Category / Guidance

Health Research Authority UPDATE: undergraduate and master’s research projects

Guidance, NHS, Research Ethics, student research

New eligibility criteria from 1 September 2021

The HRA and the devolved administrations, supported by the Wessex Institute at the University of Southampton, have reviewed their approach to study approval for student research.

The review aimed to ensure students have the best learning experience of health and social care research, and to reduce the time that the HRA, DAs and NHS Research Ethics Committees (RECs) spend advising on and reviewing student applications.

In March 2020 the HRA paused student research approvals to create capacity for urgent COVID-19 research. Now, from 1 September 2021, they are introducing new eligibility criteria for standalone student research.

The new criteria mean that some master’s level students will be able to apply for ethics review and HRA/HCRW Approval or devolved administration equivalent. Standalone research at undergraduate level that requires ethics review and/or HRA/HCRW Approval (or devolved administration equivalent) cannot take place. Arrangements for doctoral research remain unchanged. Full details are in table one – permitted student research table. They have also made it clear when students are able to take the role of Chief Investigator, see table two – which type of students may act as Chief Investigator.

It is possible for students to learn about health and social care research without completing standalone projects. Looking at other ways to build skills and experience better reflects modern research and emphasises team science. View the video of the HRA event ‘Exploring good practice in Student Research’ to hear from course leaders about how successful these alternative approaches have been (registration is required to view) or read the HRA website for further information and ideas https://www.hra.nhs.uk/student-research/.

The HRA are giving notice now so that course leaders and students have time to prepare for the new arrangements, including ensuring that any changes to institutional policies and procedures are made.

If you have any queries about the eligibility criteria, please contact queries@hra.nhs.uk or swignall@bournemouth.ac.uk

New JISC transformative Read and Publish agreement with Taylor and Francis

BU Challenges, Guidance, open access, Publishing

In the recent months, Bournemouth University have been in negotiation with Taylor and Francis through JISC to sign up to the latest JISC Read and Publish deal and last week, the process was finalised and Bournemouth University officially became a member of this deal.

In theory, this means that Bournemouth University authors can now publish for free in any of the Open Select Taylor and Francis titles. However, due to a recent ruling by the HMRC on the publisher, all HEIs are being charged 20% VAT for every article that is approved for publication.

The implication of this is that if you are looking to publish in an Open Select title with Taylor and Francis, and you wish to make your article Open Access through this deal, you will still be required to submit an application to the BU Open Access fund through the normal route. This is due to the fact that BU will still have to cover the 20% VAT incurred from each article; we therefore need to ensure that we have the funds to cover these articles before approvals can be processed.

For more information and author guidance on this latest deal, please see the link below:

https://authorservices.taylorandfrancis.com/publishing-open-access/oa-agreements/jisc/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=EmailStudio&utm_campaign=JQD20019_4061355

Alternatively, if you have more questions about this deal, please email OpenAccess@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Open Access @ BU and how it works

BU Challenges, Guidance, open access, Publishing, writing

BRIAN (Bournemouth Research Information and Networking)

According to BU’s Publications Policy and Procedures, on acceptance of publication by the publisher, all BU authors should record all research outputs in BRIAN immediately, and no later than three months after this point. For journal articles and conference proceedings, to comply with the REF Open Access policy, all BU authors should ensure that the author-accepted-manuscript (full text) is also deposited in BRIAN at the same time, and no later than three months after this point.

To do so, after you’ve created your publication record, click on the blue arrow up icon to deposit your full text –

You will then be directed to a page where the terms and conditions associated with the deposit will be made clear, before you proceed with choosing your file to be uploaded –

After you’ve uploaded your full text, it will then go through a review process by one of the Bournemouth University Research Online (BURO) team members with the Library and Learning Support Team. This is to ensure first of all, that the correct version of the full text has been uploaded; and depending on the publisher copyright policy, an embargo period may be imposed on the full text before it is visible to the public. If there are any problems with the deposit, one of the BURO teams members will contact the author directly to resolve the issue.

