Tagged / BU research

HSC paper cited over hundred times in Scopus

Publishing

The academic publisher Elsevier alerted us today that our paper has been cited for the 101st time in Scopus.  The paper ‘Factors affecting the utilization of antenatal care in developing countries: Systematic review of the literature’ was published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing.  The paper was part of the first author’s Ph.D. research into maternity care in Nepal.

This paper is one of the four outputs submitted to the UK REF for both Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen as part of the Bournemouth University submission and for Dr. Padam Simkhada as part of the University of Sheffield submission.

 

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH, School of Health & Social Care

Grants Academy to the Rescue! Last chance until the Autumn!

Grants Academy, Training

The Grants Academy has been described by members as ‘brilliant’, ‘excellent’, ‘extremely educational and stimulating’ and ‘very beneficial’. It has also increased bids submissions from members acting as a Principal Investigator by 41% and 20% as a co-Investigator. Members have significantly increased their funding successes too and obtained funding from organisations such as the AHRC, European Commission, ESRC, British Academy, English Heritage and Burdett Trust for Nursing.

How does the Academy work?  Members attend an initial two day training course off campus, facilitated by an external expert bid writer with a well-developed draft proposal. The training days will cover the art of proposal craftmanship, the rules of the writing game and other invaluable information to help you perfect your proposal during the days. Feedback on these days from existing members have been very positive, ‘the workshop was the best I have ever attended’. 

Members can then further develop their proposal over a couple of weeks, gaining unlimited support from the external facilitator in doing so and the cohort re-gathers for a mock peer review panel of each other’s applications. This gives a unique insight into this process in a supportive environment and helps further refine the proposal. One member has described this session as ‘[I now have] profound insights in[to] how the system works…and to realize how that must be for professional reviewers’.

What other support is given? Throughout the 18 month membership of the Grants Academy, members benefit form UNLIMITED support from the external facilitator (and in some cases additional external reviewers) which has been invaluable in helping members secure external funding ‘[His] input enabled me to produce a clearer, more logical and convincing proposal. He also alerted me to issues I had not previously considered and encouraged me to think about ‘impact’ and value for the UK in new ways’.

Members also have bespoke assistance from R&KEO in finding funding and collaborators. They also have access to a library of successful proposals from BU, a travel grant (£250), guaranteed places on Funder visits organised for them and surgeries with external facilitators.

How do I apply? To apply for a place, please contact me Dianne Goodman and I will send you a Membership Agreement Form that will need to be signed by you, your line manager and your DDRE.

The next training sessions due to take place on the: 12th and 13th of May and the 9th of June 2014 and will be the last until the Autumn

Due to our Grants Academy scheme’s success you may be added to a waiting list if no spaces are available on this training session. We are hoping to announce further Grants Academy sessions in the Autumn. You are welcome to apply and register for these Grants Academy sessions and we are happy to put your name on our list.

What’s the small print? When making your application, you must ensure that you are available for the 3 dates in their entirety. Membership is only obtained once all training days have been attended. Obligations of membership are that at least one proposal for external funding must be submitted within the first six months of membership. As the training days are attended with a draft proposal, this should be obtainable. Within 18 months at least three proposals for external funding must have been submitted. Failure to meet these obligations will lead to membership being revoked.

If you have any questions about the Grants Academy please get in touch with Dianne Goodman (scheme administrator) or Rebecca Edwards (scheme manager).

Grants Academy Next Workshops – get yourself booked in today – I have only a few spaces left!!

More about academic writing

Publishing

Earlier this year (13th Jan. 2014) we wrote a BU Research Blog under the title ‘Writing about academic publishing’.  We can now add two further contributions this body of work.  The first article in Nepal Journal of Epidemiology offers some advice on how to construct a title for an academic article.  The authors (BU Professors Edwin van Teijlingen and Vanora Hundley; BU Visiting Faculty Ms. Jillian Ireland and Dr. Padam Simkhada and international collaborator Dr. Brijesh Sathian) have a wealth of experience reviewing papers and all have experience as editor board members and/or editors.  The authors are associated the editorial boards of the many journals, including: Birth, BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth, Medical Science, Nepal Journal of Epidemiology, Essentially MIDIRS, Sociological Research Online, Hellenic Journal of Nursing Science, Midwifery and Asian Journal of Health Sciences.  In our joint capacity as reviewers and editors we have seen some great and some awful titles.  The paper in Nepal Journal of Epidemiology is an attempt to improve the appropriateness and usefulness of titles chosen by budding authors.

