR Aishah Selamat

Inspired by her Ph.D. research work, Aishah mooted the idea of DataDenizens.com with the aim of advancing SMEs companies in the European continent to take on a simple analytic solution. According to Judge Junior Bammeke, Joint Institute Secretary and Data Protection Officer, Institute of Directors,

“Within her application and presentation, it was clear to see that Aishah had a very detailed knowledge of her target market, and opportunities for growth.“

On her winning, Aishah shared,

“As the award is dedicated to my parents, I would like to extend this award to Bournemouth University, the Sci Tech Faculty and Creative Technology Department for providing me the opportunity to undergo my Ph.D research with BU. Last but not least, I would like to give my thanks and gratitude to my supervisors, Dr. Simant Prakoonwit, Dr Reza Sahandi and Dr. Wajid Khan for their endless support and guidance. BUproud! “

For more read on IoD’s award coverage:

Top leaders of 2018 revealed at IoD Director of the Year Awards

‘Health Research Futures course’ – starts today!

Clinical Governance, NHS, Research Ethics, Research Training, Training

Health Research Futures is a four week, free online course that explores a range of topics in clinical research, offering continuing professional development (CPD).

The course includes twelve podcasts (three per week), a short weekly quiz and a live online discussion forum every week

You can sign up today, by creating an account on http://learn.nihr.ac.uk > select NIHR Learning > Future of Health E-Learning (Focus on new skills for new roles).

Enjoy!

Training opportunity – completing and submitting your IRAS application

BU research, Clinical Governance, data management, NHS, Research Ethics, Research Training, Training

Are you currently in the process of designing, setting up or planning your research study, and would like to extend your project into the NHS?

Yes? Then you may want to take advantage of this training opportunity.

Oliver Hopper (Research & Development Coordinator, Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospital) and Suzy Wignall (Clinical Governance Advisor, R&KEO)  will be running a training session on how to use, and complete your own application within the IRAS system.

IRAS (Integrated Research Application System) is the system used to gain approvals from the NHS Research Ethics Committee and Health Research Authority, before rolling out your study to NHS Trusts. To support this, the session will include the background to research ethics and the approvals required for NHS research.

The session will also be interactive, and so as participants, you will have the opportunity to go through the form itself and complete the sections, with guidance on what the reviewers are expecting to see in your answers, and tips on how to best use the system.

The training will take place in Studland House – Lansdowne Campus, room 117 on Tuesday 6th November, at 13:00pm – 16:00pm.

There are 12 spaces available, so get in touch with Research Ethics if you would like to register your interest and book a place.

Doctoral College: Researcher Development Programme

BU research, Doctoral College, PG research

The Doctoral College would like to present the October monthly update. We would like to welcome all new PGRs to BU and the Doctoral College, and remind any new PGRs that have not attended the Doctoral College induction to get in touch. There are limited spaces left on the Pre-Transfer / Major Review Induction and the Post-Transfer Induction for continuing PGRs, so please book to avoid disappointment. We are also still offering Brightspace Researcher Development Programme training.

New for 2018 – Postgraduate Research Live Exhibition. Applications for postgraduate researchers to display are now open.

The Researcher Development Programme is LIVE on Brightspace. You can no longer access this information on myBU. Workshop bookings, online resources and modules, plus much more are accessible on this new platform. Download the free ‘Brightspace Pulse’ app to easily keep up-to-date. If you are a PGR or PGR Supervisor and cannot access this please get in touch.

Don’t forget to like the Doctoral College Facebook page for regular news and information.

Postgraduate Research Live Exhibition

Doctoral College, Events, PG research, Research communication

New for 2018
Postgraduate Research Live Exhibition

This live exhibition is a unique display of the breadth and quality of research undertaken by postgraduate researchers at the University and allows those who take part an opportunity to disseminate their research in new, creative and interactive ways to a wide audience.

Applications are now open for postgraduate research students.

Application deadline 09:00, Monday 29 October 2018.

