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The Month in Research: June 2024

Publishing

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The Month in Research

The Month in Research is our monthly round-up sharing research and knowledge exchange successes from across the previous month, showcasing the amazing work taking place across BU.

Your achievements

Thank you to everyone who has used the online form to put forward their achievements, or those of colleagues, this month.

  • Professor John Oliver (Faculty of Media and Communication) delivered a keynote address to the Department for Levelling-up in UK Parliament. The topic focussed on ‘how to manage strategic uncertainty’ during times of organisational uncertainty. The talk was attended by 100+ senior managers and directors responsible for the department’s project portfolio.
  • Dr Sarah Elliott, Jon Milward and Dr Miles Russell (Faculty of Science and Technology) – archaeologists from the Department of Archaeology & Anthropology and the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences shared their latest research at a day conference with the Dorchester Association. (Nominated by Harry Manley)
  • Dr Leslie Gelling, Dr Sue Baron and Cathy Beresford (Faculty of Health and Social Sciences) have had their paper published in Health Expectations, entitled Embedding Public Involvement in a PhD Research Project With People Affected by Advanced Liver Disease. It was co-authored by members of our public involvement group. (Nominated by Cathy Beresford)
  • Professor Zoheir Sabeur (Faculty of Science and Technology) was featured in a Q&A article in the June 2024 edition of the Journal of Ocean Technology (pages 110 -111), answering questions about his career, inspirations and thoughts on Artificial Intelligence.
  • Professor John Oliver (Faculty of Media and Communication) was presented with the European Media Management Association’s highest award for “excellence in media management scholarship and practice” at the annual conference in The Netherlands. The award also recognises Prof. Oliver’s contribution to the development of the association, where he served on the Executive Board for many years and as the President between 2021-23. Prof. Oliver commented that: “Whilst it is an honour to be presented with an individual award, it is also in recognition of the many people that have helped me develop my research and the contribution that many of the association’s members have made over the years.”

Funding

 Congratulations to all those who have had funding for research and knowledge exchange projects and activities awarded in June. Highlights include:

  • Dr Simant Prakoonwit (Faculty of Science and Technology) has been awarded c.£220,000 by Innovate UK for their project Intelligent moderation and assistance for commercial image sharing website
  • Dr Chris Brown (Faculty of Science and Technology) has been awarded c.£42,000 by Leverhulme for their project Probing the distortion of a visual search template

Publications

Congratulations to all those who have had work published across the last month. Below is a selection of publications from throughout June:

Content for The Month in Research has been collected using the research and knowledge exchange database (RED), the Bournemouth University Research Online (BURO) repository and submissions via The Month in Research online form. It is by no means intended to be an exhaustive list. All information is correct as of 28.6.24.

Please use The Month in Research online form to share your highlights and achievements, or those of colleagues, for the next edition. We will take a break over the summer and be back in September with a bumper round-up.

Positionality in qualitative research

international, open access, Publishing, student research, Women's Academic Network, writing

At the online editorial board meeting today [Saturday 29th June] of the Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology I had the pleasure of seeing Bournemouth University’s latest paper ‘The Importance of Positionality for Qualitative Researchers‘ ahead of publication [1].  The lead author of this paper is Hannah Gurr and this methodology paper is part of her M.Res. research project in Social Work.  Hannah is supervised by Dr. Louise Oliver, Dr. Orlanda Harvey and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS).

Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology is a Gold Open Access journal so when it appears online it will be free to read for anybody across the globe.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

Reference:

  1. Gurr, H., Oliver, L., Harvey, O., Subedi, M.van Teijlingen, E. (2024) The Importance of Positionality for Qualitative Researchers, Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology 18 (1): 48-54.