Editorial Midwifery 2014

Editorial Midwifery 2014

The second addition is an editorial in the international journal Midwifery published by Elsevier.  Together with HSC Visiting Faculty Prof. Debra Bick we address the question: ‘Who should be an author on your academic paper?’   Still too often we hear about worrying stories from fellow academic s and postgraduate students about inappropriate behaviour related to authorship of academic journal papers.  The Midwifery Editorial advises academics to discuss authorship and authorship order early on in the writing process.  At the same time, it highlights that authorship ‘rules’ or ‘traditions’ can vary between different academic disciplines.  Thus when working in a multidisciplinary team, issues of authorship of any papers which arise out of the study should be discussed before problems or concerns arise.

 

We would like to take this opportunity point our readers to another interesting and useful BU Research Blog written by Shelly Maskell under the title: ‘How to design a completely uninformative title’ (7th Feb. 2014).

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen & Prof. Vanora Hundley

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health, Bournemouth University

 

References:

  1. van Teijlingen, E., Ireland, J., Hundley, V., Simkhada, P., Sathian, B. (2014) Finding the right title for your article: Advice for academic authors, Nepal Journal of Epidemiology 4(1): 344-347.
  2. van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V., Bick, D. (2014) Who should be an author on your academic paper? Midwifery 30: 385-386.

 

Highest marks for International Fellowship for Midwives research in Nepal

 

In 2013 Wellbeing of Women joined the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) to offer the International Fellowship for Midwives (worth £20,000).  Their first ever recipient was BU Lesley Milne with her supporting team.  Lesley is a Senior Lecturer in Midwifery based at BU’s Portsmouth Branch Campus and her proposal set out to undertake a research project to explore barriers to facility birth in Nepal.

 

Delivery bed small hospital Nepal

Apart from Lesley herself the BU team comprises Vanora Hundley, Professor in Midwifery, Edwin van Teijlingen, Professor of Reproductive Health Research, and two HSC Visiting Faculty members, namely Dr. Padam Simkhada, Senior Lecturer at the University of Sheffield, and Ms. Jillian Ireland, Community Midwife NHS Poole Hospitals.

 

Small commercial pharmacy outside local hospital (Nepal)

Small commercial pharmacy outside local hospital (Nepal)

At the end of March 2014 we submitted the final report on the research to Well-Being of Women and the RCM and this report gained an ‘A’ in their scoring system.  Last week at the feedback meeting in Well-Being of Women’s office in London Lesley presented some of her key findings which she illustrated with some of her photographs.  The comments from those round the table were that the topic was well researched and that the qualitative research findings could help focus the funders in their future work.

 

Having reached the dissemination stage, we are planning scientific papers as well as a feedback session in Kathmandu (in September this year). Currently we are working on two academic papers, one is in an advanced stage approaching submission and the other is just passed its draft stage.

 

 

Lesley Milne, Vanora Hundley, Jillian Ireland (Visiting Faculty),Edwin van Teijlingen & Padam Simkhada (Visiting Faculty)

 

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health

School of Health & Social Care

 


HSC Writing Retreat: Freedom to write

Publishing

Today saw the first of two Writing Retreat workshops organised by HSC.  The intensive writing day was led by Ms. Caroline Brimblecombe.  Caroline is a Norwich-based training consultant and project manager, who leads workshops in the technique of freewriting, as well as on academic writing.  She holds an MA in Public Policy from the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, and spent many years as a public sector manager and policy analyst.  She used a combination of exercises based on notions of creative writing and free writing.  The Writing Retreat offered advice and a dedicated space and time to practice academic writing.  Today’s intensive session was attended by the first cohort of HSC academics, who considered some of their challenges to writing and some of the rewards.  Not surprisingly there were more challenges than rewards, and the former included lack of time, high workload and interruptions.   Personal satisfaction and a sense of achievement scored high on the list of rewards.

