Category / Publishing

Research in the news: ‘Making a difference in stroke care: the human aspects of care and practice’

Publishing

Research team at RBH BU researchers Dr Caroline Ellis-Hill and Dr Carole Pound, from the Centre for Qualitative Research have been working with a team of older people with experience of stroke and staff from the Royal Bournemouth Hospital stroke team to explore the human dimensions of stroke care.

In August the team launched a Humanising Care Toolkit in a celebration attended by service users, relatives, staff and Board members at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital Foundation NHS Trust. The toolkit is a flexible resource which can be used by staff members once they have been through their own humanisation development. It includes a DVD of stories of humanising care, a set of creative materials to use in workshops and a pack of humanising care cards as well as a user manual and electronically produced presentations and handouts. Feedback from the launch event suggests hospital staff and managers are keen to explore ways the framework and toolkit may enable different units and staff groups across the Trust to notice, value and reconnect with compassionate, human centred care and practice.

‘It’s absolutely fantastic work that is going to be crucial to developing an inclusive human culture in the Trust.’

 Service user stories also highlighted the value they placed on both humanising care and being part of a research team. For example, Wynn New one of the service user participants commented:

When I first joined the action research group I was terrified of having another stroke. I thought I would never go out by myself again.  Taking part in the group allowed me to share my experiences and feedback – what worked and what truly made a difference to my recovery. I finally have my confidence back and my fear has disappeared. I count my blessings everyday.’ 

Funded by the Burdett Trust for Nursing and inspired by the ground-breaking work of Les Todres (Emeritus Professor of Health Philosophy at BU) and Kate Galvin (Professor of Nursing PractHumanising care treeice, Brighton University) the research team explored experiences of both stroke service users and providers in relation to a conceptual framework of humanising care. This framework, described in a seminal paper by Todres et al (2009) describes eight interacting dimensions that help capture the depth and breadth of being treated as human within complex, busy healthcare systems.  The work is part of a larger study led by Professor Kate Galvin.  A second site in Yorkshire worked with service users and NHS providers in a Dermatology out-patient department in order to look at the transferable aspects of humanisation theory and learning.

The project used action research methods with a focus on creative methods and collaborative sharing of stories and experiences. The team aimed to explore the relevance of the humanising care framework and get beneath the surface of what makes care feel more or less human. The stories, techniques and findings were then collated into a resource to support a new wave of busy NHS practitioners to understand and sustain humanising care in practice and become ‘Humanising Care Champions’.

For more information on the Humanising Care Toolkit contact Carole Pound cpound@bournemouth.ac.uk or Caroline Ellis Hill cehill@bournemouth.ac.uk

For further information about the breadth of work at BU inspired by the humanisation framework please visit the Humanisation pages of the Faculty for Health and Social Care.

The launch of the toolkit was reported in a number of local papers, including the Blackmore Vale magazine.

Bringing FUSION to Nepal

Fusion, innovation, international, Knowledge Transfer, Publishing, Research Integritiy, student research, Training

FUSION abroad 2016We have written in many previous BU blogs about progress of our THET-funded project in southern Nepal (e.g. here AND here ). Today’s blog reflects on the use on BU’s unique FUSION approach in our project ‘Mental Health Training for Maternity Care Providers in Nepal‘.

DSC_0151Our BU-led project brings highly experienced health professionals, such as midwives, health visitors or mental health nurses, to Nepal to work as volunteer trainers. The training is aimed at community-based maternity care practitioners and addresses key mental health issues relevant to pregnancy and for new mothers and offers the required communication skills. These health professionals will bring their experience as health care providers as well as trainers in the field of mental health and maternity care/midwifery, mental ill-health prevention and health promotion. They volunteer for two to three weeks at a time to design and deliver training in southern Nepal.

logo THETThe Centre for Midwifery & Maternal Health (CMMPH) collaborates in this project with Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), the Department of Health, and Physical & Population Education at Nepal’s oldest university Tribhuvan University’s (TU). The project is supported in the field by a local charity called Green Tara Nepal. Our project is part of the Health Partnership such as Nepal. HPS itself is funded by the UK Department for International Development and managed by THET (Tropical and Health Education Trust).

Fusion Diagram Our maternal mental health project is a good example of BU’s FUSION approach as it combines EDUCATION (through the training of Auxiliary Nurse-Midwives in Nepal) by UK volunteers (representing PRACTICE) through an intervention which is properly evaluated (representing RESEARCH) is a perfect example of BU’s FUSION in action. Moreover, the project will be partly evaluated by FHSS’s Preeti Mahato as part of her PhD thesis research. This PhD project is supervised by Dr. Catherine Angell (CEL & CMMPH), BU Visiting Professor Padam Simkhada (based at LJMU) and CMMPH’s Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.BU’s focus on the FUSION of research, education and professional practice is a unique variant of the way UK universities (and many abroad) blend academic teaching, research and scholarship. FUSION is a key concept derived from BU’s strategic Vision & Values).