Live Exhibition Guidance
Application Form

If you have any questions or wish to discuss your idea please contact me:

Email: pgconference@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

Ouch! Missing reference

BU research, Doctoral College, Featured academics, international, Publishing, Research communication, Uncategorized, writing

One of the first rules of drafting a scientific paper is that one cites the key literature in the respective field.  So as someone who teaches people how to write and publish in this week’s experience of getting a paper rejected was not great, if not disheartening!   Earlier this week we submitted a research paper to the Journal of Travel Medicine on a study of the health and well-being of female migrant workers in Nepal.  This is high quality journal in which we have published before, including one paper on migrants’ health [1-3]. 

Two days later the journal editor emailed us to say: “”We feel that the scope of your paper would not justify a full original article in the Journal of Travel Medicine”, which is, in our opinion, a fair judgement.  My co-authors and I between us have over 300 papers published and most have been rejected or at least we have been asked for a resubmission, so nothing new here. What was more upsetting than the rejection itself was the additional comment.  The editor added:

“The authors should ideally include the two following references:

……(first reference omitted)   …. +

Identifying the gaps in Nepalese migrant workers’ health and well-being: a review of the literature.

Simkhada PP, Regmi PR, van Teijlingen E, Aryal N. J Travel Med. 2017 Jul 1;24(4). doi: 10.1093/jtm/tax021. Review.

 

We agree with the editor that we should have included the two listed key papers. Crucially, it is more than a little mistake to have missed the second paper since we wrote it ourselves.  There are many lessons to be learnt from this: (a) check you have covered the key literature in your paper, either in the Background section and/or the Discussion; (b) don’t underestimate the importance of your own work; (c) you’re never too old to make mistakes (and to learn from them); (d) be thankful for good editors and reviewers; (e) do what you advise others to do; (f) etc. ………………

 

In shame,

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

 

References:

  1. Hind, C., Bond, C.M., Lee, A., van Teijlingen E. (2008) Needs assessment study for community pharmacy travel medicine services, Journal of Travel Medicine 15(5): 328-334.
  2. Bhatta, P., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen E., Maybin, S. (2009) A questionnaire study of VSO volunteers: Health risk & problems encountered. Journal of Travel Medicine 16(5): 332-337.
  3. Simkhada, P.P., Regmi, P.R., van Teijlingen, E., Aryal, N. (2017) Identifying the gaps in Nepalese migrant workers’ health and well-being: A review of the literature, Journal of Travel Medicine 24 (4): 1-9.

Publishing systematic and scoping reviews to improve your research profile

BU research, Centre for Excellence in Learning, Doctoral College, Featured academics, Fusion themes, PG research, REF Subjects, Research assessment, Research communication, Research Training, Training, Uncategorized, writing

With the forthcoming REF 2021 in mind we would like to encourage both staff and postgraduate students to consider writing up their literature reviews as journal articles. Systematic and scoping reviews are a great way of publishing quality publications. They are highly valued as REF submissions, especially, but not only, in the health field.

There is plenty of support at Bournemouth University: from academic colleagues, with vast experience in writing reviews, to the library team, who can advise on, for example, developing your systematic search strategy and which databases to search.

 

You can start with publishing your review question and research strategy on PROSPERO, international prospective register of systematic reviews. We would like to highlight just one BU example in the field of the social sciences.  FHSS PhD student Orlanda Harvey published her proposed review ‘Support for people who use anabolic androgenic steroids: an investigation into what they want and what they currently access’ late last year on PROSPERO [1].

You might like to have a look at reviews published by Bournemouth University staff, which can be found by searching BURO, our institutional repository of research outputs. Moreover, BU academics have published several methods papers on the doing and writing systematic reviews [2-4].

 

Information about searching the literature for systematic reviews is available on this guide by the library team.

 

Other pages with useful information include:

 

Hopefully we have encouraged you to think about publishing your literature reviews as separate articles, and to seek help early in that process!

