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Guidance on using the new research website

Training

Location of guides on research website admin dashboard

As promised, we have published two supporting documents to the new research website admin area. You can access this by logging into the site here with your usual BU username and password.

The first document is a technical guide, written by Matt Northam, which takes you through the process of uploading content to the main sections of the website and research centre pages. It provides a step by step explanation of what to do, as well as screen shots to give a visual aid.

The second provides guidance on writing style and image use. This is written by Mike O’Sullivan and me (Sally Gates). It provides stylistic suggestions, such as whether to write in the first person or third person. This document also provides information about how you can obtain images to accompany your content.

If you have a question that we haven’t covered here, please contact research@bournemouth.ac.uk. If it is likely to be a common question we’ll add it to the guide.

And lastly, a quick ‘save the date’… We have just booked two more web training sessions in Studland House, Lansdowne Campus on Friday 7 February 2014  10-11:30am and 12-1:30pm (bring sandwich for that one)! We will set up an Eventbrite page for you to book and will post the link on the blog later this week.

Latest major funding opportunities

Funding opportunities

The following opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:

The AHRC and BBC Radio 3 are looking for applications for the New Generation Thinkers of 2014. Up to sixty successful applicants will have a chance to develop their programme-making ideas with experienced BBC producers at a series of dedicated workshops and, of these up to ten will become Radio 3’s resident New Generation Thinkers. They will benefit from a unique opportunity to develop their own programmes for BBC Radio 3 and a chance to regularly appear on air. The closing date is 06/02/14.

The Alzheimer’s Society is offering PhD Studentships and Doctoral Training Centre grants, both with a closing date of 17/04/14. Planning ahead, the calls for Clincal Training Fellowships and Postdoctoral Fellowships will open in May/June 2014.

For those researching in the fields of biotechnology and biological sciences, the BBSRC is offering a number of grants. These are Strategic longer and larger grants (sLoLas), which closes on 09/04/14, Responsive-mode grants up to £2m, Industrial Partnership awards, Stand-alone LINK awards to encourage collaboration with industry, the New Investigator scheme to assist early years researchers and a joint call from BBSRC – Brazil (FAPESP) , promoting international collaboration. All but the first call have a deadline for submission of 29/04/14. 

The ESRC and Scottish Government  invite proposals for What Works Scotland (WWS). The aim of WWS is to deepen the impact of the emergent Scottish approach to public service delivery and reform, by evaluating evidence in delivery of that approach. The closing date for this £3.75m award is 06/03/14. The bidder workshop takes place on 14/01/14.

Do you or one of your Early Years Researchers deserve to be nominated for an award? Philip Leverhulme Prizes recognise the achievement of early career researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future career is exceptionally promising. The prize scheme makes up to thirty awards of £100,000 a year, across a range of academic disciplines. The 2014 round opens on 06/01/14 and closes to nominations on 14/05/14

Do you have an innovative approach that could return life to the UK high street? If so, the Technology Strategy Board is offering  up to £8m in an SBRI competition to encourage new ways of attracting people back to UK high streets, in their Re-imagining the high street call. If you wish to apply, you must register by 26/02/14 and the closing date is 05/03/14. 

The Technology Strategy Board is to invest up to £4.5m in collaborative research and development that addresses the technical challenges and business opportunities presented by the huge growth in data. Additional funding may be available from TSB partners. Applicants must register by 26/02/14 and the closing date is 05/03/14. 
 
Investment of up to £1m for research proposals identifying novel and innovative ideas to meet communication security challenges ranging from enabling home working to sending secure data to intelligence officers on the ground is available from the Technology Strategy Board. If interested in aplying to the scheme, Secure working in insecure environments, please register by 26/02/14. The closing date is 05/03/14. 

The Wellcome Trust is offering Translation Awards to develop innovative and ground breaking new technologies in the biomedical area. The closing date for Concept Note is  25/04/14 and the preliminary deadline 15/06/14, with final presentations in January 2015

Please note that some funders specify a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKE Support Officer.

You can set up your own personalised alerts on ResearchProfessional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s RKE Officer in RKE Operations or see the recent post on this topic.