BURO (Bournemouth University Research Online)

Once the full text has been reviewed and processed by the BURO team, it will then be deposited into our institutional repository (IR), which is Bournemouth University Research Online (BURO) and you would have complied with BU’s open access policy. In BURO, you will find all full texts deposited by other BU authors and you can browse the content by year, group or author (surname); and if you’re interested, you can also view the repository statistics in terms of the number of total outputs deposited, their breakdown by type, or you can even check out the most downloaded items from our repository!

BU Staff Profile Page

After your full text has been deposited into BURO, if you have a BU Staff Profile Page, the link to the full text will also appear under your publication record on your Staff Profile Page and it will look like this –

Any visitor to your Staff Profile Page can then click on the link and be directed straight to your full text in BURO read all about your research.

If you have any further queries, please don’t hesitate to email either BRIAN@bournemouth.ac.uk, BURO@bournemouth.ac.uk or OpenAccess@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

Open Access @ BU – An overview

BRIAN, BU Challenges, Guidance, open access, Publishing

Open Access

Open access is a broad international movement that seeks to grant free and open online access to academic information, such as publications and data. A publication is defined ‘open access’ when there are no financial, legal or technical barriers to accessing it – that is to say when anyone can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search for and search within the information, or use it in education or in any other way within the legal agreements. 

Open Access Funding @BU

Bournemouth University is unfortunately not a current recipient of the UKRI Open Access block grant. However, there is a small centralised BU Open Access Fund that BU authors can get access to on a competitive basis. Due to a very limited budget, application for funding is extremely competitive, and the selection criteria are stringent. In the past years, through the centralised open access fund, Bournemouth University has been able to support open access outputs from various impactful key research, including Epibentic and mobile species colonisation of a geo textile artificial sur reef on the south coast of England, Dignity and respect during pregnancy and childbirth: A survey of the experience of disabled women, Seven Characteristics Defining Online News Formats, Applied screening tests for the detection of superior face recognition, and many more!

Open Access Funding through Transformative Deals

Through the UK JISC Agreements, Bournemouth University currently has Read and Publish open access transformative deals with publishers such as BMJ, SAGE, Springer and Wiley, which means that BU authors can publish open access for free in the journal titles covered under the deals, subject to their terms and conditions. Each transformative deal and what it covers varies from one another. For example, the BMJ transformative deal only covers original research articles from research funded by UKRI, British Hearth Foundation, Blood Cancer UK, Cancer Research UK, Parkinsons UK, Versus Arthritis or the Wellcome Trust. As for the SAGE transformative deal, there is no such restrictions; however, you can only publish open access for free under a select list of journal titles.

In order to ensure that you get the maximum benefit from these transformative deals, do head over to the Bournemouth University Library and Learning Support guide for more details and information!

Green Open Access @ BU

Green Open Access, also referred to as self-archiving, is the practice of placing a version of an author’s manuscript into a repository, making it freely accessible for everyone. The version that can be deposited into a repository is dependent on the funder or publisher. You can make use of the Sherpa Romeo online resource to check the copyright policies of your target journal or publisher. At Bournemouth University, the self-archiving process is done through our current research and information system called BRIAN (Bournemouth Research Information and Networking); and all successfully reviewed and deposited manuscripts will be housed in our institutional repository called BURO (Bournemouth University Research Online).

Stay tuned for the next segment where we’ll be talking more about “Open Access @ BU & how it works!”

Open Access Publishing @ BU

BU Challenges, Guidance, open access, Publishing

Do you want to know more about what open access publishing means at BU and how it works? The Bournemouth University Library and Learning Support LibGuide provides a single source of information where you can find relevant topics on open access such as ‘Depositing your research’, ‘Copyright and Licenses’, ‘Open Access Funding’, ‘Predatory publishers’, so on and so forth.