Caroline suggested the participants considered ‘Serial Writing’.  This is the notion that you write regularly, hence the ‘serial’.  The idea is to create a flow of writing to help you generate content as well as a habit of writing. This will be a valuable tool for workshop participants who have committed to working with a mentor to produce a manuscript for submission by the end of July.

For those motivated staff members who would like to have a go at this.  The next session is planned for the 28th of May and there are still a few free places available.  Please contact Jo Temple if you would like to sign up.

We both participated ourselves and we would highly recommend this Writing Retreat!

 

Edwin van Teijlingen & Vanora Hundley

CMMPH

Optimising Childbirth Across Europe (Optimise2014)

Publishing

Last week BU Professor Edwin van Teijlingen attended the international conference ’Optimising Childbirth Across Europe (Optimise2014)’ [http://optimisebirth.com/] in Brussels, Belgium.  This new conference  in the maternity care field was based on the work of the COST (Co-operation in Science and Technology) Action IS0907.  This Action, over the period 2010-2014, set out to advance scientific knowledge about ways of improving maternity care provision and outcomes for mothers, babies and families across Europe by understanding what works, for who, in what circumstances, and by identifying and learning from the best.

 

As part of this COST Action several academics have spent time over the past three years at Bournemouth University’s Centre for Midwifery, Maternal and Perinatal Health.  Susanne Grylka-Bäschlin a Swiss midwife studying at Hannover Medical School, Germany, studied cultural differences in postnatal quality of life among German-speaking women in Switzerland and Germany.  See gave an excellent oral presentation of this first ever study to translate and apply the Mother-Generated Index in German. Mother-Generated Index was originally developed by Dr. Andrew Symon who is based at the University of Dundee [http://dundee.academia.edu/AndrewSymon ].

A further BU contribution to the conference involved the work of another European visitor to the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal and Perinatal Health.  Dr. Ans Luyben, a Dutch midwife working in Switzerland presented a poster based on work in Switzerland at the COST Action conference at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

 

Professor Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal and Perinatal Health

This Wednesday 2nd April – BRAD – Networking and Collaboration Workshop and Lunchtime Horizon 2020 Session

Funding opportunities, Grants Academy, Guidance, Training

A last Reminder don’t forget to book yourself into our 2 events taking place on this Wednesday the 2nd of April.

I would like to draw your attention to:

Our BRAD (Bournemouth Research Academic Development Programme) which offers a range of additional training opportunities with helpful tools for developing your personal skills and grant proposals for UK or EU funding. We are delighted to include the following session:

At Talbot Campus, on the 2nd April, from 2.30-4:30pm (for more info click the link above or to book in send Staff Development a quick email)

This follow on BRAD session complements our previous BRAD Grant Writing Session held last week and provides an ideal opportunity for you to learn how to develop strong UK or European collaborative networks.

Additionally please be aware that our Horizon 2020 (H2020) information session is also taking place prior to this and is the last of our Lunctime Info sessions (before Easter)

Horizon 2020 (H2020)

At Talbot Campus Wednesday 2nd April, 12noon-2pm  (for more info click the link above or to book in send Staff Development a quick email)

Info on H2020 can be found by clicking on the link below to access the recent Blog post detailing further resources available.

What does Horizon 2020 mean to you?

Why not come along to all the available training sessions we are running and boost your chances of being successfully funded by the UK Research Councils or the European Union?

Congratulations to Dr. Joyce Miller (PhD by Publication)

PG research, Publishing

Congratulations to HSC postgraduate student Joyce Miller who has just completed her PhD by Publication.  Joyce Miller is a chiropractic practitioner and lecturer with over 25 years private practice experience. She is Associate Professor at Anglo-European Chiropractic College in Bournemouth.  Her thesis Effects of Musculoskeletal Dysfunction in Excessive Crying Syndromes of Infancy presents research spanning more than a decade.  Joyce studied the relevance of chiropractic manual therapy to excessive crying in infancy through a unique series of eight clinical academic papers.