Real Lives, Celebrity Stories Book Launch 29 January

 

 

 

 

 

To celebrate the publication of  Real Lives, Celebrity Stories, edited by Bronwen Thomas and Julia Round, the Media School’s Narrative Research Group will host a book launch at 3 p.m on 29 January in the Casterbridge suite.  Featuring contributions by several colleagues from the Media School, including Shaun Kimber, Peri Bradley, Darren Lilleker and Sue Thomas, the book was inspired by the first symposium organised by NRG back in 2010 and explores narratives of ordinary and extraordinary people in television, film, fan cultures, comics, politics and cyberspace.  At the launch, the editors and contributors will provide a brief introduction to each of their chapters, and light refreshments and wine will be provided. All welcome.

 

Introducing the Fast Track Status – application process now open!

Guidance

In an attempt to sharpen the response time of some of our knowledge exchange activities, a new process is to be introduced .  During the last 18 months feedback from academics engaged with BU’s knowledge exchange (KE) vehicles suggests that our RKE processes do not always provide the speed and flexibility to operate effectively within a commercial environment.  In light of this feedback and under the direction of Professor Bennett, the Research and Knowledge Exchange Office (RKEO) has worked with academics to review the current processes and, in collaboration with Legal Services, have drafted a series of recommendations.  These measures should enable those with a proven track record for KE activity to have greater autonomy and empower them to negotiate and close deals with clients in a more flexible manner, thereby providing a more responsive service.

The new process, ‘Fast Track status’, allows for expedited procedures to operate (within selected KE units) thereby enabling them to operate in a more entrepreneurial manner.  Fast Track status will be provided by application to KE units that request such status and subject to central audit by both RKE Operations and Legal Services to ensure that the processes are operating within agreed BU policies and the KE strategies of Schools.

Please refer to the Fast Track Status policy document for greater detail of the Fast Track status and guidance on completing the application form.

All applications will require authorisation by the Dean of School/Faculty.  If an application is successful, this signed form will act as the APF for all bids/projects from the individual/unit that meet the criteria agreed for Fast Track Status (e.g. individual KE projects under £25k (exclusions apply)).  The application will seek confirmation that it aligns to the Schools KE strategy and this will need to be confirmed by the Dean.    Recognising that the processes are there for good reason it is not appropriate to change them for all KE work.  Instead it is recommended that special status be applied to certain individuals/units to allow them to operate under licence outside of some of these processes enabling a more entrepreneurial approach.  To clarify, this status isn’t something that would be available to everyone and would only be awarded on the basis of set criteria against with units apply for such status (see the policy document for more information).

The timeline for implementation is shown below for information:

Time estimate Description Dates
Week 1 Fast Track Status call opens: RKE Ops advertise application process and notify interested parties. 13/1/14
Week 3 Application deadline. 31/1/14
Week 4 Collation and preparation of applications: RKE Ops collate applications and, together with Legal Services and Finance, provide input on the track record of applicants and ensure that BU’s charitable status is not impinged by such work (i.e. to ensure that the public benefit is clear) before forwarding documentation on to the PVC. 3/2/14 – 13/2/14
Week 6 Review of applications: PVC reviews applications and approves/ rejects; RKE Ops notify applicants of results. 13/2/14 – 21/2/14
Week 7 Drafting of standard contractual documentation and daily rates: Legal Services meet with successful applicants to agree contractual documentation required for activity; RKE Ops create competitive daily rates for each successful applicant. 24/2/14 – 14/3/14
Week 10 Fast Track Status operational 17/3/14

The application process is now open.  Please note that the closing date is 31 January 2014 and late submissions will not be accepted.  Applications must be submitted by the Dean of School/Faculty to jgarrad@bournemouth.ac.uk.

If you have any queries then please contact Jo Garrad at jgarrad@bournemouth.ac.uk.

