Category / international

New blog on Open Access publishing

authoraid-2016Some months ago Andy Nobes asked my colleague Prof. Padam Simkhada and I if we could write a blog about why we had so many papers in freely available online journals in Nepal.  Andy is the Programme Officer, Research Development & Support at INASP, which is an international development charity based in Oxford working with a global network of partners in Africa, Latin America and Asia.

We had a whole range of immediate answers to Andy’s question, including ones like: we both love Nepal; we are on the editorial board of a few journals that are part of the NepJOL group; and editors invite us to submit articles and/or editorials. Moreover, we feel reasons for Open Access publishing are very similar to our key reasons for working in a low-income country like Nepal. These principles are (a) conducting applied academic research in low-income countries for the greater good; (b) helping to build research-capacity; and (c) telling the world about our research through quality academic publications.  This week saw the publication of our blog ‘Publishing in journals of the NepJOL family’ on the AuthorAid website, click here to read the post.

Edwin van Teijlingen, Professor of Reproductive Health Research at Bournemouth University and Padam Simkhada, Professor of International Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University and BU Visiting Faculty.

Will you be applying to the ERC in 2017?

ercAre you at the right stage in your career to apply for a European Research Council Grant?

The indicative deadline dates for 2017 are:

Consolidator Grant – 9th February 2017 (see recent press release for the results of the last round)

Advanced Grant –  31st August 2017 (call expected to open on 16th May 2017)

Proof of Concept Grant – 19th January 2017, 25th April 2017 and 5th September 2017

To find out more about these opportunties, which fund the best of the best researchers in Europe, please take a look at the ERC website and the  2017 ERC Work Programme.

The ERC is celebrating 10 years in 2017 – it has funded almost 7,000 researchers and thereby has supported more than 40,000 team members.

If you are considering applying, please contact Emily Cieciura, RKEO’s Research Facilitator; EU & International, to discuss your plans and arrange support.

Top three most accessed 2016 paper BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth

bmc-media-luce-et-alIt is always nice to receive some good news just before Christmas.  The journal BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth informed us that our paper ‘“Is it realistic?” the portrayal of pregnancy and childbirth in the media’ was in the top three most popular papers [1]This interdisciplinary paper crosses the boundaries between the study of maternity care & midwifery, sociology of health & illness, and that of the media.  With BU’s Dr. Ann Luce as first author, it is one of the top three accessed articles of nearly 400 articles published in 2016 (as of Dec 16th).     

 

Reference:

  1. Luce, A., Cash, M., Hundley, V., Cheyne, H., van Teijlingen, E., Angell, C., (2016) “Is it realistic?” the portrayal of pregnancy and childbirth in the media BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth 16: 40 http://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12884-016-0827-x

research*eu – latest update

EveryCORDIS research eu month the European Commission publishes research*eu, their round-up of the latest news from research projects funded by their various schemes.

The following highlights will be of interest to academics at BU:

October 2016 (Special feature: What we can learn from insects?)

November 2016 (Special feature: Shaping the future of offshore wind)

By taking a look at these items and the many others reported in research*eu, you may find potential partners or spark ideas for future research collaboration. In addition, CORDIS, the European Commission’s primary portal for results of EU-funded research projects, provides a wealth of information to assist you when building a new project.

If you are considering applying for EU funding, please contact Emily Cieciura, RKEO’s Research Facilitator: EU & International, to discuss your ideas!

COST Action Training School attended by FHSS Postgraduate Researcher Preeti Mahato

img_5141Last week I attended COST Action Training School BEYOND BIRTH COHORTS: from study design to data management which was conducted from November 23- 25 in Valencia, Spain. COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a unique platform where European researchers can jointly develop their ideas and initiatives across all scientific disciplines through trans-European networking of nationally funded research. The specialist training to which I was invited focused conducting longitudinal cohort studies especially birth cohorts.
Various aspects of birth cohort were discussed during the training which included data collection, development of standard operating protocols for analysis of samples, techniques and tools to study biological samples, different methods of data analysis, and data management. Training also included the use of the R-package for data analysis and management. There were presenters from different countries including the UK, Germany, Spain, Malta who were associated with the COST Action.
Overall this training was very helpful and I found it interesting to discover more about the COST Action, their objectives and activities and also about the data on birth cohorts including designing cohort studies and ways to analyse the data. I am sure it will help with my PhD fieldwork which links with the THET-funded project on mental health training for community maternity care providers in Nepal. My fieldwork in Nepal starts in January 2017. I would like to thank the EU for the funding and FHSS for the co-funding of the travel expenses.

One of the presentation from training