 

José López Blanco & Edwin van Teijlingen

 

 

For further information, please contact:

José López Blanco, Faculty Librarian (Health and Social Sciences), Library & Learning Support, Academic Services at tel 67350 or email:  hsslibteam@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

References:

  1. Harvey, O., Parrish, M., van Teijlingen, E., Keen., S. (2017) Support for people who use anabolic androgenic steroids: an investigation into what they want and what they currently access. PROSPERO 2017 CRD42017075199 Available from: http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?ID=CRD42017075199
  2. van Teijlingen E., Napper, M., Bruce, J., Ireland. J. (2006) Systematic reviews in midwifery, RCM Midwives Journal 9(5): 186-188.
  3. van Teijlingen, ER, Simkhada, B., Ireland J., Simkhada P., Bruce J. (2012) Evidence-based health care in Nepal: The importance of systematic reviews, Nepal Journal of Epidemiology 1(4): 114-118.
  4. Stewart, F., Fraser, C., Robertson, C., Avenell, A., Archibald, D., Douglas, F., Hoddinott, P., van Teijlingen, E., Boyers, D. (2014) Are men difficult to find? Identifying male-specific studies in MEDLINE and Embase, Systematics Reviews 3,78.

Vitae Researcher Development International Conference 2018

Doctoral College, Knowledge Exchange, Research Training, RKE development framework, Vitae

On 17 – 18 September 2018 Natalie Stewart (Doctoral College Research Skills and Development Officer), Thomas Stroud (Doctoral College Resources Administrator) and Emily Cieciura (RKEO Research Knowledge and Exchange Development Framework Facilitator) attended the Vitae Researcher Development International Conference, the largest global event dedicated to researcher development.

With around 400 delegates in attendance, the conference explored the latest policy development, future development in the sector and explored the opportunities and challenges of researcher development.

With an emphasis on how to meet the future development needs of researchers for a wide range of careers in and beyond academia, we came back more informed, connected and motivated to ensure Bournemouth University Postgraduate Research Students and Research Staff are provided with comprehensive, targeted and flexible researcher development programmes.

Three Minute Thesis UK Final

The UK National 3MT® Final was hosted at the conference gala dinner where six finalists from across the UK competed to win the coveted £3k grant to spend on a public engagement activity and a place on the Taylor & Francis Journal Editor Mentoring Programme. This year’s judge’s winner was Owen James, University of Edinburgh, with the winning presentation entitled ‘Human myelin in a dish’ and the people’s choice award went to Jamie Khoo with the emotive presentation ‘But is she pretty? How women respond to beauty ideals’. The 3MT® event is definitely a highlight of the conference; hopefully we can get BU PGRs represented in the coming years. Look out for the internal 3MT® event coming up this year. You can watch all of the semi-finalist 2018 presentations on the Vitae Website here.

Doctoral College Researcher Development Programme

The RDP is complementary to postgraduate research degrees here at BU and offers PGRs flexibility to develop their academic, professional and personal skills as and when required. It supports PGRs in gaining the skills needed to complete their research degree whilst also building on transferable skills for employment, whether in academia or beyond, in an increasingly competitive jobs market.

Offering over 150 on-campus workshops, e-learning, an interactive webinar series, and a range of additional online resources, and various events the RDP mirrors the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF) which enables PGRs to tailor their individual developmental journey.

The RDP is open to all PGRs and, access to view the provisions offered on Brightspace is provided to PGR supervisors.

If you have any questions on the RDP please contact the Research Skills and Development Officers Natalie and Clare (pgrskillsdevelopment@bournemouth.ac.uk).

 

RKEO Research and Knowledge Exchange Development Framework

The RKEDF offers a range of opportunities for academics at all career stages to develop their skills, knowledge and capabilities in relation to research and knowledge exchange.

Attending the Vitae conference enables us to share in the best practice across the UK and globally, providing the impetus to embrace innovative researcher development approaches. In the last twelve months, for example, BU has launched a new Early Career Researcher Network, including its Brightspace community, seen successful cohorts for the Writing Academy, Research Council Development Scheme, piloted a new career-based pathway, with dedicated developmental support for ECRs, Mid-Career and Professorial researchers, benefited from inspirational external speakers, and hosted over 150 events ranging from funder briefings to STEAMLabs. Following discussion of your development requirements with your line manager and consideration of how the RKEDF can support these needs, the RKEDF is open to all BU academic staff, including those on fixed and PTHP contracts.

The RKEDF also references the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF).