BU Research Highlights of 2013

Awarded & submitted bids

2013 was an great year for research at BU.  Here are the fabulous highlights for your perusal, in no particular order:

1. BU submitted to REF 2014 – After many years of blood, sweat and tears, we submitted to eight Units of Assessment (UOAs) in REF 2014.  Hooray!  We submitted 33% of eligible academic staff, an increase of c. 10% compared to RAE 2008.  The results are due out in December 2014.  Read our previous REF posts for further information.

2. BU Festival of Learning 2013 – The inaugural Festival of Learning took place over a two week period in June 2013.  Over 100 free events took place, attracting over 4,000 attendees.  The Festival the largest public engagement event that BU has ever held.  We will be holding the second Festival of Learning in June 2014.

3. The Centre for Digital Entertainment (CDE) – The CDE, jointly run by Bournemouth University and the University of Bath, won renewed funding from EPSRC in November 2013 to keep the Centre going for another 8 years (PI – Jian Jun Zhang).  It will fund another 50 doctoral students at the CDE, which creates innovative funded research and development projects for the games, animation, VFX, simulation and cultural industries. It embeds doctoral researchers into companies where they work on research and development projects, studying for an Engineering Doctorate while contributing positively to the industry in which they are working.  BU also submitted another bid to the same EPSRC call that got through to the final interview stage but was unfortunately not funded.

4. AHRC Science in Culture award – BU was the lead organisation for a Science in Culture award (total value £1.94 million) from the AHRC to research cultural and scientific perceptions of human-chicken interactions (PI – Mark Maltby).  The aim is that this grant will radically inform how we manage and perceive chickens as a food source in the future.  Read more here: http://research.bournemouth.ac.uk/2013/09/chicken-coup.

5. EC HR Excellence in Research Award – BU was awarded the European Commission’s HR Excellence in Research award in January 2013.  The award recognises the work BU has already undertaken to improve the working conditions and career development of all its staff undertaking research, and the university’s ongoing commitment to aligning policy and practice to the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers.

6. BU’s online RKE presence was vastly improved – During 2013 we launched the new Staff Profile Pages to profile the excellent academic, research and PGR colleagues that work at BU.  The revamped Business Services and Regional Engagement website was also launched and, most excitingly, in December we launched the beta version of the new research website.  These key initiatives will raise the external RKE profile of the University.  In the case of the Staff Profile Pages and new research website, you are able to add your own content rather than waiting for a colleague in your School, RKEO or M&C to add the content on your behalf.

7. BU and Poole Hospital researchers won a prestigious IET Award – In November 2013 BU’s Dr Venky Dubey and Neil Vaughan and Poole Hospital’s Dr Mike Wee won a prestigious Institution of Engineering and Technology award for a medical device they developed that will make epidural injections safer and more effective.  Read more here: http://research.bournemouth.ac.uk/2013/11/epidural-simulator-wins-institution-of-engineering-and-technology-innovation-award/.

8. Bryce Dyer presents at the British Science Festival – In May 2013 Bryce Dyer won the prestigious Isambard Kingdom Brunel Award to present at the British Science Festival 2013.  The lecture, entitled ‘Prosthesis, Disability and the role of Technology in Elite Sport’, gave an illuminating account of the work that Bryce Dyer has been conducting at Bournemouth University.  Bryce joins the ranks of previous award lecturers such as Professor Brian Cox, Professor Richard Wiseman, and Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock.  Read more here: http://news.bournemouth.ac.uk/2013/09/12/bryce-dyer-wins-isambard-kingdom-brunel-award-at-british-science-festival/.

9. Huge successes with winning EU funding – In 2009-10 our research funding received from EU government sources (such as the EC) was £100k.  Since then it has increased significantly to an all-time high of £850k in 2012-13.  In 2013 BU academics were awarded lots of new research grants including:

  • Prof Heather Hartwell was awarded €433k (BU total) from the Marie Curie (IAPP) strand for a project named ‘VeggieEat’.  BU is the lead for this project with 4 partners.
  • Prof Hongnian Yu was granted a €705k Erasmus award for a project named ‘FUSION’. BU is the lead for this project with 19 partners.
  • Dr Raian Ali was awarded €100k from the Marie Curie (CIG) strand for a project entitled ‘Social Adaptation’.
  • Prof Jian Jun Zhang was awarded €113k (BU total) from the Marie Curie (IRSES) stand for a project entitled ‘AniNex’.BU is the lead for this project with 4 partners.
  • Prof Jian Jun Zhang was also granted a €312k FP7 Collaborative Project (STREP) award for a project called ‘Promoting Scientific Creativity by Utilising Web-Based Research Objects (Dr Inventor)’.BU is one of 8 partners.
  • Prof Anthea Innes was awarded €75k from the Erasmus fund for a project called ‘Joint Masters: Positive about Dementia’. BU is one of 6 partners.