FHSS academics’ paper cited 1,000 times

international, Publishing, Training, writing

This morning ResearchGate alerted us that our paper published two decades ago ‘The Importance of Pilot Studies’ has now been cited one thousand times [1].  This methods paper in the Nursing Standard is very often used by authors quoting a  paper in their research methods section when they have done pilot or feasibility study for a larger-scale study. This paper is also our second top cited paper with 1,982 citations on Google Scholar and, interestingly enough, on SCOPUS it is not listed at all.

Pilot studies are a crucial element of a good study design. Conducting a pilot study does not guarantee success in the main study, but it does increase the likelihood of success. Pilot studies fulfill a range of important functions and can provide valuable insights for other researchers. There is a need for more discussion among researchers of both the process and outcomes of pilot studies. 

This paper is one of several methods paper focusing on pilot studies we have published over the past 22 years [2-7].

 

Professors Vanora Hundley & Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

 

 

References:

  1. van Teijlingen E, Hundley, V. (2002) ‘The importance of pilot studies’ Nursing Standard 16(40): 33-36. Web: nursing-standard.co.uk/archives/vol16-40/pdfs/vol16w40p3336.pdf
  2. van Teijlingen E, Rennie, AM., Hundley, V, Graham, W. (2001) The importance of conducting & reporting pilot studies: example of Scottish Births Survey, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 34: 289-95.
  3. Simkhada, P, Bhatta, P., van Teijlingen E (2006) Importance of piloting questionnaire on sexual health research (Letter), Wilderness & Environmental Medical Journal, 17(4): 295-96. wemjournal.org/wmsonline/?request=get-document&issn=1080-6032&volume=017&issue=04&page=0295#Ref
  4. van Teijlingen E, Hundley, V. (2001) The importance of pilot studies, Social Research Update Issue 35, (Editor N. Gilbert), Guildford: University of Surrey.  Web:  http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/sru/SRU35.html
  5. Hundley, V., van Teijlingen E. (2002) The role of pilot studies in midwifery research RCM Midwives Journal 5(11): 372-74.
  6. van Teijlingen E, Hundley, V. (2005) Pilot studies in family planning & reproductive health care, Journal of Family Planning & Reproductive Health Care 31(3): 219-21.
  7. van Teijlingen E, Hundley, V. (2003) Pilot study, In: Encyclopaedia of Social Science Research Methods, Vol. 2, Lewis-Beck, M., Bryman, A. & Liao, T. (eds.), Orego, Sage: 823-24.

 

BU academic listed on Research.com

international, Publishing, writing

Research.com, a leading academic platform for researchers, has just released its 2024 Edition of the Ranking of Best Scientists in the field of Social Sciences and Humanities.  BU is listed as 509th globally.Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, in the Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH), is the BU social scientist listed in this year’s ranking.  The full UK ranking is available here: research.com/scientists-rankings/social-sciences-and-humanities/gb and the full world ranking is available here: research.com/scientists-rankings/social-sciences-and-humanities

 

Congratulations to Social Workers Drs. Oliver & Harvey

Publishing, Women's Academic Network, writing

Congratulations to Dr. Orlanda Harvey and Dr. Louise Oliver on the publication of their latest article ‘The use of poetry in form of haikus as a tool for critical reflection’ [1].  This latest academic publication has been published in Social Work Education The International Journal.  This interesting article focuses on critical reflection is an integral part of social work education and practice, yet it is widely understood to be hard to learn, teach, and assess. The authors introduced the use of poetry in the form of haikus to three different qualifying social work student groups to trial a creative way of getting students to engage in critical reflection. Ninety-six students took part in the reflection activity and 23 of the students agreed to take part in the research element, which used a mixed-methods approach to explore the value of haikus in critical reflection. Following the thematic network analysis process, we identified one global theme: that haikus were a useful tool for developing critical reflection. There were three organizing themes identified: the need to create a safe learning environment to support engagement; that taking part provoked reactions; and the activity held important elements that aided the development of critical reflection.

 

Well done !