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Living with a long-term condition: new paper

open access, Publishing

A new open access paper by Jennifer Roddis (RKEO, HSS), Immy Holloway (HSS) and Carol Bond (HSS), in collaboration with Kate Galvin from the University of Brighton, has been published in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being. The paper – Living with a long-term condition: Understanding well-being for individuals with thrombophilia or asthma – discusses the findings of Jenny’s PhD study.

Much of the research undertaken indicates that those affected by long-term conditions experience this as being problematic. However, qualitative research may offer alternative insights, suggesting that these individuals are able to achieve well-being. This research identified a theory about how those with a long-term condition can adapt to it and learn to get on with their life. The paper makes recommendations as to how both individuals affected by such conditions, and healthcare professionals working with them, may use the findings.

 

Reference:

Roddis, J.K., Holloway, I., Bond, C. and Galvin, K.T., 2016. Living with a long-term condition: Understanding well-being for individuals with thrombophilia or asthma. Int J Qualitative Stud Health Well-being, 11: 31530 – http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/qhw.v11.31530

Business practitioners’ perspectives on the value of mobile technology: New Paper published by Dr Elvira Bolat

Publishing, Research themes

Dr. Elvira Bolat in the Faculty of Management published her latest paper today in the Journal of Customer Behaviour. This paper focuses on one of the issues Dr. Bolat has explored in her PhD thesis – values deriving from mobile technology use. No existing research maps and discusses holistically the values deriving from mobile technology use, capturing both strategic and operational opportunities, which are most likely to emerge in the business-to-business (B2B) context. This empirical paper addresses this gap. An adapted grounded theory approach is applied to collect and analyse in-depth interviews with 28 B2B practitioners from advertising and marketing firms. Whether mobile technology is a simple means to advanced communication with no physical boundaries of time and location, or a business tool to boost creative thinking, this study concludes that mobile technology represents a novel and unique category of technology because of its core distinctive feature, ‘being mobile’. B2B practitioners argue that the true nature of mobile technology lies in seeing it as a source of value that derives from using mobile technology. B2B practitioners view mobile technology not only as a purely technical tool (functional value) enabling effective communication (social value) but as a strategic tool driving balanced and flexible ways in managing business (emotional value) and enabling creative thinking (creative value). Additionally, mobile technology has enabled businesses move to online payments which helps them reach more customers. Merchant account services encompass a range of solutions designed to support businesses in processing electronic payments.

Full reference to the article: Bolat, E., 2016. Business practitioners’ perspectives on the value of mobile technology. Journal of Customer Behaviour, 15 (1), 31-48.

Read full paper at http://dx.doi.org/10.1362/147539216X14594362873451

New Paper by Dr Elvira Bolat and BA (Hons) Business Studies Graduate Jack Strong

Publishing, Research themes, student research

Dr. Elvira Bolat and her research supervisee, Jack Strong (BA Business Studies 2015 graduate), in the Faculty of Management published her latest paper today in the Journal of Customer Behaviour. The paper is more focused version of Jack’s final year research project which focused on Panasonic where Jack had done his placement during the third year of the studies. This paper explores customers’ perspectives on branding and the role of digital technologies in Business-to-Business context. Branding is a well-researched notion in the business-to-customer (B2C) environment but a concept which is unexplored in the business-to-business (B2B) context. Conceptually, similar to B2C organisations, digital communication via digital tools and devices allows B2B organisations to experience the benefits of exposing their brands to a wider audience. In reality, questions of whether branding is purposeful in the B2B context and what role digital technologies play in B2B branding remain open. This study explores branding in the B2B context, using Panasonic as a case study, to consider the value of B2B branding from the B2B customer (buyer) perspective. Results indicate that B2B branding is of importance in the B2B context, in particular for an organisation such as Panasonic where reputation is a driving force in attracting new B2B customers and nurturing long-term relationships with existing B2B customers. Moreover, this study concludes that whilst use of digital technologies enables the portrayal of brand perceptions of Panasonic, digital technologies have yet to be fully embraced for the purpose of branding in the B2B context.

Full reference to the article: Strong, J. and Bolat, E., 2016. A qualitative inquiry into customers’ perspectives on branding and the role of digital technologies in B2B: A case study of Panasonic. Journal of Customer Behaviour, 15 (1), 97-116.