If you have any questions about the RKEDF, please contact Emily Cieciura, RKEDF Facilitator (RKEDevFramework@bournemouth.ac.uk).

 

Introduction to Good Clinical Practice – 10th October

BU research, Clinical Governance, NHS, PG research, Research Ethics, Research Training, Training

Are you interested in running your own research project within the NHS? Good Clinical Practice, or ‘GCP’, is a requirement for those wishing to work on clinical research projects in a healthcare setting.

GCP is the international ethical, scientific and practical standard to which all clinical research is conducted. By undertaking GCP, you’re able to demonstrate the rights, safety and wellbeing of your research participants are protected, and that the data collected are reliable.

The next GCP full day session is scheduled for Wednesday 10th October, at Dorset County Hospital, Dorchester – 8:45am – 4:30pm.

The day will comprise of the following sessions:

  • Introduction to research and the GCP standards;
  • Preparing to deliver your study;
  • Identifying and recruiting participants – eligibility and informed consent;
  • Data collection and ongoing study delivery;
  • Safety reporting;
  • Study closure.

If you’re interested in booking a place, please contact Research Ethics.
Remember that support is on offer at BU if you are thinking of introducing your research ideas into the NHS – email the Research Ethics mailbox, and take a look at the Clinical Governance blog.

Vianna Renaud, FMC PDA and doctoral student, chairs Student Panel on placements at annual ASET 2018 Conference

conferences, Doctoral College

It was with great pleasure that I chaired a student panel session at the 2018 ASET Conference at the University of Nottingham. ASET, the UK Work Based and Placement Learning association is the leading professional body regarding placement learning and therefore it was wonderful to not only represent Bournemouth University but to also take part in this way.

With students from Ulster University, Southampton, LSE, Southampton, Leicester and University of Central Lancashire, the aim of the session was to encourage discussion around what universities can do to best support the placement experience in the eyes of students. With over 175 delegates from across the UK and Ireland, combined with the variety of backgrounds on the student panel, it was the perfect opportunity to gain their insight within an open and frank forum.

Given the reality of reducing resources within UK HE, critical questions around both central service and faculty based initiatives were asked. The main theme from the student panel was to engage students more with relative activities which included more interaction with final year students, alumni, industry representatives, etc. They agreed that universities need to think about the longevity of the student journey, from Open Days and first year, to final year. There needs to be a visible and clear link between employability activities with the academic curriculum, instead of the placement experience feeling like a bolted on experience. Students want to learn from their colleagues as it was felt that they share more realistic information in comparison to university staff. The concept of Placement PALS came up as a great initiative which for me was a highlight given that we have had this at BU for many years now. There was a consensus that the placement approval process was overall a tedious process, regarding of the software package being used, therefore keeping it as simple as possible was a key point. Another primary concern amongst the students was placement assessment and the importance of it being linked to future interviews for graduate roles. Therefore e-portfolios, a strong LinkedIn profile with recommendations, personal website or blog, amongst others, were discussed as the way forward in helping the student to make the most from the placement experience with a direct impact on their future.

This session contributed greatly to the overall theme of the conference, which was on our role as institutions to future-proof placements. Full conference proceedings will be available shortly at: http://www.asetonline.org/ You can also access the Good Practice Guides, ASET Viewpoints and other ASET publications on the website which are considered to be benchmarks in the sector.

 

Postgraduate Researchers – Welcome to the Doctoral College: Researcher Development Programme 2018-19

Doctoral College, PG research, Research Training

The Researcher Development Programme (RDP) offers over 150 workshops, online modules, online resources and an interactive webinar series specifically for postgraduate researchers professional, personal and research development.

The RDP offers the flexibility to meet individual development needs and long-term career development whilst at BU. The programme aims to ensure that postgradaute researchers are fully equipped with the skills and knowledge required to complete their research degree and make a successful transition into their future career, whether in academia or beyond.

Full programme details can be found in the brochure. 

A quick step user guide on how to use Brightspace and how to book onto workshops can be found here.

If you are a postgraduate researcher or supervisors and have any questions please contact your Research Skills and Development Officers Natalie and Clare on pgrskillsdevelopment@bournemouth.ac.uk