Roll on 2014!

CoPMRE Visiting Professor wins Wellcome Trust grant for theatre piece

 

 

 

Professor Jonathan Cole, Consultant in Neurophysiology at Poole Hospital and Visiting Professor at BU’s Centre of Postgraduate Medical Research and Education (CoPMRE), was recently part of a team to win a Wellcome Trust Large Arts Award for a theatre piece, ‘Chasm of Sorrow; Chekhov and the Island of Sakhalin’ with artist Andrew Dawson, Chekhov’s biographer Donald Rayfield, and medical historian Marius Turda.

This follows a development grant from the Wellcome Trust which allowed the team to travel to Sakhalin to explore Russian physician and author, Anton Chekhov’s extraordinary journey across Siberia to visit the penal colony on Sakhalin Island in 1890. Chekhov’s book, ‘Sakhalin Island’ combined his literary observation with medical data in an attempt to humanise conditions there.

To watch a short film from Professor Cole’s trip to Sakhalin and for more information on the project, please see:

 http://therussiandoctor.com/

 http://chasmofsorrow.com/

 http://wellcomehistory.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/medicine-in-the-cards/

 http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/stellent/groups/corporatesite/@msh_publishing_group/documents/web_document/wtp054224.pdf

Surveys and Questionnaires Workshop: essential researcher training

Training

This session will cover survey and questionnaire design, construction, sampling, methods and analysis. An essential tool for many areas of research!

Facilitated by: Edwin Van Teijlingen

Aimed at: Academic Staff

Title: Surveys and Questionnaires Workshop

Date: Wednesday 15th January, 2013

Time: 12.30-13.30

Location: S305, Third Floor, Studland House, Lansdowne Campu

To book your place on this workshop, please email staffdevelopment@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Sustainable Design Research Centre: Research Seminar

PG research

Title – Understanding the corrosion of archaeological iron to better manage its conservation

Date:  Wednesday   12-03-2014

Start: 12:00 Finish: 12:30

Venue: PG 22 (Poole House)

Abstract – Worldwide there are millions of archaeological iron objects stored in museums. Most are inherently unstable, with their chloride content being cited as being the main corrosion driver in conjunction with relative humidity. Attempts to prevent their corrosion are time consuming and costly, with limited numbers of evidence-based conservation options available to managers. The talk reports work examining relationships between chloride and relative humidity for archaeological iron. The outcomes of the study are discussed in relation to their potential for developing new approaches to managing preservation of the archaeological iron heritage.

The above seminar will be delivered by Professor David Watkinson. He is Head of Conservation at Cardiff University, where he teaches undergraduate and post-graduate conservation students and directs conservation research. The Cardiff University ferrous metals research group is quantifying the corrosion rate of archaeological iron and evaluating desalination treatments, as well as carrying out studies to quantify the performance of protective coatings for heritage wrought iron and steels. David’s corrosion research underpinned the design for the desiccated storage of Brunel’s iconic steamship ss Great Britain and in 2010 he was awarded the Plowden Medal for innovative research and services to conservation.

All BU staff and students, who have interest in this area in terms of research and education, are invited to this research seminar. Please feel free to forward this invitation to your external contacts who might have interest in corrosion, conservation, structural integrity and related area.

These seminars are organised by the University Sustainable Design Research Centre in the Faculty of Science & Technology to provide a platform for disseminating latest research activities and results. These seminars are good opportunity of networking for both BU staff and students.