So head over to the page now, and learn more about open access publishing @ BU!

https://libguides.bournemouth.ac.uk/c.php?g=471706&p=3226076

 

Wiley-Jisc read and publish agreement – update!

BU Challenges, open access, Publishing

We have been informed that the Wiley Jisc read and publish agreement overall fund has been drawn down more quickly than initially projected. As a result, Wiley has estimated that restrictions will need to be introduced at the end of June 2021 which limits OA publishing to UKRI/Wellcome funded articles only.

This has not yet been confirmed, and Wiley will continue to monitor the fund but this is an early warning that some sort of restrictions will be placed on the Wiley-Jisc read and publish agreement later in the year.

NIHR virtual event – Equality, diversity and inclusion in applied health and social care research

Guidance, NHS, Research Ethics, Training

The NIHR Research Design Service South East is hosting an event to discuss and explore what is meant by equality, diversity and inclusion in research and the importance of thinking about it when planning your health or social care research project.

Professor Kamlesh Khunti, Director of the NIHR Applied Research Collaborations East Midlands and Centre for BME Health, will talk about his recent research on COVID-19 in ethnic minority populations. Dr Esther Mukuka will talk about her new role as the Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the NIHR, and the increasing emphasis being put on those that apply for any NIHR funding to demonstrate their commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and a healthy research culture more generally.

The presentations will be followed by informal workshops to look at different case studies demonstrating the application of equality, diversity and inclusion principles in research.

The event is open to anyone with an interest in applied health and social care research.

Sign up online

https://www.nihr.ac.uk/events/equality-diversity-and-inclusion-in-applied-health-and-social-care-research/27216?utm_source=newsletter-fs&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fs-2021-04

New BU guides on leading research collaborations, costing projects and maximising value from RKE activity- available for download

Guidance, Knowledge Exchange, Research Integritiy

Three new guides are available to assist BU colleagues with initiating and managing Research and Knowledge Exchange (RKE) projects. The guides are downloadable from the below links by BU Staff, or from policy documents section of the BU Staff Intranet.

Costing and pricing guide for Research & Knowledge Exchange activity

This guide is intended to constitute pragmatic advice in shaping costs for research and knowledge exchange proposals. The guide provides some outline details on terminologies and concepts used in designing research projects at a UK university. Frequently occurring costs are listed as reminders of items that each Principal Investigator (PI) would be likely to require against type of Research and Knowledge Exchange activity. Examples of sample costs and the expectations on designing sustainable research projects are set out in the appendices against each activity type.

Maximising Income in Research & Knowledge Exchange activity

The intention of this guide is to help shape best practice for a sustainable research environment at BU. The intended audience is Principal Investigators (PI), staff in RDS who are responsible for supporting academics to design or manage projects, and RKE leaders overseeing a portfolio of projects at BU (such as Executive Deans, heads of RKE Centres, Institutes etc.).

Guidance on Leading an external research application.

This guide is intended to assist you through the application stage when you intend to lead on an RKE project. The details of the process may vary between funding bodies, but the basic principles are likely to be very similar.
Helpful advice, and a pro forma table, are available to assist with ensuring the integrity of any collaborative relationships.

If you would like to discuss how to make the best use of these guides, please contact Ehren Milner (emilner@bournemouth.ac.uk).

Guidance on external bids – updated

Guidance

Last year, we published a Guidance on External bids, and this was updated in January 2021. This has been reviewed again and updated for the period April to May 2021. The main change is to the reduction in time for providing a fully completed intention to bid form to RDS. This has been reduced from five working weeks to four working weeks. Please note that there are caveats in terms of when completed applications (all costs and external forms finalised) are required for certain types of bid.

As a reminder, RDS have worked with Faculty DDRPPs to ensure greater transparency around the recent changes to the bidding approval process, and to ensure that research remains a key activity for our academics.