 

The eight separate studies used a range of different research methods:

  1. a demographic survey of paediatric patients attending a chiropractic clinic;
  2. a record study to determine the prevalence of side effects or adverse events;
  3. a cohort study to substantiate sub-groups of excessively crying infants;
  4. a prospective observational study to develop a predictive model using likelihood ratios to forecast the presence of infant colic in a clinical population;
  5. validation of a one-page instrument to assess clinical outcomes against the gold standard crying diary;
  6. a randomised comparison trial of two types of chiropractic manual therapy for infant colic;
  7. a randomised controlled single blind trial to determine efficacy of blinding as well as chiropractic manual therapy in management of infant colic;
  8. a case-control study to investigate  long-term effects of chiropractic manual therapy into toddlerhood.

Well done!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

HSC

Highly Commended Paper by Lorraine Brown, John Edwards & Heather Hartwell.

Delicious links, Publishing

Congratulations to BU academics Dr. Lorraine Brown, Prof. John Edwards and Prof. Heather Hartwell.  Their recent paper “Eating and emotion: focusing on the lunchtime meal” published in the British Food Journal has been selected by the journal’s Editorial Team as a Highly Commended Paper of 2013.

“Eating and emotion: focusing on the lunchtime meal” was chosen as a Highly Commended Paper winner as it is one of the most impressive pieces of work the British Food Journal has seen throughout 2013.

The three winners will be presented with a certificate by the journal!  The authors are all based in the School of Tourism whilst Prof. Hartwell also has appointment in the School of Health & Social Care.

Details of the paper are listed at the following web site: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=0007-070X&volume=115&issue=2&articleid=17077382&show=html

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health, School of Health & Social Care

REMINDER – Still Some Space on the Horizon 2020 Lunchtime Info Session and Follow-On BRAD Networking and Collaborative Opportunities?

Funding opportunities, Grants Academy, Training

 

Are you thinking about applying to the EU schemes? To learn more about Horizon 2020 as a whole, please book in NOW via staff development (please click link below and send them a quick email) – this last session in the series will take place during the lunchtime on:

 

 Remember the Marie Curie calls under FP7? Well, they are new and improved under Horizon 2020 and have been renamed and revised…

Dr Martin Pickard, the trainer says: “The new Marie Skłodowska Curie schemes within Horizon 2020 have considerable relaxed rules enabling even greater opportunities for participation; from individual research fellowships to medium term collaboration exchange. Presenting Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska Curie as a whole, the workshop also focuses on the opportunities for individual fellowships to highlight these opportunities and presents how to approach them to ensure a maximum chance of success (typically better than 1 in 3)”.

And don’t forget that our BRAD (Bournemouth Research Academic Development Programme) offers a range of additional training opportunities which are very helpful tools for developing your proposals for EU funding including:

This follow on session complements our earlier sessions and provides an ideal opportunity for you to learn how to develop strong European or UK collaborative networks.

Info on H2020 can be found by clicking on the link below to access the recent Blog post detailing further resources available.

Why not come along to all the available training sessions and boost your chances of being successfully funded by the European Union?

REMINDER – Don’t Miss Out… Still Some Space on the Horizon 2020 Lunchtime Info Session and Follow-On BRAD Networking and Collaborative Opportunities?

LAST REMINDER – Don’t Miss Out… Still Some Space on the Marie Curie and Horizon 2020 Lunchtime Info Sessions?

Funding opportunities, Grants Academy, Training

 

Just curious or planning to put in an application to the Marie Curie scheme – don’t miss out….. pick a lunchtime session and get yourself booked in NOW via staff development – first session tomorrow!! Click on the links below or send them a quick email with the details of the session(s) you would like to attend

To learn more about the Marie Skłodowska Curie calls, please book NOW via staff development:

Thinking about other EU schemes? To learn more about Horizon 2020 as a whole, please book NOW via staff development:

If you are already developing a Marie Skłodowska Curie proposal and would like a one-to-one Dr Martin Pickard after one of the information sessions, please contact me Dianne Goodman. I only have the following 3 appointment slots left on the 20th of March at the Lansdowne Campus:

1000 – 10:45am, 14:30 – 15:15pm or 15:15 – 16:00pm

Remember the Marie Curie calls under FP7? Well, they are new and improved under Horizon 2020 and have been renamed and revised…

Dr Martin Pickard, the trainer says: “The new Marie Skłodowska Curie schemes within Horizon 2020 have considerable relaxed rules enabling even greater opportunities for participation; from individual research fellowships to medium term collaboration exchange. Presenting Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska Curie as a whole, the workshop also focuses on the opportunities for individual fellowships to highlight these opportunities and presents how to approach them to ensure a maximum chance of success (typically better than 1 in 3)”.

