Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
The international social science publisher SAGE published a new textbook this week under the title Introducing Social Work. This textbook, edited by BU’s Professor in Sociology Jonathan Parker, has a contribution from FHSS lecturer Dr.Sally Lee and FHSS PhD student Orlanda Harvey. A total of 29 chapters cover a wide-range of social work issues in 424 pages.
Congratulations!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
The HRA have therefore decided stop reviewing applications for individual undergraduate and master’s student projects from now until further notice.
Please see this new guidance which relates to health and social care research projects conducted by undergraduate and master’s students: https://www.hra.nhs.uk/planning-and-improving-research/research-planning/student-research/
Over the past fe
w weeks, Parliament has seen a surge in need for access to research expertise as it engages with the COVID-19 outbreak.
In this rapidly evolving situation, Parliament needs quick access to researchers who can provide expert insights relating to both Coronavirus and its impacts.
Parliament and Parliamentarians use these insights to help carry out their function effectively; that is to say, to represent the people, scrutinise the Government, debate important and pressing issues and pass legislation.
To speed up the process of Parliament accessing relevant research expertise, Parliament’s Knowledge Exchange Unit (KEU) are creating a COVID-19 Outbreak Expert Database.
If you feel you have any expertise relating to the COVID-19 outbreak or its impacts, the KEU would be very grateful if you would sign up to the database. Signing up does not commit you to contributing in anyway, it’s simply so that Parliament has your details to hand and can contact you very rapidly; if they contact you and you aren’t able to respond, they will fully understand.
A link to the sign-up form is found here.
(Please ensure you let Sarah Carter, Public Affairs and Policy Officer, or your Impact Officer, know you have signed up, as we are tracking the responses.)
Staff in Parliament have identified a number of areas where Parliament may need to be able to access research expertise, listed below, and found on the sign up page. If you identify an area that has not been listed, please do feel free to give detail on the sign up form in ‘other’:
Agriculture and farming, Airlines/airports, Arts, Behavioural science, Burial and cremation, Brexit, Business, Charities, Children and families, Civil contingency planning and management, Climate change, Communicating uncertainty, , Consumer protection, Coronavirus, Coroners, Countryside, Courts, Criminal justice, Criminal law, Crisis communications, Critical national infrastructure, Data protection, Death, Defence, Economics, Education – higher and further, Education – schools, Elections, Emergency planning, Emergency services, Employment, Employment law, Energy, Environment, European Union, Financial services, Financial systems and institutions, Foreign policy, Government, Health economics, Health services, Housing, Human rights, Immigration, Immunology / vaccinology, Industry, Infection control, Inflation, Insolvency, International law, IT, Law, Legal aid, Leisure and tourism, Local government, Medicine, National security, Package holidays, Pandemics, Pensions, Police powers, Ports and maritime, Prisons, Public expenditure, Public finance, Public health, Public order, Railways, Registration of deaths, Religion, Social security and tax credits, Social services, Sports, Surveillance , Taxation, Trade, Transport, Unemployment, Virology, Waste, Water, Welfare, Welfare benefits.
Abstract
Junior colleagues or PhD students submitting their first manuscript often ask: “How long will it take before the editor comes back to me with a decision?” My stock answer is: “It depends!” It depends on the nature of the journal, the support available to the editor, how busy the editor is, or how difficult she finds it to allocate your paper to appropriate reviewers. Moreover, once sent out for review it depends how busy the reviewers are. I often have to remind my colleagues and student that academics are hardly ever paid for being a reviewer, and hence they do their reviewing over and above a usually heavy academic teaching and research load.
This short article highlights the case of one of our research papers which took four years from the day of submission to the journal to finally appearing in print. And, I hasten to say, it was not because the initially submitted manuscript was so bad that the authors had to make major changes and re-write or re-structure the whole paper. This blog highlights some of the unexpected hiccups in the process of getting an article published.
Introduction
On October the 5th 2016 Samridhi Pradhan, who worked for Green Tara Nepal in Kathmandu and who was Bournemouth University Visiting faculty at the time, emailed the then editor of an English-language journal based in Nepal with our manuscript. She wrote: “Respected Editor, I wish to submit a new manuscript entitled “Factors affecting the uptake of institutional delivery, antenatal and postnatal care services” in Nawalparasi district, Nepal in your esteemed Kathmandu University Medical Journal (KUMJ).” The editor wrote back the same day thanking us for our submission, and presenting us with a “manuscript ID o20161006250 for your valuable paper.…We will very soon go for initial screening and let you notify.” We expected the editor to send this manuscript out for review, then for us to get feedback a few months later, make some (minor) changes and have the paper published in 2017.
