Category / open access

BURO intermittently unavailable

BURO, BU’s open access repository for research, is currently experiencing some intermittent Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, which means that occasionally it has been temporarily unavailable to our BURO Editorial Team and external users of open access content.  Please note, this does not seem to have affected the uploading files to BURO from BRIAN or the links to open access works embedded in your Staff Profile Pages.  The company that host BURO have been contacted and we hope all will be resolved shortly.

If you have any concerns please report to IT Services.

The guide Open Access and Depositing your Research will help answer some of your questions about open access.

If you have any further questions about depositing your research open access please contact buro@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

New CMMPH paper published from COST collaboration

BMC Health Serv Res
This week saw publication of a new CMMPH paper in BMC Health Services Research.  This methodological paper ‘Assessing the performance of maternity care in Europe: a critical exploration of tools and indicators‘ is a collaboration between several European maternity-care researchers based in Spain (Ramón Escuriet, Fatima Leon-Larios), Belgium (Katrien Beeckman), Northern Ireland (Marlene Sinclair), the UK (Lucy Firth, Edwin van Teijlingen), Switzerland ( Christine Loytved, Ans Luyben) and Portugal (Joanna White).  Dr. Ans Luyben is also Visiting Faculty in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences at Bournemouth University.  The underlying work was supported by the European Union through a COST Action called Childbirth Cultures, Concerns, and Consequences headed by Prof. Soo Downe at the University of Central Lancashire.  COST is seen by the EU as an important tool in building and supporting the European Research Area (ERA).

Cost ActionThis paper critically reviews published tools and indicators currently used to measure maternity care performance within Europe, focusing particularly on whether and how current approaches enable systematic appraisal of processes of minimal (or non-) intervention in support of physiological or “normal birth”.

The authors conclude: “The review identified an emphasis on technical aspects of maternity, particularly intrapartum care in Europe, rather than a consideration of the systematic or comprehensive measurement of care processes contributing to non-intervention and physiological (normal) birth. It was also found that the links between care processes and outcomes related to a normal mode of birth are not being measured.”

 

Professor Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Open Access publishing does not have to be expensive!

Nepal J Epid Open AccessAs it is Open Access Week I would like to clarify one of the Open Access publishing myths.  One of the common replies I receive from academics colleagues when raising Open Access publishing is that it is (too) expensive. This is, of course, true for many academic journals, but not all are expensive.  Some don’t even charge a processing fee at all.  Infamously, The Lancet Global Health charges an article processing fee of US $4750 upon acceptance of submitted research articles.  More moderately priced scientific journals still charge anything up to about £1,500 per article.

Open-Access-logoAcademic publishing has been big business for decades, and Open Access has rapidly become part of that business.  While traditional book and magazine publishers struggle to stay afloat, research publishing houses have typical profit margins of nearly 40%, according CBCNEWS who quote Vincent Larivière from the University of Montreal’s School of Library & Information Science.

At the same time we see a sharp increase in so-called Predatory Publishers who have set up business for the sole reason to make money from Open Access publishing.  They have not established or taken over academic journal for the greater good of the discipline or the dissemination of research findings to the widest possible audience.  Unscrupulous publishers jump on the Open-Access bandwagon BU librarian Jean Harris recently shared an interesting article about Predatory Publishers (click here to read this!).

J Asian MidwHowever, there are other format of Open Access. One of our more recent papers on research ethics was published in the Nepal Journal of Epidemiology which is an online Open Access journal that does not charge authors for publishing!  Also the Journal of Asian Midwives, where FHSS PhD student Preeti Mahato recently had her article accepted, is hosted in Pakistan by Aga Khan University through its institutional repository eCommons.  Publishing in this Open Access online journal is also free of charge.  In other words, Open Access publishing does not have to be expensive!

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

 

Vitae invites you to their first live online vitaechat in conjunction with International Open Access Week

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vitae invites you to join the first live online #vitaechat this Friday 23rd October between 1-2pm UK time, to coincide with the International Open Access Week.

Early career researchers need to be familiar with many forms of ‘open’ – from open access, to open data, to open education – but what does it mean to be a researcher in this open environment?

During this live Twitter chat, the host will lead participants through a discussion of the potential career benefits and opportunities associated with open research, as well as the steps researchers need to take to prepare themselves to be effective in an open research environment, both within an academic career and beyond.