Read full paper at http://dx.doi.org/10.1362/147539216X14594362873613

The Research and Knowledge Exchange (RKE) Development Framework: Academic Publishing

Post-award, Publishing

dev_frameworkThe Research and Knowledge Exchange (RKE) Development Framework,  ‘Academic Publishing‘ pathway targets academics, experienced or new to academic publishing. Workshop titles include ‘Open Access, BRIAN and the Impact Module’, ‘Writing a good abstract’, ‘Dealing with editors’, ‘Writing an academic paper’, ‘Targeting high quality journals’, ‘Writing Academy’ and ‘How to update your Staff Profile Pages using BRIAN’.

We’ll be populating the the OD website with more information and the booking link over the coming weeks. We’ll also be providing a timetable of all events as soon as possible. In the meantime, updates will be posted on the BU Research Blog and the Faculty blogs.

Public Health in Nepal: Vitamine A

international, open access, Publishing

Vit AThis week we published an editorial in the Journal of Biomedical Sciences on the question: “Is early diagnose for Vitamin A deficiency better than the current supplementation programme of Nepal?”
The editorial concludes that prevention is still better than cure, but instead of a mass Vitamin A supplementation in Nepal, we need a health promotion intervention aiming to increase the intake of relatively cheap vegetables and fruit (containing β carotene). In addition we need better surveillance and help to identify children with Vitamin A Deficiency and provide them with Vitamin A supplements. The primary focus should be on adopting sustainable food based approaches to combat vitamin A deficiency. In Public Health terms: rather than a blanket coverage of Vitamin A supplementation to whole population we should consider a targeted intervention aimed at those who need it most.

Reference:
Simkhada P, Sathian B, Adhikari S, van Teijlingen E, Roy B. (2015) Is early diagnose for Vitamin A deficiency better than the current supplementation programme of Nepal?. J Biomed Sci. 2(4):28-30.
http://www.nepjol.info/index.php/JBS/index

Harding & Pritchard paper has over 1,000 views in first month it is openly available

Publishing

cover_enThe Harding and Pritchard paper titled ‘UK and Twenty Comparable Countries GDP-Expenditure on Health 1980-2013: The Historic and Continued Low Priority of UK Health-Related Expenditure’, and published in the International Journal of Health Policy and Management, has had over 1,000 views in the first month it has been openly available.

For the majority of that time it has been made available in press, and only in the last few days has it been assigned to an issue. The paper illustrates the UK’s low proportional spend in relation to health related services:

It is well-established that for a considerable period the United Kingdom has spent proportionally less of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health-related services than almost any other comparable country. Average European spending on health (as a % of GDP) in the period 1980 to 2013 has been 19% higher than the United Kingdom, indicating that comparable countries give far greater fiscal priority to its health services, irrespective of its actual fiscal value or configuration. While the UK National Health Service (NHS) is a comparatively lean healthcare system, it is often regarded to be at a ‘crisis’ point on account of low levels of funding. Indeed, many state that currently the NHS has a sizeable funding gap, in part due to its recently reduced GDP devoted to health but mainly the challenges around increases in longevity, expectation and new medical costs. The right level of health funding is a political value judgement. As the data in this paper outline, if the UK ‘afforded’ the same proportional level of funding as the mean averageEuropean country, total expenditure would currently increase by one-fifth.

Research Data Management and you!

Publishing

Research Data Management is a hot topic, especially when applying for grants. We all have our own strategies for managing our data as a product of research. Sometimes data management is in the form of a box or filing cabinet in a locked office, an external hard drive, purchased cloud storage or a hard drive. Whilst this approach is comfortable and familiar, it’s unlikely to comply with funder requirements neither currently nor in the future.

The Library has a created a guide that will help with navigating the diverse requirements of grant funding councils, writing data management plans and all its intricacies. The guide, ‘Research Data Management’ is available here .

We welcome your feedback about this resource, please contact rdm@bournemouth.ac.uk.

There is also a very informative youtube video Data Sharing and Management posted by NYU Health Sciences Library.

Midwifery-led antenatal care models

open access, Publishing, writing

BU academics in CMMPH (Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinal Health) have been working with colleagues across the UK in the so-called McTempo Collaboration on mapping the key characteristics of midwifery-led antenatal care models. This week BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth published our paper that brings this evidence together [1].  The lead author of the paper, Dr. Andrew Symon, is based at the University of Dundee his co-authors are based at the University of Stirling, UCLAN, Queen’s University, Belfast, NHS Education for Scotland and Bournemouth University.  The McTempo (Models of Care: The Effects on Maternal and Perinatal Outcomes) collaboration is a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional research grouping established to explore and evaluate differentcare models used in maternity care.