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Faculty of Health & Social Sciences

Paper with 160,000 reads

Publishing, writing

Occasionally we have the pleasure to announce that one of our papers has been read 300 times or 2,000 times or has been cited 40 times.  However, some papers are in a different category.  Today ResearchGate informed us  that our 2002 paper ‘The Importance of Pilot Studies’ [1] has been read 160,000 times.  This paper was written over two decades ago and submitted to the Nursing Standard when we were both still at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.

 

Profs. Vanora Hundley & Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH)

 

Reference:

  1. van Teijlingen, E, Hundley, V (2002) The Importance of Pilot Studies, Nursing Standard, 16(40):33-6

New video summarises article on developing socio-emotional intelligence in doctoral students

BRIAN, Knowledge Transfer, open access, PG research, Publishing, Student Engagement, Women's Academic Network

Graphical abstract of the journal article available on the link

Graphical Abstract

Disseminating research in different mediums can be an effective way to reach wider audiences. Using video, illustrations and other types of graphic design and creative media can also bring research to life.

This new video summarises the paper in the Journal Encyclopedia titled “Developing the socio-emotional intelligence of doctoral students” by Principal academic at BU Dr Camila Devis-Rozental

It explores socio-emotional intelligence (SEI) within the context of doctoral supervision in the UK and it presents a variety of interventions that can be implemented throughout the doctoral journey to make a positive impact on the doctoral students’ SEI development and in supporting them to flourish and thrive in academia and beyond.

You can access the video Here

You can read the article Here

 

Article Processing Charges

BRIAN, open accecss, Publishing

Keywords: APC, Open access, REF, Repositories, Journals, Outputs.

APC and subscription-based models have their specific yet intersecting merits. Here in the UK, several aspects of publications have been repositioned during the last REF2021 census period. Lord Stern review led to several key changes, especially in terms of reporting research. Although the costs of APCs are high, HEIs have ringfenced QR funding to support outputs in quartile two and above through an internal review process. Similarly, publishers have institutional partnerships where partial or full waivers are offered. Several reputable publishers have introduced incentives to waive or partially waive APCs, for example, by contributing to the review process, participating as editors, and recommending high-quality manuscripts in terms of originality, significance, and academic depth.

APC route, for example, Creative Commons CC BY, offers many benefits to researchers, academics, and especially early career researchers in terms of flexibility of literature use as compared to traditional publication processes, such as the complexity and costs associated with permission to use or reuse infographics, including authors’ own results and images where copyright transfer has occurred. On the other hand, APCs provide an opportunity for wider availability of research to be read, used, and applied within research contexts where funding for subscription-based models is not generous or sometimes limited. Making preprint peer-reviewed and accepted author version manuscripts available on institutional repositories is a better alternative to APCs.

Traditional and legacy practices could benefit from dialogue and consideration; publishers’ subscription models could be diversified for greater inclusivity by offering variations in subscription fees based on certain metrics such as a country’s GDP or RPI. Revenues generated from both subscription and APCs should be more transparent, with figures available to public and open to stakeholders feedback. Profits should be reinvested in discounted subscription fees for HEIs, funding research through RC UK initiatives and similar programmes, and supporting early and mid-career researchers.

Another aspect which is not usually discussed is that traditionally, journals editorial teams, especially editors and chief editors, serve in their roles for prolonged periods. Although unintended, this inadvertently limits opportunities for diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunities for a diverse community of researchers worldwide. New thinking is needed to change the structure of publishers’ journal editorial teams to meet twenty-first-century needs. Some initial measures could include: (i) open calls for expressions of interest in editorial team roles, including editors and chief editors, (ii) transparent recruitment based on person specifications, and (iii) a maximum two-year tenure in the role. Subscription fees and APC revenue, combined with alternative grants from research councils and charities, could be used to incentivise engagement with the publishing process, from editorial board participation to contributing to the review process.

Zulfiqar A Khan
Professor of Design, Engineering & Computing
NanoCorr, Energy & Modelling (NCEM) Research Group Lead
Email: zkhan@bournemouth.ac.uk