Then nothing happened for a year although we emailed and phoned the editor of KUMJ regularly. There seems to be a problem finding reviewers, and we offered to other potential reviewers. In December one of our co-authors Dr. Sharada Wasti informed our team that the KUMJ editor had suggested in a conversation with home that our paper would appear in the December volume of the journal. Dr. Waste emailed on 15 December 2017: “I will follow up and keep update with you by the end of this month.” KUMJ duly published Vol. 15 (4) labelled Oct.-Dec. 2017 but our paper was not included.
Four days later on December 19th 2017 we received an email for the editor with a set of minor comments and questions about the manuscript for reviewers. We made the requested amendments and resubmitted our paper on January 10th 2018. Months passed and KUMJ published two more issues in 2018 without our paper despite our team sending reminders regularly. Then on the last day of July 2018 Dr. Wasti emailed our team that he had had contact with the editor who had made it clear that: “This paper has been accepted” and it was supposed to come published in the last volume, which would have been the April-June 2018 issue Vol.16 (2). Dr. Wasti added that the editor had made it clear that although it was not covered, KUMJ “will publish in our upcoming volume.” This next issue Vol. 16 (3) again failed to publish our paper.
Then there was a long gap with KUMJ changing editors, correspondence being mislaid and manuscripts getting lost. Due to Dr. Wasti’s persistence in contacting the editors we received a request to update our paper with 2019 data in December 2019, nearly a year and a half after re-submission. A few days later that month we were informed that the journal was finally going to publish our paper. Another wo months passed before the editor email that say: “Congratulation, your paper has been finalized and selected for coming issue of KUMJ, paper has been uploaded in our website www.kumj.com.np.”
Some papers take longer to get published than others!
Our paper is now online first 3½ years after the initial submission. And to add insult to injury the journal is backdating the paper to appear with a publication date of September 2019, so it will be published in Vol.17(3) labelled July-Sept. 2019. This is, of course, an unusual story with a very long gap between first submission of a manuscript and the final appearance of the paper in print. It is unusual because the paper was only ever submitted to one journal. It is more likely that the publish process takes time because the first journal rejects the paper, the second paper also rejects your paper and then the subsequent paper asks for a set of alterations and changes. For example, van Teijlingen and Hundley (2002) outlined such process for one of their papers which took two years from initial submission to publication. However, this paper was submitted to five different journals in succession after having between rejected by the first four.
References:
Congratulations to Dr. Alison Taylor in the Centre for Midwifery,Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) whose third PhD paper has just been accepted by the International Breastfeeding Journal. Alison’s paper ‘Commercialisation and commodification of breastfeeding: video diaries by first-time mothers’ reminds us that many of aspects of our lives are increasingly commercialised in post-modern society. Although breastfeeding is perhaps a late comer to this process in recent years, it too has seen significant commercialisation facilitated by social media and our obsession with celebrity culture.
This paper explores how the commercialisation and commodification of breastfeeding impacts mothers’ experiences of breastfeeding. The paper highlights that women preparing for breastfeeding are exposed to increasing commercialisation. When things do not go to plan, women are even more exposed to commercial solutions. The impact of online marketing strategies fuelled their need for paraphernalia so that their dependence on such items became important aspects of their parenting and breastfeeding experiences. Dr. Taylor and her co-authors offer new insights into how advertising influenced mothers’ need for specialist equipment and services. Observing mothers in their video diaries, provided valuable insights into their parenting styles and how this affected their breastfeeding experience.
The International Breastfeeding Journal is an Open Access journal owned by Springer.