If you would like further information on research activities in corrosion, corrosion simulation and corrosion monitoring please visit SDRC webpage. For any specific inquiries please contact

Dr Zulfiqar Khan (Associate Professor)

Director Sustainable Design Research Centre

Bournemouth Research Chronicle

Research themes

The third edition of the Bournemouth Research Chronicle (BRC) is now published. Thank you very much to everyone who contributed.

Front cover of the BRC

This is a glossy ‘coffee table’ magazine with some lovely images.  It is aimed at peer researchers and research collaborators, prospective funders and (perhaps most importantly) research users such businesses, government organisations, policy makers and charities.

We all know that communication is an integral part of the link between research and societal impact and this magazine is a great way to get the message heard by the right people.

Content is presented through BU’s eight research themes. This edition provides a snapshot of some of the work BU submitted to the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014. In particular it focuses on the societal impact of our research, which forms a key part of REF2014.

 

DistributionInside cover of the BRC

Every BU academic will receive a copy of the BRC. My colleagues and I will be in the Atrium, Poole House on Tuesday and Thursday next week with a large stash so do pop along, say hello and pick up yours. Otherwise, we’ll put it in the internal post for you.

Throughout January I’ll be sending the BRC to an extensive list of research users, including policy makers, community figures, opinion leaders, businesses and journalists. I will be providing a supply to each School so please do send it to your contacts, collaborators, peers, prospective funders, industry partners or anyone else who has an interest in BU’s research.

R&KEO will keep a larger stock of the BRC. If you would like copies for an event or conference then email me (Sally Gates – Editor) to arrange a delivery.

Thank you again to everyone who contributed and happy reading!

New Year’s Research Resolution #5 – contribute to the new research website

Guidance

Happy New Year to you all and welcome back to work!

Each day this week we’ll be posting a New Year’s Research Resolution to help you get back into the swing of things. Today’s resolution is to contribute to the new research website.

BU’s new research website was launched in beta (i.e. test version) in December and has a radically updated design, presenting our research around our eight society-focused Research Themes. In each section content is displayed by research news, research impact, public engagement and postgraduate research. It is also possible to view content by each REF Unit of Assessment and see details of our Research Centres.  You can access the new website here:  http://research.bournemouth.ac.uk.

One of the key reasons for the new research website is to ensure that our researchers are able to easily and frequently share their research online.  Everyone will be able to craft their own content and upload articles themselves.  The Research and Knowledge Exchange Office (R&KEO) will perform a light-touch check to ensure the correct tags are added and new content will go live on the site within 1-2 working days.  The webpages are yours to add content to!

Contributing to the new website is easy!  Content is added via WordPress (the same as adding posts to the BU Research Blog) and can be done by clicking on this link (your logon will be your BU network logon): http://research.bournemouth.ac.uk/login.  We want you to add content about your research projects, the research collaborations you are involved with, the research your PhD students are undertaking, your public engagement and outreach activities, news about you, your research and your research centre, etc.

All BU staff automatically have access to add content using their network logon. Once you have logged in for the first time we can give you additional access to edit and contribute to relevant research centres as well. Email research@bournemouth.ac.uk to request additional admin rights.

If you would like training in how to add content to the new website then sessions are available.  There are some workshops taking place next week (you can book online here). Further sessions are currently being scheduled. Please contact Sally Gates for more information..

Adding content is quick and easy, and shows the external world how vibrant and exciting research is at BU!  And that’s why your New Year’s Research Resolution #5 is to add content to the new website!

Knowledge Point based annotation for Open Educational Resources

PG research

Our next Creative Technology Research Centre Research Seminar will be presented by Xinglong Ma.

Title: Knowledge Points based annotation for Open Educational Resources

Date: Wednesday 15th January 2014

Time: 2 – 3PM

Venue: P302 LT

Linking Open Data Cloud

Abstract:  In recent years, the emergence of open educational resources (OERs), in particularly Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), such as Coursera, Edx, Udacity, are making efforts to enhance openness and reuse regardless of demographic constraints. In 2011, the first course, “Introduction to AI”, from Stanford University reached 160,000 enrolments, and in the following years, millions of learners have been involved in the MOOCs. High dropout rates ensued in this self-regulated and self-controlled learning process. In order to encourage seamless learning under the open and reusable learning environment, an innovative approach is proposed based on semanticized Knowledge Points. This talk will discuss the concept of Knowledge Points and suggest the potential values of the Knowledge Points with semantics by comparing them with other annotation approaches.