JOIN THE LIVECHAT ON THE #VITAECHAT CHANNEL, 23 OCTOBER AT 1 PM (UK TIME)

Open Access Success Story #4

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The Faculty of Media and Communication Open Access Lunch and Networking event will take place today at 12noon, PG19 Lecture Theatre, at Poole House ground floor in Talbot.

Professor Tom Watson will share with the audience his experience of Open Access.

Professor Tom Watson has applied a range of open access methods in developing collaboration with international researchers, rapidly expanding scholarship in the history of public relations and for his own research. He is an active supporter of open access journals and conference proceedings, as well as placing most of his research publications on BURO and other online platforms. He will discuss the methods and share his experience about the pros and cons of the Green open access route.

 

Open Access Success Story #3

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The Faculty of Health and Social Sciences Open Access Lunch and Networking event will take place today at 12noon, EB206, the Executive Business Centre, in Lansdowne.

Dr. Carol Bond will share with the audience her experience of open access from the perspective of somebody who publishes with open access journals; as well as from the perspective of somebody who edits for the Journal of Innovation in Health Informatics and Journal of Medical Internet Research, both of which are open access journals.

To find out more about Dr. Carol Bond and her research, please visit this link – http://staffprofiles.bournemouth.ac.uk/display/cbond

Open Access Success Story #2

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The Faculty of Science and Technology Open Access Lunch and Networking event will take place today at 12noon, Shelly Lecture Theatre, at Poole House ground floor in Talbot.

In conjunction with the International Open Access week, Dr. Zulfiqar Khan shares his experience of Open Access.

Dr Zulfiqar Khan has led the University Sustainable Design Research Centre (now cluster) since 2007. The centre has grown its research and professional practice portfolio with significant international collaborations.

SDRC received its REF14 Panel Feedback as, “Sustainable Design Research Group had the highest proportion of outputs judged to be internationally excellent”. He is current lead/champion of REF 2020 UoA 12.

SDRC currently has thirteen PGRs (3 to be recruited soon), two postdoctoral research assistants (one to be recruited soon), three visiting professors, five visiting fellows and twelve academic staff. Majority of research is externally funded/match funded. Some of major funders include Ministry of Defence, Schaeffler, Future Energy Source ltd, National University of Science & Technology, SKF and WIT etc. for more information please visit SDRC.

Dr Zulfiqar Khan has established a significant research portfolio in corrosion, corrosion condition monitoring & simulation in collaboration with The Tank Museum and Ministry of Defence.

Recent publications from current research have been published in open access. Open access provides an opportunity of making research findings available to a wider audience especially those who do not necessarily subscribe to the journal itself or the database which include (the) specific journal(s).

HEFCE sets out post 2014 REF open access policy as, that in order for certain research to be eligible for submission to REF, their outputs should be made open access. There are several identified routes, e.g. gold open access or uploading to institutional repository where the material should be freely available for downloading or reading for anyone with an internet access. The output should also be easily discoverable.

The open access also works as a PR vehicle for research activity. Dr Zulfiqar Khan and his PhD student (Hammad Nazir) recently published in the Journal of Adhesion Science & Technology, Taylor & Francis, an SCI indexed journal. Taylor & Francis publish a list of twenty most read articles. Majority of top twenty most read publications are available since 2012. A recent paper which was published through the open access route entitled “Modelling of metal-coating delamination incorporating variable environmental parameters” is now the top most read paper in the list with 1620 views/downloads. This paper was available since December 2014.

Similarly “Optimisation of interface roughness and coating thickness to maximise coating–substrate adhesion – a failure prediction and reliability assessment modelling” was available since April 2015, has made it to the top most read publications with 586 views/downloads and is placed 8th (dated 18/09/2015).

While a third, recently published paper “A unified mathematical modelling and simulation for cathodic blistering mechanism incorporating diffusion and fracture mechanics concepts” which was available from Mar 2015 is now the 12th (dated 18/09/2015) most read publication with 496 views/downloads.

Dr Zulfiqar Khan said, that open access is an efficient vehicle to make our research outputs more widely available to bring significant benefits in terms academic, industrial and societal impacts.

 

Open Access Success Story #1

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The Faculty of Management Open Access Lunch and Networking event will take place today at 12noon, EB708, at the Executive Business Centre in Lansdowne.

Dr. Fabian Homberg will share with the audience his experience of Open Access especially in dealing with various publishers, his personal thoughts on advantages of open access and the long term sustainability of open access publishing.