References:
Congratulations to the Bournemouth authors who published the paper ‘Donning the ‘Slow Professor’: A Feminist Action Research Project’ earlier this month [1]. This paper was published in the journal Radical Teacher. The paper argues that the corporatisation of Higher Education has introduced new performance measurements as well as an acceleration of academic tasks creating working environments characterised by speed, pressure and stress. This paper discusses findings from a qualitative, feminist participatory action research (PAR) study undertaken by an interdisciplinary team of women academics at a modern, corporate university in England. The study illuminates how corporatized HE erodes faculty autonomy, degrades learning environments, damages professional satisfaction and health. Strategies for resistance and liberation developed through the PAR process are discussed.
The writing collective for this paper comprised: Sara Ashencaen Crabtree, Ann Hemingway, Sue Sudbury, Anne Quinney, Maggie Hutchings, Luciana Esteves, Shelley Thompson, Helen Jacey, Anita Diaz, Peri Bradley, Jenny Hall, Michele Board, Anna Feigenbaum, Lorraine Brown, Vanessa Heaslip, and Liz Norton.
Reference: Ashencaen Crabtree, S., Hemingway, A., Sudbury, S., Quinney, A., Hutchings, M., Esteves, L., Thompson, S., Jacey, H., Diaz, A., Bradley, P., Hall, J., Board, M., Feigenbaum, A., Brown, L., Heaslip, V., Norton, L. (2020) Donning the ‘Slow Professor’: A Feminist Action Research Project , Radical Teacher, Vol. 116
Congratulations on the latest paper published yesterday by Dr. Preeti Mahato in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Reproductive Health (CMMPH) and colleagues. This paper ‘Factors associated with contraceptive use in rural Nepal: Gender and decision-making’ [1], is freely available for the next 49 days through our personalized link: click here! 
This research paper in the journal Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare reports on a secondary analysis of pas a quantitative cross-sectional study in four villages of a hilly district in Nepal. This authors found that gender was associated with current/ever use of contraceptives but decision-making was not found associated with current/eve use of contraceptives. And, as perhaps was to be expected, socio-economic factors such as husband’s and wife’s education; and indicators showing sharing of childcare responsibilities were found to be associated with contraceptive use. the paper concludes that educational, health promotional and family planning programmes involving husbands are needed to promote use of contraceptives.
Preeti’s co-authors are based at Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester, at CMMPH and at Singapore Clinical Research Institute/Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore.
Reference:
I
n recognition of the important contribution that early career academics play in driving research for the future, we are delighted to continue the BU Academic Targeted Research scheme to attract and recruit talented individuals in targeted research areas. Following the successful recruitment of five new posts, we will employ one other new Senior Lecturer with significant postdoctoral expertise (or of comparable experience) with outstanding potential in alignment with the targeted research areas:
We wish to recruit a diverse cohort of individuals with the motivation to become future academic leaders in their field. As an academic at BU, successful candidates will develop their career in exciting work environments, be provided with a high level of dedicated time to drive research activity and build capacity, and have the freedom to develop their research interests within the targeted areas. BU is committed to Fusion and as such successful candidates will also have the opportunity to contribute to the education and professional practice activities within their Department.
To support these roles and accelerate their careers, BU will provide three years of full-time salary (or part-time equivalent) and reasonable costs directly related to the proposed programme of research activities (up to £10k per year). The standard Academic Application Form must be completed and in all cases accompanied by the BU Academic Targeted Research scheme application form, which will propose the research activities and request funding.
To find out more about these exciting opportunities, please read the scheme guidance and visit the BU website.
The deadline for applications is Sunday 10 May 2020.
Any enquiries should be directed to researchfellowships@bournemouth.ac.uk.
24th March 2020
This event has been cancelled due to restrictions arising from COVID-19.
The Departments of Psychology (SciTech), Midwifery and Health Sciences (HSS) from Bournemouth University and SSLA part of Symbiosis International (Deemed University) were successful in getting the United Kingdon India Education Research Initiative (UKIERI) 
funding to support 10 UK Psychology Students and Staff to visit India. This initiative receives further support from Global Engagement Hub, Bournemouth University.
The Study in India Programme has been designed in collaboration with BU’s project partner university Symbiosis International in India, where this will be hosted. This exchange will offer a program of interactive lectures, workshops, research methods seminars, clinical experience observations, and relevant field visits.
Students will also contribute to research with Sheetal Astitva, which is a GCRF funded initiative aimed to improve mental health in rural India and Nepal. The lead researchers for this initiative are Prof. Edwin van-Teijlingen and Dr. Shanti Shanker.