Have your say in shaping BU’s RKE strategy – deadline extended!

The deadline for commenting on the draft Institutional Development Plan for RKE has been extended by one week to Friday 17th January.

As part of the delivery planning process in 2013, a draft institutional development plan for research and knowledge exchange (RKE) at BU was produced. The aim of the document was to set out a long-term plan for developing and supporting RKE activity to meet the objectives of the BU2018 strategy. The aim is to instigate the plan from early 2014.

The plan has been drafted and has been road tested with UET, URKEC and around 20 academics to date. We are now seeking views from the academic community on the plan as a whole and on specific elements of the plan. Your feedback, comments and ideas will feed into the final version which will be the blueprint for how RKE activity is supported and developed in the long-term.

Feedback and discussion will be facilitated online. Upon accessing the site you will be able to read the plan in its entirety and see the key elements on which we are seeking views and suggestions.

Click on one of the topics and you will be presented with a brief summary of what is being proposed as part of the institutional development plan. Beneath this text you will see the previous comments that have been left by colleagues. You are strongly encouraged to add a reply stating your own views and suggestions. This is especially important and will ensure that the academic community has shaped the support and development mechanism put in place. If you wish to feedback confidentially then please send your comments to Professor John Fletcher, cc’d to Julie Northam.

The aim of this website is to provide a forum to facilitate the discussion of the plan as a whole and the identified key elements. Providing feedback works in the same way as adding a comment to the Research Blog, i.e. you can add a comment and this will be visible to all other viewers. The site is password protected and the password is only available to BU staff from the Staff Intranet.

This feedback exercise will run from 28 November until 17 January. A final version of the plan will be circulated to all staff in early 2014.

The site is password protected to ensure only BU staff are able to contribute.  To access the password please see the story on the Staff Intranet: https://staffintranet.bournemouth.ac.uk/news/news/thismonth/rkefeedbackneeded.php

Book Now! AHRC visiting BU – Monday 20th Jan and British Academy in Feb and Leverhulme Trust in March 2014

Funding opportunities

Attention!! Funder visits – many of you may have missed this Blog post sent by Corrina at the end of November 2013 however it is not too late to get yourself booked in….

Working on a variety of initiatives in R&KEO over the years, one element of development which we receive consistently excellent feedback, is the events we arrange where funders to come to BU and present their organisations funding priorities and advice on making an application. We have arranged for several funders to visit BU in 2014, and are re-advertising the first three in order for you to block out time in your diary now!

On Monday 20 January 2014, the AHRC will be visiting to discuss their research priorities, calls and their top tips for making a submission. On Wednesday 19 February 2014, The British Academy will be visiting to discuss proposals they fund and share their tips on making an application. On Wednesday 19 March 2014, The Leverhulme Trust which funds all academic disciplines will be visiting to discuss their grants and give advice on making an application.

Spaces on all these events are limited due to the rooms available so booking is essential! Grants Academy members can be guaranteed a space by emailing Dianne. The booking hyperlinks are:

AHRC funder visit

British Academy funder visit

Leverhulme Trust  funder visit

Erasmus Mundus Call 3rd March 2014 – R&KEO need to be aware of your application NOW

Just a reminder for Erasmus Mundus Action 2 submissions, please get in touch with Paul Lynch or Sarah Katon as soon as possible if you wish to apply for this call. Partners must now be reviewed as part of our new mandatory internal processes at application stage so If you are approached to be part of an Erasmus Mundus proposal, or would like to coordinate one then you will need to complete the Partnership Development Proposal form and return it to us by 27th January 2014.

 If you wish to participate in an Erasmus Mundus and have not notified R&KEO by 27th January then you must make an appeal to your Deputy Dean Research & Enterprise and PVC Research and Innovation Professor John Fletcher.

Please refer to Corrina Osborne’s blog post back in October which details this new process.