And don’t forget that BRAD offers a range of additional training opportunities which are very helpful to developing proposals for EU funding. These include:

Why not come along to all the available training sessions and boost your chances of being successfully funded by the European Union?

REMINDER – Book Now! Marie Skłodowska Curie and Horizon 2020 Lunchtime Info sessions?

Funding opportunities, Grants Academy, Info Days, Training

Marie Curie Lunchtime sessions:

20th of March at Lansdowne Campus 12-2pm

26th of March at Talbot Campus 12-2pm

Horizon 2020 session:

2nd of April at Talbot Campus 12-2pm

Remember the Marie Curie calls under FP7? Well, they are new and improved under Horizon 2020 and have been renamed and revised…

Dr Martin Pickard, the trainer says: “The new Marie Skłodowska Curie schemes within Horizon 2020 have considerable relaxed rules enabling even greater opportunities for participation; from individual research fellowships to medium term collaboration exchange. Presenting Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska Curie as a whole, the workshop also focuses on the opportunities for individual fellowships to highlight these opportunities and presents how to approach them to ensure a maximum chance of success (typically better than 1 in 3)”.

To learn more about the Marie Skłodowska Curie calls, please book NOW via staff development:

If you are already developing a Marie Skłodowska Curie proposal and would like a one-to-one Dr Martin Pickard after one of the information sessions, please contact Dianne Goodman.

Thinking about other EU schemes? To learn more about Horizon 2020 as a whole, please book NOW via staff development:

And don’t forget that BRAD offers a range of additional training opportunities which are very helpful to developing proposals for EU funding. These include:

Why not come along to all the available training sessions and boost your chances of being successfully funded by the European Union?

Book Now! The Leverhulme Trust are visiting BU on Wednesday the 19th of March 2014

Funding opportunities, Grants Academy

Following on from our well attended visit from the AHRC and the British Academy I am pleased to remind you that the Leverhulme Trust will be visiting us next on the 19thof March – 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 come to BU and present their organisations funding priorities and give advice on making an application. We have arranged for several funders to visit BU in 2014, we have already hosted visits from the AHRC and the British Academy and are pleased to announce our next arranged visit is with the Leverhulme Trust.

This will be taking place on Wednesday 19 March 2014, and Jean Cater (Mrs) The Assistant Director from the Leverhulme Trust which funds all academic disciplines will be visiting to discuss their grants and give advice on making an application.

Spaces on this event are becoming limited due to the room available so booking is essential!

Grants Academy members can be guaranteed a space by emailing Dianne. Or by emailing Staff Development

The booking hyperlink is:

Leverhulme Trust  funder visit

This is taking place mainly over the lunchtime period (12 midday until about 1pm -1:30pm ish) so please feel free to bring your lunch with you

We look forward to seeing as many of you who can make it.

“Six-hit” for PR History

Publishing

Collating and editing six books on the history of public relations is one of the main projects being undertaken by Professor Tom Watson of the Media School during his FIF-supported study leave.

The books will be the first-ever study of PR’s history outside North America. Collectively the series is entitled “National Developments in the Development of Public Relations: Other Voices” and is being published by Palgrave in its new Pivot model.

The first book, Asian Perspectives in the Development of Public Relations: Other Voices, is now in production and will be published in May. It will be followed by Eastern Europe and Russia (being edited), Middle East & Africa, Latin America & Caribbean, Western Europe and a final book of essays on the theorisation of public relations history.

“In public relations literature for several decades, it was assumed that PR was an American invention,” Prof Watson said. “And American scholars nationalistically purveyed that world view. Since the start of the International History of Public Relations Conference at BU in 2010, it was evident that PR and informational/promotional communications have many sources which depend on social, political and cultural influences.

