Tagged / Pakistan

New editorial Journal of Asian Midwives

international, open access, Publishing, writing

This weekend a new issue of the Journal of Asian Midwives appeared online [1].  Its latest editorial focuses in part on research ethics.  The editors highlight the new World Health Organization (WHO) guidance for best practices in clinical trials [2].  The new WHO guidance was picked up at the 24th FERCAP International Conference “Maximizing Benefits through Responsible Conduct of Research” held in November 2024 in Nepal.  FERCAP is the Forum for Ethical Review Committees in the Asian and Western Pacific Region.

FERCAP reminded us that research as a social activity should improve health and quality of life for both targeted and general populations.  One notable message from this recent conference was the need for shorter and more comprehensible consent forms to make them user-friendly without sacrificing clarity. The other interesting development is that of so-called “decentralized clinical trials”. Decentralized or point-of-care trials can increase the diversity of clinical trial enrollment by increasing its accessibility, for example where elements of the trial are delivered at home and/or data are collected electronically by trial participants instead of researchers. These are exciting new developments in thinking about research ethics.

The Journal of Asian Midwives is Gold Open Access and hence freely available online.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

 

References:

  1. van Teijlingen, E., Musaddique, A.,  Jan, R. (2024) Editorial – Dec 2024. Journal of Asian Midwives, 11(2):1–2.
  2. World Health Organization (2024). Guidance for best practices for clinical trials. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240097711 (accessed Jan. 2025)

The Journal of Asian Midwives’ 10th anniversary

international, open access, Publishing, writing

This week the Journal of Asian Midwives published its latest issue.  Celebrating a decade of publishing, this is the first issue of volume 10.  The journal is Open Access and freely available online for anybody who wants to read it (click here!).  In the editorial of this new issue the editors highlighted online events around the International Day of the Midwife, the ICM (International Confederation of Midwives) Triennial Congress in Bali, Indonesia in June, and the acceptance of the Journal of Asian Midwives by SCOPUS [1].  The editorial finishes by highlighting new additions to the journal, including the opportunity to submit short research proposals, or proposals for improvement in service or practice, blogs and from the next issue onwards, short view point articles.

 

Reference:

  1. van Teijlingen, E., Jan, R., Mubeen, K., Musaddique, A. (2023) Editorial – summer 2023. Journal of Asian Midwives, 10(1): 1–3.

Dr. Samreen Ashraf Guest Talk

international, Women's Academic Network

Dr. Samreen Ashraf was invited to be a guest speaker at the Virtual Bootcamp even organised at the Foundation University Islamabad- Pakistan for the aspiring entrepreneurs. The event was well attended by national and international audiences.

Samreen presented her talk on understanding the importance of multiple identities for entrepreneurs to excel in their respective projects. While talking about entrepreneurial identity, Samreen shared some key takeaways, first,  importance of understanding who one is to be able to know their own skills, attributes and values, second, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses which then enable them to recognise the right opportunities, third, thinking out of the box and saying ‘No’ to any of the opportunities which are beyond entrepreneurs scope and might not align with their entrepreneurial identities.

The talk was very well received by the students, staff of Foundation University and others present at the event.

Journal of Asian Midwives

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

As co-editor of the Journal of Asian Midwives I receive occasional updates from the Aga Khan University (AKU) library in Pakistan on the number of downloads of articles published in the journal.   The journal is fully Open Access and does not charge a submission or processing fees!  All articles in the Journal of Asian Midwives are stored online in the AKU Institutional Repository.  The latest update with data until end of September 2018 informed us that there had been: 18,462 downloads, from 167 countries/regions, across 56 articles.  Nearly 20,000 downloads is not bad for a fairly new journal, which only published its inaugural issue online in 2014.

What is interesting is that the detailed download figures show that Bournemouth University is the highest ranking university of all the downloading organisations.  Listed as fifth on the download list, Bournemouth is behind two commercial organisations, the Pakistan library network and Bangladesh-based Icddr-B.  The latter is one of the largest NGO (Non-Governmental Organisations in the world based on staff numbers.  Of course it helps that Bournemouth academic staff and PhD students have published five scientific articles in the past four editions of the journal [1-5].

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH (Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health)

References:

  1. Ireland, J., van Teijlingen, E., Kemp, J. (2015) Twinning in Nepal: the Royal College of Midwives UK and the Midwifery Society of Nepal working in partnership, Journal of Asian Midwives 2 (1): 26-33.
  2. Mahato, P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Angell, C. (2016) Birthing centres in Nepal: Recent developments, obstacles and opportunities, Journal of Asian Midwives 3(1): 18-30.
  3. Baral, YR., Lyons, K., van Teijlingen, ER., Skinner, J., (2016) The uptake of skilled birth attendants’ services in rural Nepal: A qualitative study, Journal of Asian Midwives 3(3): 7-25.
  4. Sharma, S., Simkhada, P., Hundley, V., van Teijlingen, E., Stephens J, Silwal, R.C., Angell, C. (2017) Evaluation a Community Maternal Health Programme: Lessons Learnt. Journal of Asian Midwives. 4(1): 3–20.
  5. Mahato, P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Angell, C. (2017) Determinants of quality of care & access to Basic Emergency Obstetric & Neonatal Care facilities & midwife-led facilities in low & middle-income countries: A Systematic Review, Journal of Asian Midwives 4(2):25-51.

Euraxess – new workshops and events

Euraxess UK is a British Council hub, which aids researchers in their career development, supporting mobility and acting as a support mechanism for researchers moving abroad or moving to the UK.

The following items have been highlighted in the current Euraxess Newsletter:

Researcher Links Workshop

Grants are now available for early career researchers to attend a Nutrition Policy to Practice in Pakistan: Exploring the Challenges and Research Opportunities workshop at the Serena Hotel, Islamabad, Pakistan between 8-11 March 2015.

Application forms can be downloaded from the website and the deadline to apply is 30 January 2015. Further eligibility criteria may apply, and applicants should read the Further Information document.

Researcher Links Complex Systems workshop in Brazil

Under the Researcher Links scheme offered by the British Council and FAPESP, there will be a workshop on Complex Systems held at the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo, Sao Paulo, between 8-13 March 2015. The workshop is being coordinated by Dr Murilo S. Baptista and Prof José R. C. Piqueira, and will have contributions from other leading researchers.

Early Career Researchers from the UK or Brazil are invited to apply to attend this workshop before the deadline for applications, 23 January 2015.

Newton International and Newton Advanced Fellowships- UK/Mexico/Brazil

Scholarships and grants are announced for UK Researchers focusing on Clinical and Patient oriented research from The Academy of Medical Science/CONACYT -Mexico/CONFAP-Brazil. The duration and terms of the awards vary between partners. Further detailed information can be found on specific programmes can be found on the Academy’s website.

You can sign up to receive the British Council – Euraxess alerts direct to your inbox. For more information about Euraxess, please go to the British Council website. For example, read more about FameLab, part of the Northern Ireland Science Festival, which runs from 19 Feb – 1 March 2015.