Symon et al 2016 frameworkOur specific aim in this paper was to map the characteristics of antenatal care models tested in Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) to a new evidence-based framework for quality maternal and newborn care (QMNC) [2]. This offers the opportunity to identify systematically the characteristics of care delivery that may be generalizable across contexts, thereby enhancing implementation.  The paper concludes: “The QMNC framework facilitates assessment of the characteristics of antenatal care models. It is vital tounderstand all the characteristics of multi-faceted interventions such as care models; not only what is done but why itis done, by whom, and how this differed from the standard care package. By applying the QMNC framework we have established a foundation for future reports of intervention studies so that the characteristics of individual models can be evaluated, and the impact of any differences appraised.”

The paper has been published in an Open Access journal and is, therefore, easily available across the globe.

 

References:

  1. Symon, A., Pringle, J., Cheyne, H., Downe, S., Hundley, V., Lee, E., Lynn, F., McFadden, A., McNeill, J., Renfrew, M., Ross-Davie, M., van Teijlingen, E., Whitford, H, Alderdice, F. (2016) Midwifery-led antenatal care models: Mapping a systematic review to an evidence-based quality framework to identify key components and characteristics of care BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth 16: 168 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2393/16/168
  2. Renfrew MJ, McFadden A, Bastos MH, Campbell J, Channon AA, Cheung NF, Audebert Delage Silva DR, Downe S, Kennedy HP, Malata A, et al. (2014) Midwifery and quality care: findings from a new evidence-informed framework for maternal and newborn care. The Lancet, 384(9948): 1129-1145.

Brexit and the implications for Open Access

BRIAN, open access, PG research, Publishing

Whilst it’s relatively early to predict what Brexit will mean for Open Access in the UK, JISC recently released a blog post outlining the main issues that will arise from the UK’s decision to leave the EU.

The blog post raises issues around the future of EU OA policy and also funding.

At the present time, it appears the main effect of Brexit will be to create greater reliance on Green OA (usually accepted, peer-reviewed versions of outputs) rather than gold paid open access owing to fluctuating financial markets and uncertainty surrounding future European funding.

Library and Learning Support have recently created a OA support video, looking at the benefits of OA and how you can make your research OA through engaging with BRIAN and BURO.

Please contact the BURO team with any queries you may have and we will be happy to help.

Don’t forget our guide Open Access and Depositing your research

Presentation PhD student Jib Acharya in Liverpool

international, open access, PG research, Publishing, student research

Jib LJMU 2016Mr. Jib Acharya (FHSS) gave an interesting presentation yesterday about the qualitative research findings of his PhD at Liverpool John Moores University.  Jib’s PhD research focused on the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of poor women in Nepal about healthy eating and the study also identifies major food barriers.

His mixed-methods approach combines a quantitative questionnaire survey with qualitative research. Jib’s research project is supervised by Dr. Jane Murphy, Dr. Martin Hind and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen. Some of the preliminary findings of this FHSS thesis have already been published in two scientific journals [1-2].

References:

  1. Acharya, J., van Teijlingen, E., Murphy, J., Hind, M. (2015) Assessment of knowledge, beliefs and attitudes towards healthy diet among mothers in Kaski, Nepal, Participation 17(16): 61-72.
  2. Acharya, J., van Teijlingen, E., Murphy, J., Hind, M. (2015) Study of nutritional problems in preschool aged children in Kaski District in Nepal, Journal of Multidisciplinary Research in Healthcare 1(2): 97-118. http://dspace.chitkara.edu.in/jspui/bitstream/1/560/1/12007_JMRH_Acharya.

The Springer Compact offset model: update on progress

open access, Publishing

jisclogo

Original post by Mafalda Picarra, JISC – https://scholarlycommunications.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2016/07/06/the-springer-compact-offset-model-update-on-progress/

In this blog post, Jisc Collections provides an update on how the Springer Compact agreement is progressing in the UK.

In March 2015, Jisc Collections announced that it had reached an agreement with Springer for an offset model to contain the costs of publication and subscription access for UK institutions. Six months have passed since the agreement launched in January 2016, with an additional 368 articles published free of charge in the pilot phase between October and December 2015.

The Springer Compact agreement is a flipped model which enables researchers from 91 participating UK institutions to publish their articles immediately as open access in ~1,600 Springer journals as well as to access all content published in ~2,500 Springer journals. In this flipped model, rather than paying a subscription fee and an unknown number of APC charges, the institution pays a set fee for unlimited APCs based on their 2014 APC expenditure with Springer and a top up fee to cover access to all the subscription content – thus containing the total cost of ownership.