“This series will shift the historiography of PR and related methods of communication away from the US to the ‘other voices’ of the series title. It is an important development that keeps BU as a world leader in PR and media/communication history research, alongside the work of the Centre for Media History.”

Prof Watson says publication of the series should be complete by mid-2015. Each Pivot volume is up to 50,000 words and is published by Palgrave in e-book and print-on-demand formats. The publisher undertakes to publish each book within three months of its submission.

ENABLE: Reflections on a Fieldtrip

Fusion, Women's Academic Network

A room with a view

We arrived fairly late in the evening. The roads were dark and seemed more windy and enclosed than during the daytime, and yet the bus driver, somewhat perversely, insisted on overtaking at speed on occluded bends whenever he possibly could!

The barrier to the ‘resort’ was shut when we arrived but our interpreter told the guard that we were indeed going to the Tasik Chini Resort – the only place one can go after passing through the gate. After deliberation, he let us proceed.

The receptionist indicated that tonight we had two rooms rather than the one room we had booked, having asked for two extra beds in the room for the children. One room had a twin bed and a mattress, and the other a single bed, but she said she would sort it all tomorrow. We paid in full after debating three or four times what the actual price was for the stay; a kind of mental gymnastics that pulls the mathematical body into contorted shapes only vaguely resembling the original anatomy from whence it came.

The rooms: interesting that the room with the twin beds and a ‘mattress’ was exactly that; no sheets or blankets just the mattress. The other room, however, looked more promising at first sight. There were in fact two beds there not one. OK, so the toilet ballcock was gone and water was constantly overflowing from the cistern onto the bathroom floor, but TWO beds!

So, we divided the children, given they didn’t want to sleep without an adult, sprayed the rooms with insecticide and prepared for the night. It was then that I (Jonathan) looked at the two beds and saw that whilst one was fine, the second was covered by dead, dying and some struggling ants and assorted insects; and the toilet was still dripping, resonant off the hollow dampness of Derbyshire’s Blue John mines! That bed couldn’t be slept in as I then preceded to spray it.

So, back to plan A with me (Sara) and one of the girls in the bed and one on the mattress. But, just a minute, there’s a mattress but no covers or pillow. No that’s not going to work so three in a bed it is, with some topping and tailing, and me back to the bed in the other room keeping the insects at bay and drowning the noise of the leaking cistern by air conditioning that’s making everything too cold and dry.

Fieldwork is, of course, meant to be a little uncomfortable and sometimes evocative of van Gennep’s ‘rite of passage’, a gaining of one’s socio-anthropological spurs! However, we are staying at what purports to be the premier resort for Tasik Chini. This is important because, until 2004 – (and here I (Jonathan) had to stop writing for a while to scratch that itch that turned out to be a troop of ants seeking solace in my bed) – in 2004 eco- and ethno-tourism (although somewhat contested) was seen as an important means of securing the economy of the area. It seems now, a decade on, that this resort finds anyone staying a rather irritating yet bizarre intrusion into a life that happily runs purposelessly for itself, except for weekend weddings, or as a place for the army cadets to stay and practice manoeuvres through the night. (Manoeuvres punctuated by eerie whistles, commands and shouts!) And, rather perversely, it seems that staff cannot get a single order right, no matter how small or precisely articulated it is: kopi ice O kosong (black iced coffee, without sugar) usually has milk and sugar in it; roti bakar (toast), if it comes at all, takes longer (much longer) than nasi goreng (fried rice)!

It also seems to evoke, more seriously, something that mimics the tragedy happening to the lake in bio-environmental terms and, from a human perspective, to the Orang Asli people living around the lake. It is an intrusion into the ill-thought plans of others or an encumbrance to manage that imposes rather than seeks dialogue!

And still the dripping cistern spits! (Should have consulted ‘Tripadvisor’ first http://www.tripadvisor.com.my/Hotel_Review-g298291-d2213723-Reviews-Lake_Chini_Resort-Pahang.html!)

Jonathan Parker & Sara Ashencaen Crabtree