Strategic approaches to getting your work published

Guidance, Publishing

I read an extremely good article this week on Strategic Approaches to Getting Published, written by Phil Ward (University of Kent) as well as a presentation by Frances Bell (University of Leicester) (Developing a Publication Strategy).  Now that we’re in the assessment period for the next REF exercise (likely to be REF 2020) we need to focus on personal publication strategies.  This post shares some of the key messages and advice on personal publication strategies:

Have a publication strategy and review it every year or two – Try to keep in mind the direction in which you want your research to develop, and what publications will help to build your profile.  Try not to be diverted from this!  Your strategy should include different media and channels.  It should include information on your goals (what will you publish in the next week, year, five years, etc), uncertainties and development needs, and resources available to you (e.g. a mentor, peer review of your paper prior to submission, access to funds for open access charges, etc).  You should regularly check progress against your goals.

Balanced publications portfolio – Try and develop a balanced publication portfolio. You don’t always need to be targeting top journals, and sometimes you need to balance several factors:

  • Audience: who do you want to appeal to? Should you be thinking beyond your narrow disciplinary boundaries, or focussing more intensively on it?
  • Impact: do you want the findings of your research to be felt outside of academia?
  • Career Progression: will the publication help in the development of a strong CV?
  • REF: will the publication be a strong, positive contribution to your discipline?
  • Timing: do you need to get something out quickly, or work longer on a discipline-changing piece of research?
  • Co-authorship: would co-authorship help or hinder your publication record?
  • Open Access: will be increasingly important for the REF, but is it worth considering to help with your citations and the impact of your research?

Choosing the right journals – the ‘right journal’ is often viewed as being one with a high impact factor however this is an archaic and somewhat controversial system, and is based on the average number of citations over a two-five year period.  The system is open to abuse, and varies widely between disciplines.  However, it is still seen as a rough and ready indicator of esteem.

The following video is by Karin Dumstrei, Senior Editor at EMBO Journal.  It is worth 3 minutes of your time to watch and listen to the tips she gives!

Her advice for writing a journal article is to always:

  • Choose a project that excites you;
  • Tell a good story;
  • Select the right journal;
  • Avoid the three ‘don’ts’, namely: dont’ overstate your case, ignore others, or hold back data;
  • Be responsible with your data – i.e. say what you see rather than what you want to see.

High impact journals tend to have broader audiences, so you need to:

  • avoid jargon;
  • concentrate on the message;
  • write shorter articles (e.g. Science articles are generally 3-4 pages);
  • avoid too much detail. Additional data can be provided in ‘supplementary material’.
A good covering letter is essential.  It should summarise why your article is right for the journal you’re targeting.  Take time to get this right. Keep it succinct, but explain the novelty and importance of your research, and why you are approaching that journal in particular.
There are seven key tips for writing and publishing a journal article:
  • Title: make it engaging but keep it short, and avoid technical terms.  Also avoid terms which might give the impression of limited reach and significance of your research, e.g. ‘a local case study’ or ‘a small investigation’;
  • Story: structure your article round a good, cohesive, logical ‘story’;
  • Step Change: emphasise what makes your research important. Talk about ‘step changes’ rather than ‘incremental progresssions’;
  • Conclusion and Evaluation: a strong, persuasive and critical conclusion is essential for giving your paper clout;
  • Cover Letter: ‘sell’ your article and particularly why it is right for the journal you are targeting;
  • Feedback: get as much critical evaluation as possible;
  • Rejection: never take no for an answer.  Rejection is an inevitable part of the process. Don’t be discouraged, but take on board comments and criticism and keep trying be resubmitting.

Consider the role of social media in your publication strategy – social media has been shown to dramatically increase the academic and societal impact of research (see my previous posts on the benefits of using Twitter).  Social networking platforms such as Twitter are excellent for promoting and sharing your research, as are blogs either by writing your own blog, contributing posts to other blogs, or commenting on posts written by others.  Your publications strategy should include social media outlets.  For advice on using social media as part of your publication strategy please contact Sally Gates in the R&KEO.

Good luck!