The document, Guidance on External bids, sets out the context for the changes, the measures in place (including timings for bid preparation and parameters for funding opportunities), and the support available to you. This will be reviewed mid-May 2021.

NIHR issues final update on implementation of the Restart Framework

Guidance, NHS, Research Ethics

The NIHR published a Framework on 21 May 2020 – when the NHS started to restore routine clinical services – to support the restarting of research paused due to COVID-19. Developed in partnership with multiple stakeholders and the devolved nations, the Framework provides a flexible structure for local decision-making.

You can read the latest and final update here.

Early Career Researchers Network Meeting – BU and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals

Guidance

             Wednesday 24th February   15:00 – 16:00

All Early Career Researchers are welcome to join us for this month’s ECR network meeting. There will be short presentation and discussion on how BU uses the UN’s  Sustainable Development Goals. There will also be time for more general queries and networking.

See the staff intranet for more details and to book.

RKEDF: Research Training Events on Wednesday

Funding opportunities, Guidance, international

The following events are coming up on Wednesday this week. These are all online events, and it’s not too late to book!

Wednesday 3rd February 10:00 – 12:00

Developing a Search Strategy

Fundamentals of database searching, citations and library resources
Wednesday 3rd February 13:00 – 15:00

Introduction to EndNote Desktop Research Tool

How to manage your search results and build a library of references using EndNote Desktop and Word. (Some IT set up may be required in advance.)

 
Wednesday 3rd February 12:00 – 13:00

National Institute of Health (US)

This is the theme for this week’s Funding Development Briefing.

To book, please email OD@bournemouth.ac.uk with evidence of approval from your Head of Department or Deputy Head of Department.

You can see all the Organisational Development and Research Knowledge Development Framework (RKEDF) events in one place on the handy calendar of events.

If you have any queries, please get in touch!

Guidance on external bids

Guidance

Last year, we published a Guidance on External bids. This has been reviewed and updated for the period January to March. The changes are mainly around dates but also that RDS staff may be working outside of core hours due to parental responsibilities.

As a reminder, RDS have worked with Faculty DDRPPs to ensure greater transparency around the recent changes to the bidding approval process, and to ensure that research remains a key activity for our academics.

The document, Guidance on External bids, sets out the context for the changes, the measures in place (including timings for bid preparation and parameters for funding opportunities), and the support available to you. This will be reviewed mid-March.

Guidance on external bids

Guidance

As published a couple of weeks ago, RDS have worked with Faculty DDRPPs to ensure greater transparency around the recent changes to the bidding approval process, and to ensure that research remains a key activity for our academics.

This is a reminder that we’ve produced a document, Guidance on External bids, which sets out the context for the changes, the temporary measures in place (including timings for bid preparation and parameters for funding opportunities), and the support available to you.

Guidance on external bids

Guidance

RDS have worked with Faculty DDRPPs to ensure greater transparency around the recent changes to the bidding approval process, and to ensure that research remains a key activity for our academics.

We’ve produced a document, Guidance on External bids, which sets out the context for the changes, the temporary measures in place (including timings for bid preparation and parameters for funding opportunities), and the support available to you.

 

Making your research count: how research impact is measured and what it means for you.

BRIAN, Knowledge Exchange, staff profile pages, Training

 

The library is offering a workshop on 16th November on Enhancing your Research Impact: understanding and navigating bibliometrics. 

This will provide an opportunity to understand both what bibliometrics are, and how research impact is measured. We will also discuss how to look after your researcher profile and the various ways impact is measured across different disciplines, as well as exploring Altmetrics and how your research can be viewed through social media posts and downloads.  

You can sign up for this workshop on the staff intranet, and you can explore the information in the guide below to find out more. 

Image sourced from:

Altmetric 2015. Altmetric logo with black text [png]. London: Altmetric. Available from: https://www.altmetric.com/about-us/logos [accessed 29th October 2020].