This model moves away from the traditional historical print spend model aiming to reduce costand administration barriers to hybrid open access publishing and to increase open access. All UK articles published in eligible Springer Open Choice hybrid journals are made immediately open access upon publication and are automatically compliant with funder requirements.

Since January, 1259 articles have been published by authors from 92% of UK institutions participating in the agreement (Figure 1). In only five months (January to May), 86% of UK institutions have already published open access articles equivalent to or in excess of their total 2014 APC spend. This means that researchers from these institutions are publishing more OA articles than they did in 2014 but the cost to the institutions is capped. If we look at the pro-rata (Jan-May) of the total fee paid to Springer for this year (2014 APC spend and subscription top up fee), 23% of these institutions have already published open access articles to value of the total combined fee.

Figure 1 Articles published by month.

Figure 1 Articles published by month.

In addition, the number of articles published on open access through Springer’s hybrid journals has increased by 25% in the first five months of the agreement when compared to the total number of articles published in 2015 (Figure 2).

Figure 2 Articles published by UK authors in Springer hybrid journals in 2015 (subject to APC payment) and 2016 (under the Springer Compact deal).Figure 2 Articles published by UK authors in Springer hybrid journals in 2015 (subject to APC payment) and 2016 (under the Springer Compact deal).

The subject areas where more articles have been published include Medicine (22%), Biomedical and Life Sciences (18%), Education (9%), Earth and Environmental Science (7%), Chemistry and Materials Science (6.6%), Engineering (6.5%), and Mathematics and Statistics (5.8%) (Figure 3).

Figure 3 Articles published by subject.

Figure 3 Articles published by subject.

Examples of journals with the highest number of publications include Diabetologia (26 articles), Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology (22 articles), Synthese (19 articles), Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (17 articles), Psychopharmacology (17 articles), and The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (17 articles) (Figure 4).

Figure 4 Journals with the highest number of publications.

Figure 4 Journals with the highest number of publications.

The feedback received from libraries at Jisc’s offsetting workshops[1] suggests that this is a workable and efficient model that other publishers could adopt. The administration has been easier for institutions, for instance, by rationalising the eligibility, approval and payment processes which consequently saves staff time. Institutions have reported that it is relatively easy to determine eligibility and that there is no need for authors to consider different application processes or funding routes. This model is also seen as beneficial for institutions given the fact that there are no fixed limits on the number of articles that authors can publish and authors are not required to use a code or a voucher to pay for APCs.

The Springer Compact agreement also helps researchers to comply with funders and institutions open access mandates. It does so by enabling compliance with the key requirements stated in various research funders open access policies: articles are made immediately available on open access (no embargo periods apply), articles are made openly available under CC BY licences, and a copy of the final peer-reviewed manuscripts will be deposited in repositories via Jisc’s Publications Router.

Paul Ayris, Director of UCL Library Services, said: “The Springer Compact deal is an excellent new model that enables UK authors to achieve Gold open access at no additional cost. As well as the significant financial benefits, it simplifies administration for authors and institutions, and streamlines the process of complying with funders’ open access policies. UCL wholeheartedly supports this model, and hopes to see other publishers following suit.”

Veronika Spinka, Open Access Manager, Springer Nature, added: “Springer Compact is a workable model that reduces the manual effort and workload for authors and institutions. Workflows provide a high-quality service level to accommodate all parties. Based on customer feedback, we continue to make our processes more efficient and reliable so that OA publishing becomes as easy as possible.”

By working with Springer and UK institutions to implement this model we continue to identify a number of areas where further improvements could be made. Some of these are about ensuring consistency in reporting (for example, by ensuring that research funders such as RCUK are acknowledged in the articles), others are about communications with authors and continuing to simplify the administration. We will continue to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of this agreement over the year and to share findings and recommendations for best practice with institutions and publishers. We also hope that other publishers will be encouraged by our initial evaluation of the Springer Compact model and consider exploring similar flipped models.

Information on the articles published on open access can be consulted on the OpenAPC initiative website.

For more information on how you can make use of this agreement BU has with Springer, please refer to this blog post : http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2016/04/11/you-can-now-publish-open-access-for-free-with-springer-open-choice-journals/

[1] Jisc has been running a series of workshops on ‘Getting the most from open access offsetting deals’ to inform staff in higher education institutions about our negotiated deals to help reduce the costs of publishing open access articles. These workshops have been attended by more than 40 participants from higher education institutions. The next workshop will be held on 25 July 2016 (https://www.jisc.ac.uk/events/getting-the-most-from-open-access-offsetting-deals-25-jul-2016).