Dr Gayatri Kotbagi presented at the International Gender Conference 2020, Symbiosis School of Liberal Arts, Pune, India. She presented on the Mental Health, Rights, and Policies as part of the GCRF funded initiative Sheetal Astitva.
This project led by Prof. Edwin van-Teijlingen and Dr. Shanti Shanker focuses on grassroots level centers addressing the lack of accessibility in rural India. This project collaborates with the Taluka Health Officer at Paud (Mulshi, Dr Ajit Karanjkar) and local medical officers.
Funding available for researchers from partner institutions to become Global Visiting Fellows of BU
Fellows must be nominated by a member of academic staff at BU, and approved by the relevant Executive Dean.
Visit a drop-in session to find out more. Further info is also available in the guidelines.
16/03/2020 12:30 – 13:30 Lansdowne
To book , please contact Organisational Development. No authorisation is required.
If you have any queries, please contact ResearchFellowships@Bournemouth.ac.uk.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that…” a famous line from 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which the AI software HAL rebels to take control of the spaceship. We are now far beyond the year 2001 and we already have our own AI-supported voice recognition devices in our pockets, houses, and cars. Luckily, they don’t rebel against our commands – yet. These devices bring advantages in convenience and accessibility, playing a song has never been easier, but at what cost?
At this month’s Café Scientifique, Ediz Akcay, Lecturer in Digital Marketing at BU discussed the ethics of the many new ways companies listen to, track and store information about us using voice recognition and AI. Ediz explained his interest in marketing ethics started after his PhD research in brand alliances. His views about the topic were previously covered in Campaign Turkey magazine. After presenting his research to the digital marketing agency about the ethical considerations in brand alliances at various conferences, he decided to move the topic into the digital marketing field in which he is now teaching.
Marketing Ethics
Ediz has collected data which includes examples of potential breaches of marketing ethics principles by companies. While collecting the data, the aim was to check if the companies were in line with the main principles of marketing ethics (Elegido 2016) in their digital marketing activities.
Main principles:
Companies use several tools and technologies in their digital marketing activities to increase their conversion rates and return on investment. Personalisation is one aspect of the digital marketing activities companies’ conduct in which personal data collected from different sources is used to improve the targeting of consumers.
Ediz explained; ‘the data showed that companies violate the principles such as consumer sovereignty, which assumes the consumer will have the control during the interaction in the marketing activities. However, the companies create an information asymmetry about how they collect, process and store the consumer data. The consumers learn about the potential problems only after an event which reveals the ways companies use in their digital marketing activities. While there are new regulations such as GDPR to protect the consumer, the pace of technology makes it harder to adapt the regulations accordingly.’
The examples Ediz presented in his talk were how AI and voice recognition technologies are used to collect, process and store the personal data from consumers for personalisation purposes. Ediz also discussed potential problems and the ways to secure personal data, explaining that the next step in the research which will be collecting data from consumers about their experiences while using digital marketing tools and technologies such as voice recognition devices. The data will reveal how consumers perceive the companies in regard to marketing ethics.
Ediz reflects on his experience of speaking at Cafe Scientifique; ‘It was a great opportunity to present my research about marketing ethics in which I am looking at the data protection practises of companies. In this talk at Cafe Scientifique, I aimed to create awareness about how voice recognition and artificial intelligence are used by companies; the audience was very interested in this research.
‘The questions from the audience ignited more thoughts about this subject matter which will be used to investigate further. I also had the opportunity to see how the perception of the audience towards the topic changed with a live poll before and after the talk. Café Scientifique was the first opportunity to present these examples to understand the perception of the public around this.’
For access to the presentation slides please click here
If you have any questions please do get in touch
Find out more about Café Scientifique and sign up to our mailing list to hear about other research events: www.bournemouth.ac.uk/cafe-sci
The Health Research Authority have released guidance for clinical researchers, sponsors and sites with regard to COVID-19 (Coronavirus) – please read this guidance if you are currently conducting your project or are in the planning stages/set-up of the study (so you are aware of the current situation).
This guidance is subject to change and will be updated as and when required by the HRA.
You can read the guidance in the link provided above, but for convenience, these are the most likely situations BU clinical researchers may face. Please ensure that in planning amendments that these do not create additional burden to NHS staff or resources.