 

BU International Open Access Week : 19 – 25 October 2015

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Open Access Week, a global event now entering its eighth year, is an opportunity for the academic and research community to continue to learn about the potential benefits of Open Access, to share what they’ve learned with colleagues, and to help inspire wider participation in helping to make Open Access a new norm in scholarship and research.

WHAT IS IT?       Open access is free, unrestricted access to peer-reviewed scholarly research literature and data.

WHY DO IT?       Publicly-funded research should be made freely available to the community who support it

BENEFITS

To the members of public

  • Allows access to journal articles without restrictions of costs and time delay
  • Reveals the latest medical discoveries and breakthroughs (which may save your life)
  • Gives crucial information  freely to medical professionals, students and nurses in developing countries so saving thousands of lives
  • Enriches the educational experience of millions of students and teachers around the world (who otherwise cannot afford subscriptions to prestigious journals)

To the academics

  • Removes  barriers  to networking and sharing research
  • Increases exposure and use of publications
  • Facilitates interdisciplinary collaboration and new discoveries
  • Increase usage, citations and impact

Please visit the links below to hear from our academics about some of the Open Access research that is available to you:

Celebrate Open Access at BU and join us at these exciting events.

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NB: Please email Charmain Lyons (clyons@bournemouth.ac.uk) if you wish to join the Faculty Open Access Lunch so that lunch can be ordered for you.

For more information about

  • The International Open Access Week and how you can get involved or help out;
  • Open access in general;
  • how to publish your article open access

Please get in touch with Pengpeng Hatch (pphatch@bournemouth.ac.uk, tel: 01202 963154).
All logo and colour scheme attributed to : www.openaccessweek.org

New BU Guide: Open Access and Depositing your Research

To support academic colleagues in depositing their research open access the BURO Team in Library and Learning Support have produced a brand new guide – Open Access and Depositing your Research.  Colleagues will find this guide particularly useful if you are…

  1. New to depositing your full text research in BURO via BRIAN
  2. Depositing your work as part of the Mock REF/internal review exercise

Guidance is provided in the following key areas:Open access and depositing your research

Please note: this guide is in development and more sections will soon be added. The guide will shortly appear on the deposit page in BRIAN.  The BURO Team welcome any feedback.

Please note: during this short period around the Mock REF/internal review exercise increased levels of deposit mean the BURO Editorial Team may take a little longer than usual to make your research open access and respond to any queries about your outputs. In recognition of this the online nomination form provides an option to indicate that you have submitted the your full text to BURO via BRIAN even if you are unable to provide a BURO web link for each of your outputs at the time of form completion.

Management of male obesity: The qualitative evidence (BMJ Open)

BMJ Open 2015Yesterday BMJ Open published our latest article on the weight management in obese men, under the title A qualitative evidence synthesis on the management of male obesity.[1]  To the best of our knowledge, this is the first synthesis of qualitative studies investigating men’s perceptions and experiences of weight management services.  The interdisciplinary study was conducted between the three research centres at the University of Aberdeen, namely the Health Services Research Unit (HSRU), the Health Economics Research Unit (HERU) and the Rowett Institute of Health & Nutrition, the University of Stirling’s NMAHP Research Unit, the University of Edinburgh’s Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research & Policy (SCPHRP) and Bournemouth University.

Studies published between 1990 and 2012 reporting qualitative research with obese men, or obese men in contrast to obese women and lifestyle or drug weight management were included. The studies included men aged 16 years or over, with no upper age limit, with a mean or median body mass index of 30 kg/m2 in all settings. In total 22 studies were identified.

Health concerns and the perception that certain programmes had ‘worked’ for other men were the key factors that motivated men to engage with weight management programmes. Barriers to engagement and adherence with programmes included: men not problematizing their weight until labelled ‘obese’; a lack of support for new food choices by friends and family, and reluctance to undertake extreme dieting. Retaining some autonomy over what is eaten; flexibility about treats and alcohol, and a focus on physical activity were attractive features of programmes. Group interventions, humour and social support facilitated attendance and adherence. Men were motivated to attend programmes in settings that were convenient, non-threatening and congruent with their masculine identities, but men were seldom involved in programme design.