How this should be handled – these are non-substantial amendments that do not require HRA/HCRW approval or NHS R&D agreement. Where the study involves the NHS, they will be marked by the sponsor as a category C amendment not requiring assessment, and sent directly to the sites. The site should implement the amendment on the date specified by the sponsor.
How this should be handled – these are non-substantial amendments that do not require HRA/HCRW approval or NHS R&D agreement. The same procedure as the first example should be followed.
How this should be handled – these are non-substantial amendments that do not require HRA/HCRW approval or NHS R&D agreement. The same procedure as above should be followed.
How this should be handled – for studies not involving provision of treatment to participants, a notification to the REC or study-wide review (for non-REC studies) should be provided, and an end of study report should subsequently be provided.
For any studies involving provision of treatment to participants, careful consideration should be given to post-study care. If this cannot be in line with the information provided in the participant-information sheet, a substantial amendment should be submitted.
To support sites in implementing the amendments it is important that:
There may be some instances in which the site may raise issues or changes that need to be made. If they do, please inform the Sponsor as soon as possible.
If you think that you may need to implement any changes or amendments to your study due to COVID-19 please get in touch with us as soon as possible. If you have any concerns or queries then please also get in touch to discuss these.
Notice for those who currently employ or who need to employ researchers on projects.
There is a new Code of Practice for the Employment of Researchers available on the staff intranet.
This document provides guidance on the University’s expectations for the recruitment, support, management and development of research staff in line with the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers.
If you have any queries, please contact RKEDF@bournemouth.ac.uk.
Congratulations to Dr. Preeti Mahato in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) on the acceptance of her latest academic paper in the journal Sexual & Reproductive Healthcare. [1] Contraceptive use is one of the most effective methods for reducing the number of pregnancies and thus benefiting the health and survival of women and children, especially in low-income countries such as Nepal. Increased contraceptive use and thus decreased fertility results in decreased obstetric risk mainly by reducing unwanted pregnancy in women with high parity. This paper reports of factors that act as barriers to contraceptive use or that act as facilitators of its use.
Reference:
The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) and the British Academy are inviting applications for early career researchers in the humanities and social sciences to attend a research collaboration symposium on the broad theme of ‘security’.
This will explore varied understandings and experiences of security, and how security can be and has been conceptualised, represented, lived and addressed. The symposium aims to encourage international engagement and collaboration between early career researchers from Canada and the UK from a broad range of disciplines, encouraging the exchange of ideas across both disciplinary and national boundaries. The event will take place in Montebello, Quebec, Canada from 08/12/20 – 10/12/20 .
Deadline for applications Wednesday 6 May 2020 at 17.00.
For details on how to apply please see here.
If you have any queries, please contact RDS on RKEDF@bournemouth.ac.uk
Monday 9th March RKEDF: Global Visiting Fellowship – Drop in sessions
12:30 – 13:30 Talbot Campus
For those who are thinking of nominating an applicant for the GVF fund, to come along with their idea and seek advice on the joint application process from panel members.
Wednesday 11th March RKEDF: Getting started in public engagement with research
10:00 – 12:00 Lansdowne Campus
An intensive introductory session covering why Public Engagement is important, what it can do for your research, how to identify audiences and target their needs, designing public engagement activity and the logistics of public engagement – from securing funding through planning, developing skills and the support offered at BU. Also the evaluation of engagement activity.
Friday 6th March RKEDF: Research Outputs – Writing Day
Dedicated time and space, free from everyday distractions with a collaborative focus on productive writing with other BU authors.
FULLY BOOKED
Next dates: 14th May and 14th July
If you have any queries, please contact mailto:RKEDF@bournemouth.ac.uk?subject=Research Event Query.
BU staff can login below:
Take part in the 2025 ESRC Festival of Social Science: Application Deadline Extended to Friday 23 May 2025
SERVED research project: Supporting Evidence-based Research for Veterans Experiencing Dementia
Alzheimer’s Awareness Week – join us in BGB on Tuesday 20th May
Nanocoatings to Bionanocomposites: Sustainable Solutions
MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025
Update on UKRO services
European research project exploring use of ‘virtual twins’ to better manage metabolic associated fatty liver disease
Research Information Network
Horizon Europe 2025 Work Programme pre-Published