The paper concluded that men’s perspectives and preferences within the wider context of family, work and pleasure should be sought when designing weight management services. Qualitative research is needed with men to inform all aspects of intervention design, including the setting, optimal recruitment processes and strategies to minimise attrition.  This paper grew out of the larger ROMEO study which was published in our full HTA (Health Technology Assessment) report, which is also freely available on line, click here! [2]

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

 

Reference:

  1. Archibald, D., Douglas, F., Hoddinott, P., van Teijlingen, E., Stewart, F., Robertson, C., Boyers, D., Avenell, A. (2015) A qualitative evidence synthesis on the management of male obesity. BMJ Open 5: e008372. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2015-008372 http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/10/e008372.full.pdf+html
  2. Robertson, C., Archibald, D., Avenell, A., Douglas, F., Hoddinott, P., van Teijlingen, E., Boyers, D., Stewart, F., Boachie, C., Fioratou, E., Wilkins, D., Street, T., Carroll, P., Fowler, C. (2014) Systematic reviews of & integrated report on the quantitative, qualitative & economic evidence base for the management of obesity in men. Health Technology Assessment 18(35): 1-424.  http://www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/118180/FullReport-hta18350.pdf

Mock REF – depositing your research outputs: BURO UPDATE

The first internal Research Excellence Framework (REF) preparation exercise invites academic colleagues to submit one to four outputs (published since 1 January 2014), which will be reviewed by a panel of internal expert reviewers.  You can find the Individual Outputs Nomination Form here.

Where possible all nominated outputs (specifically journal articles and conference contribution with ISSN) should be made available Open Access, by uploading them to the institutional repository Bournemouth University Research Online (BURO) via BRIAN.  The SHERPA RoMEO website will help you to upload the correct open access version of your work.  You will need to provide the BURO web link (e.g. http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/xxxxx) for each output in the nomination form.

Please note: during this short period of increased levels of deposit the BURO Editorial Team may take a little longer than usual to make your research open access and respond to any queries about your outputs. In recognition of this the online nomination form provides an option to indicate that you have submitted the your full text to BURO via BRIAN even if you are unable to provide a BURO web link for each of your outputs at the time of form completion.

Looking ahead you should aim to make your research outputs open access as an integral part of you publication process and deposit your full text within 3 months of acceptance.

For more guidance about the mock REF:

http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/ref/mock-ref-internal-light-touch-review-exercise-autumn-2015/

Congratulations to CMMPH Professor Edwin van Teijlingen on his publication !

Congratulations to CMMPH Professor Edwin van Teijlingen on his latest publication about why researchers do not always seek ethical permission for health research conducted in low income countries. The authors in this paper have identified and explained five possible reasons; a) approval not needed: b) not familiar with the ethics committee: c) applying the wrethicsong committee; d) resource constraints; and e) assumption that non-clinical research are exempted, which are of course overlap and interact each other, for not applying ethical approval in low income countries. They have also provided examples of ethical approval taken from other countries than the host countries and further go on to stress that junior researchers and students should be encouraged to be familiar with research ethical approval. In their paper, they encourage journal editors and peer reviewers to ensure ethical approval beinProfessor Edwin and Professor Padamg granted for manuscripts based on empirical studies. This paper was co-authored by BU visiting faculty Professor Padam Simkhada and recently published in  Nepal Journal of Epidemiology. The paper is freely available through the journal’s website http://nepjol.info/index.php/NJE/issue/view/919

Reference:

van Teijlingen E, Simkhada P. Failure to apply for ethical approval for health studies in low-income countries. Nepal J Epidemiol. 2015;5(3); 511-515

 

Pramod R Regmi, PhD

Post Doctoral Research Fellow, Faculty of Health and Social Science

Nominate your outputs now for the mock REF internal review

The first internal Research Excellence Framework (REF) preparation exercise is now taking place. Academic staff are invited to submit from one to four outputs (published since 1 January 2014) and these will be reviewed by a panel of internal expert reviewers.

The review exercise is open to all academic staff and if you wish to be considered for the review and have not yet nominated your outputs, please do so through this link as soon as possible:

https://bournemouth.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/mock-ref-light-touch-internal-review-individual-outputs

The nomination form will close on 19th October 2015.

Refer to this blog post for more info:

http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/ref/mock-ref-internal-light-touch-review-exercise-autumn-2015/

DROP IN – Mock REF: Be in it to win it!

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Emma Crowley from Library services will be holding a drop-in session to support academic colleagues in submitting their open access outputs to BURO via BRIAN ahead of the Mock REF submission deadline.

  • When: Monday 12-10-2015
  • Time: 10:00-11:00
  • Location: S102

Please feel free to bring your digital outputs with you so they can be submitted at the session.